John 3:14-17
[Jesus said to Nicodemus,] “And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life. For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life. Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.”
I saw a dead rat earlier this week … on a walk in the desert. I was in Phoenix, some of you know, and went for a morning stroll with my brother, his wife, my son Max, and two dogs. And there was a rat – dead and dried up, lying in the dirt and dust of the desert. Luckily, the dogs didn’t seem to notice it. Neither did Max, at first, who came this close to stepping on the poor thing.
I would just as soon NOT have seen the dead rat, in the first place – or kept imagining what would have happened had Max actually stepped on it. We took a different path home to keep the dogs from finding it on a second-pass. I didn’t want to keep imagining that, either. But I did. And I have. And now I am again.
And since I had to see the dead rat and be grossed out by it – and imagine all sorts of things about it – and Max’s shoe… and the dogs… I wanted to share that with you. So – fair warning – hide your eyes if you like – here’s a picture.
I’d bet a lot of dollars that’s the only dead rat shown as part of Good Friday worship out there in the world tonight. And I’m kind of sorry about that. But not really. There’s nothing more “LENT” or “GOOD FRIDAY” than a desert, dust, and death, if you ask me.
Because, you know what we’re here for tonight, right? It’s uglier and more unsettling and upsetting than any dead rat. It is dirty and dusty and ugly, for sure. And it’s meant to get our attention and to unsettle us, more than just a little bit – more, surely, than just a dead little rat.
And that’s why I thought about this bit from John’s Gospel – the bit before and after the popular stuff of bumper stickers I mean. “For God so love the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.” That’s great and all, but I want to talk about that bit where Jesus compares what’s coming for him on the Cross, to what Moses did – way back in the day – when he “lifted up a serpent in the wilderness.” Moses put a snake on a pole – he might as well have shown them a rat on Good Friday – and invited them to look at it as a reminder of what was killing them. And the people were healed by what they saw – healed from the very real snakes that had been killing them.
So that rat and those snakes made me think again about what we’re here for tonight, which is to be reminded about where our sinfulness leads – to death and dust, remember – kind of right back where we started this Lenten journey on Ash Wednesday.
And, throughout the season of Lent this time around, we’ve been hearing stories from the perspectives of people in Scripture who had a hand in this – who had a hand in getting Jesus to the cross, I mean. “By My Hand, For My Sake” was the name of the series we shared. And the point of it all was to remind us that what got God to the cross, in Jesus, were the sins – done and left undone – by the people who surrounded him: people like Peter, Pontius Pilate, Nicodemus, and more. And the point was to remind us, too, that we’re part of that mix, still.
See, the cross of Christ is a nasty, shameful picture of what it looks like when God’s people lose their way and when our sins – the things we do and the things we neglect to do – cause harm to God’s people, to each other, and to the world around us. The cross of Christ is meant to be hard to look at, and impossible to un-see once we really take it in.
The God who hangs there, in Jesus, died – not just as some kind of tit-for-tat trade-off for our personal salvation. Jesus didn’t die as a substitute for our own suffering and death – we’re all still headed for the grave, one way or another, people.
No, the God who hangs on the cross, in Jesus Christ, died there, in that horrible way, so that we could see what comes from our sins on this side of heaven – and so that we might be saved and save some others from the suffering of it all, right where we live.
So I decided to let the image of that dead little rat represent, tonight, all the ugliness that got Jesus crucified, nailed to a tree, and killed for our sake.
And, what got Jesus nailed to that cross is our greed and selfishness.
What got Jesus nailed to that cross is our pride and self-interest.
What got Jesus nailed to that cross is our rigid religious certainty and self-righteousness – like when we pretend this is all or only about our own salvation.
What got Jesus nailed to that cross is racism – 400 years or more, and 9 minutes and 29 seconds, too, of our systemic, institutional, and individual racism.
What got Jesus nailed to that cross is our unwillingness to beat our swords into plowshares, our spears into pruning hooks, and our guns into gardening tools.
What got Jesus nailed to that cross is our homophobia and our sexism.
What got Jesus nailed to that cross is our partisan politics that only pretend – or neglect altogether – to be informed by the principles and practice of our faith.
What got Jesus nailed to that cross is our denial and our blind eyes, our unwillingness to see, acknowledge, or admit any of this to such a degree that it ever seems to change.
Yes, what got Jesus nailed to that cross has to do with God’s willingness and ability to save and redeem and raise us to new life on the other side the grave, but it’s about so much more than that, too.
So let’s let it all be as ugly as it is. Let’s let it all be as scary as we can stand for it to be. Let’s let it be as shocking and shameful as possible … just for tonight.
And let’s leave it for dead. On the cross. Let’s leave it in the dust. Like so many rats… and snakes… and Sin. Let’s leave it all for dead.
And please … in the name of Jesus … let’s pray and hope and trust and see what God will do – with us… and through us… in spite of us… for the sake of us – and for the sake of the world – come Sunday.
Amen
