This coming Sunday the celebration of the Exaltation of the Cross replaces the normally scheduled 25th Sunday of Ordinary Time. 

The gospel reading for this feast is John 3:13-17 which is an integral part of a much larger narrative. John 3:1-21 comprises a single, cohesive scene within the Johannine narrative and ideally should be studied as a single pericope – but this Sunday we glance at only a small portion that forms a capstone-like statement of the role of Jesus in our salvation.  And that small passage needs to be understood in the context of the first reading from Numbers 21 when Moses raises the Bronze Serpent in the wilderness which is covered in tomorrow’s post.

In John 3:14, Jesus explicitly refers to Numbers 21: “just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert…” This connection is deliberate. In Numbers, the Israelites, plagued by deadly serpents as a consequence of their sin, are given a means of healing: if they look at the bronze serpent lifted up on a pole, they live. In John, Jesus identifies himself as the fulfillment of that sign: he, too, will be “lifted up” (a phrase that means both crucifixion and exaltation), and those who look to him in faith will have eternal life.