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.

The Numbers episode serves as a type (foreshadowing symbol) of Christ’s crucifixion. Comparing Numbers 21 compared to fulfillment in John 3 we find

• The people are dying from the serpent’s bite (physical death). Humanity is under the curse of sin (spiritual death). 
• God provides a means of salvation—looking at the bronze serpent on the pole. God provides salvation—believing in Jesus lifted on the cross.
• The bronze serpent is in the likeness of the thing causing death, yet without venom. Christ comes “in the likeness of sinful flesh” (Rom 8:3) but without sin.

In both passages we find instruments of God’s healing that require faith-filled response. In addition some significant theological themes emerge

• Christ’s Mission – The Numbers passage reveals God’s pattern: judgment for sin, repentance of the people, and then provision of salvation through a surprising, divinely appointed means. Jesus uses that pattern to explain his mission: his crucifixion will be the “lifting up” that brings life to all who believe.
• Faith as the Means of Salvation – Just as the Israelites were healed not by removing the serpents but by trusting God’s remedy, salvation in Christ comes not by escaping the world’s brokenness but by trusting in the crucified and risen Lord. The “look” in Numbers corresponds to the “believe” in John. 
• God’s Love and Initiative – John 3:16-17 expands the typology to show why God provided the Son: out of love, not condemnation. In Numbers, God’s mercy interrupts judgment; in John, the cross interrupts humanity’s condemnation. 
• Paradox of the Means of Healing – In both cases, the image of the very thing causing death becomes the instrument of life. In the cross, the instrument of shame and execution becomes the means of glory and eternal life.

In Tractates on the Gospel of John (Tractate 12), St. Augustine comments on John 3:14:

“The Lord Himself, foretelling His passion, said, As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up; that everyone who believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.  …The serpent was the cause of death; the likeness of a serpent was the cause of life. And what is the serpent but sin? … The Lord Himself took on the likeness of sinful flesh, that He might be in the likeness of sin, and for sin might condemn sin.”

Augustine notes that the bronze serpent looked like the deadly serpents but had no venom. Christ took on human flesh — which bears the likeness of sinful humanity — yet was without sin. Healing comes by looking in faith on the one who became like us to destroy sin.

In Homilies on the Gospel of John (Homily 27), St. John Chrysostom says:

“He [Jesus] reminds them of the ancient story… showing that the old things were a type of the new, and that He is not alien from the Old Testament. For the serpent bit them, and destroyed them; but that serpent did not save them; the sight of it stayed the deadly power. And so here, the death which came from the Cross has saved us; for that Cross destroyed death, and overthrew the tyrant’s power.”

Chrysostom notes that in both cases, looking in trust is what heals — not magic, but God’s power. The cross is paradoxically both the place where death seems to win and the place where death is overthrown.

Theodoret of Cyrus points out that the bronze serpent healed by “being lifted up” — so the faithful could look up, away from themselves, toward God’s provision.

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Image credit: Moses and the Brazen Serpent | Esteban March (1610-1668) | Banco Santander Collection, Madrid |  PD-US