HOW IMMEASURABLE IS YOUR LOVE O LORD THAT TO SAVE A SLAVE YOU OFFERED YOUR ONLY BEGOTTEN SON
By Fr. Felix (African Times Guest Writer)
In this gospel-reading we are listening-in to a
conversation between Jesus and Nicodemus, a
Pharisee who came to Jesus by night
(presumably because he did not want his
colleagues to know.
Do you mind your colleagues knowing that you
are a Christian?). Jesus is talking about an
incident during the Exodus journey, when the
Israelites were struck by a plague of snakes.
Moses hoisted a bronze snake on a pole as a
recovery-totem.
It sounds superstitious, but presumably to
depend on it was an expression of trust in God.
Jesus now says that this snake is to be seen as
a promise of the salvation to be won by trusting
in his Cross.
The Cross remains our sign of victory. To wear
it and welcome it is increasingly, in this
increasingly material world, a statement of
where our heart and our confidence lies.
However, the Cross is not complete in itself.
Some people find it ‘morbid’ or ‘morose’, but to
Christians it contains also the victory and
reassurance of the Resurrection.
The Cross makes sense not by the crumpled
figure on the wood, but by God’s acceptance of
that obedience. The triumph of the resurrection
is too glorious to be represented by anything
visible.
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