HOW IMMEASURABLE IS YOUR LOVE O LORD THAT TO SAVE A SLAVE YOU OFFERED YOUR ONLY BEGOTTEN SON

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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