This week, we consider our need for Jesus. But we rethink what Jesus means we he suggests we must believe in the Son of Man. Our reading contains one of the most shared verses of the gospels. What happens when we consider that verse in conjunction with the verse that immediately follows it (see John 3:14-21). And we look at how Jesus makes it clear that belief is as much about doing as it is about thinking or feeling.
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Our reading today contains one of the most well-known verses in all the gospels. It also contains one of my favorite verses in the gospels. Even so, our reading starts with a verse that is perhaps not as well known. “Just as Moses lifted the snake in the wilderness, so must the Human One be lifted up” (John 3:14, CEB). Other translations use serpent rather than snake and Son of Man rather than Human One.
Of course, we know that Son of Man is a reference to the Christ, the Messiah, the expected savior of the Israelites. But the reference to a snake or a serpent may call to mind the story of Eden, of Adam and Eve, and of the expulsion from the Garden. How is one like the other?