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Gospel Reflection for Tuesday, April 8, 2025
The Bronze Serpent and the Cross of Jesus Christ
Is God, as many believe, the one who punishes us for our sins with death or other physical evils? This primitive view of God, which is certainly present in the Bible, especially in the Old Testament (as seen in the story of the bronze serpent), is corrected and purified by Jesus through the revelation of God as a loving Father. God is the Father of Jesus, and in Jesus’ incarnation, He not only brings us the “image” (the idea or concept) of this Father but also invites us into a relationship of sonship with the Father and the Son (through the gift of the Holy Spirit). This is what salvation truly means.
However, every correction and purification meets resistance, as seen in Jesus’ tense dialogue with the Pharisees. They considered themselves righteous, believing they were justified by their own actions and safe from the divine punishment they proclaimed (and perhaps even wished) upon others.
How can we understand God’s relationship with sin and sinners if we exclude punishment, without assuming that God remains indifferent to evil? It is Jesus Christ, raised on the Cross, who provides the key to understanding the story of the serpents, the mystery of evil, and God’s relationship with it. God does not cause the death of sinners out of some vengeful sense of justice—that would clash with the very nature of a God of Love. Rather, it is our own sins that lead us to destruction, as sin is essentially turning away from the source of life. What God does is provide the cure within the illness itself: if the serpents bite and kill, the bronze serpent heals for those who look at it. This bronze serpent is a symbol of Christ raised on the Cross: “They will look on the one they have pierced” (John 19:37). By looking at Him (accepting Him, confessing Him with faith), we find salvation. Through His death, He saves us from death, demonstrating that the love God reveals to us in Jesus is stronger than both our sin and the death it brings.
It’s remarkable that the Gospel passage concludes this intense dialogue by noting, “As He spoke this, many believed in Him.” To proclaim Christ and invite others to believe in Him, we don’t need to dilute the message or hide the mystery of the Cross. On the contrary, as Paul put it, we need to know (and preach) nothing except Christ, “and Him crucified” (1 Corinthians 2:2).
Warm regards,