THE BIBLE – TODAY’S TREASURE HUNT
COMMENT FOR LENT 4 – 26-03-06
Numbers 21: 4-9
The serpent, the deceiver of the Genesis creation story, has a different role now when the threat becomes the symbol of safety. But the wonder and power of that belief hundreds of years later became cult worship (2 Kings 18: 4) and King Hezekiah of Judah ordered the destruction of Moses’ bronze serpent and sacred pole. The power is in the spiritual dynamic of the belief not the material object.
Psalm 107: 1-3; 17-22
This is a great psalm of welcome for travellers coming home. Imagine its use in a temple service of thanksgiving. There are four examples with echoes of the Egyptian and the Babylonian experiences where people travelled overland, then from perilous seas and from oppression and captivity. They trust in their God’s welcoming forgiveness and power to renew their community.
Ephesians 2: 1-10
Paul explains to the congregation in Ephesus that Jesus came bringing the gift of life and love. Now instead of the ignorance about God which equaled death there is spiritual life. This is the love gift of the grace of God. Our “With Love to the World” commentary for 22 March, p.27, calls this “one of the central messages of the Reformed faith: by this we have been saved through faith.”
John 3: 14-21
This passage follows the record of a conversation Jesus had with Nicodemus. John then follows this with Jesus’ statement that he came as the gift of the eternal spiritual power given in love and peace to the human race. This gift came to John as light in a dark world setting a standard for judgment. There is a difference between good and evil and everyone has to choose.
Question for Lent 4
Is there a primitive satisfaction in the exercise of deadly force to achieve an immediate desired outcome – so that Jesus (Love) dies again on another Cross?
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