Boring!

Today's gospel reading, from John chapter 3, talked about how the son of man must be 'lifted up,' just like the serpent in the wilderness from the Numbers reading. Ah yes. You see, this bit from John is one that we're fairly familiar with. It has that most famous of all verses in it, you know the one. John 3:16.

"For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life." (John 3:16)

Mm hmm, John 3:16. We know it and love it. We say it constantly, and have it printed on our pencils. Yes, you know all about John 3:16, but let's move a bit beyond that, and talk about some other stuff, most especially the part that merges seamlessly with the Old Testament. The Old Testament reading, clearly, is from the book of Numbers, everyone's favorite book of the Old Testament. Or, heck, the whole Bible.

Now, you all have a certain view of the book of Numbers, and that view is that it contains only numbers, and lists, and all that. Dear oh dear, tsk tsk tsk. It's actually far more interesting than that. Yes, it begins with a list of people and an inventory of resources, like it's someone's fussy mum, but then it calms down and gets to the good stuff. The good stuff including Balaam's talking ass, the fiery serpents in the wilderness, and the bunch of grapes that are so big that it takes two people to carry them. Ah yes. But you don't notice that, do you? You only notice the beginning of the book of numbers, don't you?

¹ The LORD spoke to Moses in the tent of meeting in the Desert of
Sinai on the first day of the second month of the second
year after the Israelites came out of Egypt. He said:
² “Take a census of the whole Israelite community by
their clans and families, listing every man by
name, one by one. ³ You and Aaron are to count
according to their divisions all the men in Israel who are twenty
years old or more and able to serve in the army.
⁴ One man from each tribe, each of them the head of his family, is to help you.

(Numbers 1:1-4)

Ah yes. And then the next, like, three pages is devoted to the list of all those people, isn't it? True enough. But that's only the beginning, and it's a very specific beginning. It doesn't last that long, but it's heavy on the details. It tells us, exhaustively, about who was in which tribe of Israel, and how many of them there were. And this is our reaction.

Snooze-O-Rama. Once the 'begats' show up, we tune out. Now, I've mentioned this before, but part of the reason that the Bible doesn't get too in-depth about how long Adam and Eve were in the garden, or about what the folks on the Ark ate, or where Esau kept his favourite hats, is that we would skip over it anyway. Sometimes we forget why there is a Bible in the first place. Is it to tell us specifics, names, dates, and all that, or is it for another reason?
The Gospel of John, in chapter 20, tells us why we have a Bible in the first place:

"But these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name."
(John 20:31)

So quickly we forget, and so quickly we get hung up on other stuff. Half the time, we want to use the Bible as a science textbook, to find names and dates and so on, but the other half the time, we moan and groan when the Bible actually contains that sort of information. Most Christians I know skip over the names and dates and place names particularly because they want to get to the part where God's love is shown to them, and the great and important stories are being told.

And that brings us to the parallel between the Gospel and the Old Testament reading. The Old Testament reading from the book of numbers is the aforementioned serpent on a pole bit, and the Gospel reading quotes it almost directly, stating that the son of man must be lifted up, just like the serpent in the wilderness, so that whoever looks upon him will live. Jesus had a way of cutting through stuff so that you might see what's important. He had a way of slicing through the entire Old Testament, and dragging out what was important for his ministry.
When Nicodemas came to talk to Jesus by night, he arrived at a lot of important information that Jesus had for him; stuff about being born again, and the whole John 3:16 thing. Lots of good quality information. And in that discussion, Jesus takes the time to drag out information from the book of Numbers, which he was aware of. And what does Jesus talk about from that book? Not the lists of the generations of people who were in the tribes of Israel, but the story about Moses lifting up the serpent in the wilderness. why? Because that was what was important.

Part of what made the teaching of Jesus so important, so valuable, is he showed us why the Old Testament was important, and the story it was telling. He showed us that the Old Testament, like the New, was telling the story of salvation. Too many people today believe sincerely that Old Testament God is angry God, and New Testament God is happy God. But here's the real deal. It's the same God, it's the same story, from beginning to end. When Jesus talks about the Old Testament, he makes it clear that this is the same story, and it's moving in the same direction: the salvation of the world. Yes, the Bible's not all action scenes and unicorns. Some of it is a little bit dull. But when it gets dull, remember why it was written, remember what story it tells. Remember how the entire story of the Bible is leading towards the death of Christ, his resurrection, and the defeat of sin and death in the world. Possibly the least boring thing ever.

PJ.