“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” John 3:16

The familiar verse printed above is seen by many as the key of Christianity – believing in Jesus. What are less familiar are the verses leading up to John 3:16. Yet these are vitally important verses, because they help explain what Jesus means when he uses the word believe.

“And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up; that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.” John 3:14-15

These verses are a foreshadowing of the events of Easter, and also put a spin on the meaning of the word believe. They refer to an obscure story from the book of Numbers. In it the Israelites who had followed Moses out of Egypt are being killed by poisonous snakes. God then instructs Moses to make a snake out of bronze and lift it up on a pole. Anyone who looks on the snake and believes it will heal them will be healed. Anyone who does not believe will die.

Then the LORD said to Moses, “Make a fiery serpent, and set it on a pole; and it shall be that everyone who is bitten, when he looks at it, shall live.” So Moses made a bronze serpent, and put it on a pole; and so it was, if a serpent had bitten anyone, when he looked at the bronze serpent, he lived. Numbers 21:8-9

It is a strange story and unfamiliar to us. But Jesus knows it and so does Nicodemus whom he is teaching. And it is an important story, because in the story of the bronze snake the word “believe” means trust. Anyone who looks on the bronze snake and trusts that God will heal them is healed.

“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever trusts Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” John 3:16

In last week’s children’s sermon, I asked the children the difference between believing in the Easter Bunny and believing in Jesus. The answer seems simple. Believing in the Easter Bunny means that you believe the Easter Bunny exists. But believing in Jesus means that you trust Jesus. Jesus does not ask us to believe that he exists. He did and does, it is a simple fact. What Jesus asks is that we trust him.

It seems simple, but it isn’t. Imagine being bit by a poisonous snake and being told that the cure is to look up at a bronze snake on a pole. It would seem ridiculous. Surely there must be something else that can be done. The people who followed Moses were not simpletons; they knew that looking at the bronze snake would not cure them. It was absolutely impossible. Yet that was the only solution offered them. They were asked to put their whole trust in a ridiculous promise. Indeed, they were asked to trust their lives completely to that promise. In other words, they were asked to turn over their lives completely to God.

And that is not easy to do. Existentially it is a nightmare. At some point, at some time, all of us experience life as a struggle. And once we start fighting it is hard to stop. Life becomes defined by the struggle. The invitation to stop struggling seems crazy. The invitation to trust God and simply look up at the bronze snake seems suicidal.

Yet that is what Moses invited the Israelites to do. And when they did, they lived.

And that is what Jesus is inviting Nicodemus to do. Jesus is foreshadowing himself on the cross. Simply look at the cross and you will live. No explanation is given. He does not tell Nicodemus why looking at the cross with renew his life. He just offers the opportunity.

“And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up; that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” John 3:14-16