Commentary
Thursday, 9/14/2017, The Exaltation of the Holy Cross
The Seraph Serpent Pole and the Crucifix
First Reading Commentary Numbers 21:4b-9
The children of Israel complained against God and Moses because they were disgusted with the food and because there was no water. They were ungrateful for the food that God had provided for them forgetting everything that God had done for them. Instead, they grumbled wanting to know why they had been brought to the desert.
God has been providing for all of mankind since the creation of Adam and Eve. But because of the devil’s influence on us, we complain. We complain about what we do not have and we complain about what’s wrong with what we do have. We complain about the things that go wrong in our lives and we complain because there are not enough things going right in our lives. In other words, we complain about the cross that we are given to carry in life.
So the LORD sent seraph serpents among the people and many were bitten and died. The seraph serpent was known as the fiery serpent because the bite that it gave would burn. One could say that the people were burned by the fire of God or they were burned by the fire of hell. Either way, the people realized their mistake.
So they said to Moses, “We have sinned in complaining against the LORD and you. Pray the LORD to take the serpents from us.” In effect, the people confessed, asked for forgiveness and asked Moses to intercede for them. We see the sacrament of Confession before Christ came to institute it and we see the power of intercession as Moses prayed to the LORD who said to him, “Make a seraph and mount it on a pole, and if any who have been bitten look at it, they will live.” Moses did as the LORD said by making a bronze serpent and mounting it on a pole. Those, who were bitten by a seraph serpent and looked at the bronze serpent, lived.
Through the power and mercy of God, the sins of the people were taken on by the serpent and lifted up on the pole just as Christ took the sins of the world, lifted them up and nailed them to the cross.
But notice that God wanted the people to look at the serpent on the pole. God wanted the bronze serpent on the pole to be a symbol of their sins and His mercy. God wanted the people to remember their sins with remorse. But God also wanted the people to look at the serpent with the joy of knowing His mercy and forgiveness.
We see many events in the life of Jesus where He relived events which occurred in the Old Testament. When Jesus took our sins to the cross, He relived the lifting up of the bronze serpent on the pole which was a precursor to His cross. When we look at a crucifix, we should do so in the same manner that God wanted the children of Israel to look at the serpent on the pole. That is with remorse for our sins but also with the joy of knowing God’s unlimited mercy and forgiveness.
The Man Who Was Humble Was and Is Lord
Second Reading Commentary Philippians 2:6-11
Paul tells us in his letter to the Philippians that even though Christ was in the form of God, He did not regard equality with God. Instead, Christ emptied Himself, took on the form of a slave and practiced great humility and total obedience to the Father even to the point of death on the cross.
To understand this, we must accept the fact that Jesus was one hundred percent human and one hundred percent God--not 50/50. It was the human Jesus that did not seek equality with God showing us by His example and teaching us with His Word how to live our lives. Jesus lived according to what He taught because He was and is the Word that became flesh (incarnate).
Jesus did more than take on human form. Jesus took on everything that is human both physically and emotionally. It is the human Jesus who the devil attacked but it is the divine Jesus who prevailed. Jesus came to save us all from the devil and if we follow Him, through His divine power, we will be saved.
The devil uses pride as a weapon to persuade us into believing that we do not need God. Sadly, some people do believe that. But here again, Jesus teaches us by example and by His Word that exercising obedience and humility is the way to the Father.
Paul tells us that because of His obedience and humility, Jesus was greatly exalted. Jesus is the second person of the Trinity, therefore, He was already exalted but again, we have to remember the human Jesus. The Father bestowed on the Son, the name which is above every name, above the earth, on the earth and under the earth. At the name of Jesus; every knee should bend and every tongue confess; Jesus Christ is Lord. This is why Catholics bow their heads when they hear or say the name of Jesus and this is why we should remember that if we use the name of Jesus in vain, we are using God’s name in vain.
For God So Loved the World
Gospel Commentary John3:13-17
In today’s gospel, Jesus is talking to Nicodemus who was one of the few Pharisees who listened to Jesus. The biggest problem with the Pharisees was their self-righteous pride. But Nicodemus put his pride behind him. In fact, Nicodemus stood up for Jesus and then assisted in the burial of Jesus and he is a canonized saint. His feast day is August 31st which is also the feast day for St. Joseph of Arimathea who went to Pilot for Jesus’ body and provided the tomb for Jesus’ burial.
Jesus said to Nicodemus: “No one has gone up to heaven except the one who has come down from heaven, the Son of Man. And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.”
Here Jesus proclaimed that the raising of the serpent on the pole by Moses was the precursor to His own cross. Jesus was telling Nicodemus that it was predestined for Him to be crucified for man’s salvation. As a Pharisee and a scholar of Scripture, Nicodemus had to understand exactly what Jesus meant. He had to know that Jesus was taking the sins of man to the cross just as the sins of the Israelites went to the pole with the serpent.
Nicodemus knew that Christ was the Messiah. But the people were expecting a great king in the worldly sense of the word. Nicodemus knew that a king with all of the glamour and Ritz expected of a great king was not the Messiah at all. Instead, the Messiah was a Savior. Not just a savior but the Savior who would sacrifice Himself for the salvation of man to the glory of God the Father.
Nicodemus totally understood and believed these things because he was not stuck on pride and self-righteousness like other Pharisees. Instead, Nicodemus professed his faith in Jesus with humility and so, Jesus confided in him.
Nicodemus knew and understood what John would write in this gospel, “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so he who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life.” God did not send the Son to condemn but to save the world through the life of His Son. There is no greater love and this is why the sight of a crucifix should bring us great joy for which we should be grateful beyond mention.
