These words (Jn 3:14) are spoken by Jesus in the context of a conversation with Nicodemus, a member of the Sanhedrin who comes to Jesus at night.
On one level, Jesus is comparing Himself to the serpent on the pole that Moses lifted up during the sojourn of the Jews in the desert. This was to save them from an attack by serpents as a result of their infidelity to the Covenant struck with God at Sinai.
On another level, Jesus is talking about both His being lifted up on the Cross AND His being lifted up from the dead at the Resurrection. For John, these two events are ONE event spiritually and theologically.
Up until now this has always been a ‘mystery’ that I took on faith. Period.
Current events have made this mystery very real and much more comprehensible and accessible. At least for me.
A week ago Friday the Church celebrated the Feast of Good Friday. The focus of attention was, obviously, on the Cross, on the Passion and Death of Jesus on the Cross. I happened to be the presider/homilist here at Loyola and I spoke of the pure, unadulterated evil being experienced by the people of Ukraine in the present on a scale the size of Texas; and then about the same phenomenon being experienced in ‘microcosm’ by Jesus at the hands of Roman soldiers 2,000+ years ago. A very direct connection in my mind.
The following evening we celebrated the Resurrection at the Vigil along with the universal Church. And since then the focus has been on the Risen Christ, the joy of the season, Easter lilies in our second floor chapel,…. Good Friday was 10 days ago. That was then; this is now. Spiritually, chronologically, and emotionally, we’ve ‘moved on’.
Others haven’t, can’t.
In Ukraine the horror of the Crucifixion did not end with Good Friday. It continues daily. I ask myself what Easter has meant for the Christian population of that country. And their suffering brings to mind the suffering of countless other peoples and refugees around the world whose living situations are also very dire.
How can I in this Easter season pray for those suffering around the world, and in our midst, and see the Crucifixion and the Resurrection as separate events???
Stepping back and looking at the People of God as a whole, we live both aspects of the Paschal Mystery simultaneously. In very real, concrete, and current terms.
Ultimately, we are all an Easter people: a people of Hope. Let us never lose sight, from our relatively privileged vantage point, of our brothers and sisters around the world and among us (i.e. the Body of Christ) whose circumstances make Hope difficult to discern.