The Serpent Has Left the Building: Why Did Jesus Deliberately Compare Himself To The Snake
Okay, this isn't going to make much sense to anyone else, I'm sure, but I wanted to throw something out there.
Jesus specifically compares himself to the snake that Moses killed in the desert when the people of God were being attacked by poisonous snakes. That story is in Numbers 21.
Jesus says in John 3 that just as the snake was "high and lifted up" and that everyone who looked at it would be saved from physical death, so it will be with anyone who looks at Jesus, who will also be "high and lifted up," only on a different type of stake.
But then I started thinking that it's kind of weird that Jesus compares Himself to a snake. Then I started thinking, "What would that image have meant to a Jewish person."
I think, though I'm not for sure, that an ancient Jew would have thought about serpents and would have linked it to The Great Tempter in the Garden of Eden. This serpent would have bee linked in a Jew's mind to Satan, the Evil One, I suppose.
Unsure about above point: Did the Jews have a firm concept of Satan? Does anyone know?
In the Book of Revelation, around chapter 12, it says that Satan is like a serpent. It strikes at the heel of Jesus, but that the Son of God will crush the head of the serpent. I've always took this to mean that Jesus will be "hurt" by Satan (the crucifixion) but that Jesus will "end" Satan. Crushing one's head is a mortal wound, after all. Striking the heel isn't. It also says in Revelation that the Serpent pursues the children of God.
When He died, Jesus took on the sins of the world. He took on all the evil. So, in a sense, he was killing all the things that lead us to death. All the things that "strike at our heel" and not only make our lives miserable, but lead us, eventually to death, both physically and spiritually.
Maybe Jesus is comparing himself to the snake because upon his death, the "Serpent" is dead. Death and sin are dead ((or, more accurately, will ultimately be killed) when Jesus is dead, because he took those things with Him on that Cross.
So maybe Jesus links himself to the snake because he wants people to know that the snake is dead. The serpent has left the building. And now, because the serpent's dead, life is possible.
What do you think?
posted by David Tieche at 7:27 AM
2 Comments:
Yeah, it is kind of bizarre. Another bizarre one is where Jesus compares the Kingdom of God to yeast that makes the bread rise. But then later Jesus warns the disciples about the yeast of the Pharisees. So, is yeast bad or is it good?
It seems like sometimes the correlations are looser than we expect. My guess is that it depends on the point that Jesus is trying to convey, which depends on the context and the person he is talking to.
Meaning, in this situation I'm not sure that Jesus was necessarily drawing a direct comparison between himself and the snake. The focus of this passage is on salvation. So, the comparison is really between salvation that came supernaturally from God when the people looked at the snake, and salvation that will come supernaturally from God as a result of the resurrection (figuratively "anyone who looks on Jesus crucified").
In that context it's not quite so weird, except in so far as we don't really understand in concrete physical terms how exactly the salvation occurs in either example. But it is clearly salvation that comes from God to us, and not anything we can earn or work for by ourselves.
All of that said, I think your reading makes sense also. I had never thought about it that way, but I think it works. It's certainly true that the power of Satan was removed by the crucifixion, but technically although his fate was sealed at that moment he is still alive and at work in this world.
It would be great to learn more about what the Jews thought about snake imagery wrt to it being good, bad or both. I haven't found any web-sites that focus on that topic yet. Let me know if you find something though.
12:01 PM
Here's something from one of the best research websites I know. It's called www.followtherabbi.com.
Here's the link to the snake article I found.
Seems that maybe listening Jews would have gotten an even deeper understanding that I originally thought. And it sounds like, from this guy, that Jews would have associated Satan with a snake. And with healing. Weird.
12:27 PM
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