The book of Numbers tells of the long journey of the people of Israel to the Promised Land. In this difficult journey towards full freedom, the people sometimes rebel and express resentment and bitterness towards Moses and God. Many of them regret the past time when they were slaves in Egypt: at least they ate, at least they were safe. Now, in the middle of the desert, with only manna as food, “wretched food”, life is hard, too hard. Complaining to Moses is clearly an indirect way of complaining to God. The ancient biblical pattern of sin of the people – God’s punishment is also applied in this case. God sends “fiery serpents” and many people die. What were the “fiery serpents”? A particular type of poisonous serpents whose bites causes burning? A disease? We do not know. The word “fiery” comes from fire. We know that fire and serpent are two symbols widely used in the Bible.

God manifests himself in the fire of the burning bush, in the volcanic eruptions of Mount Sinai, in the devouring fire that burns his enemies, in the fire of judgment.

The serpent is the first animal we meet in the Bible. It is a mysterious animal that has a strong symbolism, both positively and negatively: it is a symbol of wisdom, cunning, speed, skill, life, death. It is also a sexual symbol, symbol of virility and fecundity. We know the account of Genesis where the serpent deceives the first progenitors by causing them to disobey God. We also remember the words of Jesus who invites his disciples to be “shrewd as serpents and simple as doves”. (Mt. 10:16)

The Israelites, faced with the fear of death, repent and make a collective confession. God commands Moses to lift up a serpent on a pole. Anyone who has been bitten will have to look at the bronze serpent and he will heal. A serpent kills but another serpent gives life. God doesn’t kill the fiery serpents, they stay there, but he gives the people the chance to save themselves.

If you are walking in a place where you know there are poisonous serpents, you are very careful. Your gaze is directed towards the ground from where the threat can come. The invitation that God makes us through his word is to change perspective, to take on another point of view, to begin looking upwards. “I raise my eyes toward the mountains. From whence shall come my help? My help comes from the Lord…” (Psalm 121:1-2). Salvation comes from God.

Brother, sister, the poisonous serpents are always there, they just don’t go away; the reality of sin that can destroy your life is constantly lurking, ready to strike you if you give it the opportunity, but you can walk away and be save. You can look to God and move in another direction.

This account of the bronze serpent is so important that it is mentioned twice in the gospel of John. The first time is after the encounter of Jesus with Nicodemus and proposes a parallel between the raising of the serpent in the desert and the raising of Christ on the cross so that those who believe in him have eternal life.

Even today’s text takes up the theme of raising. Jesus, arguing with the Pharisees who do not believe in him, says: “When you have lifted up the Son of man, then you will know that I am he”.

Do you remember “I am”? It is the name that God revealed to Moses. They will recognize that Jesus is God when he will be lifted up, just like the serpent of Moses. The serpent is a symbol of sin, a serpent kills but another serpent saves. St. Paul, speaking of Jesus in the famous hymn of Philippians 2, says that he emptied himself, humbled himself, annihilated himself to save us. Indeed, the apostle suggests an even stronger expression: “For our sake he (God) made him to be sin who did not know sin”. (2 Cor 5:21) So, using the biblical symbol, we could say: “God made him to be serpent”. And this is the prophetic message of these readings today. The Son of man, who like a serpent was made sin, is raised up to save us.

Jesus overcomes sin by emptying himself of his divinity, becoming sin. Lifted up on the cross, he raises us all. The Crucified is ​​the mystery of the annihilation of God for love. Many times we reduce that image to an amulet, to an ornamental object.

Whoever looks up and looks at the crucified Christ is saved from sin, death, from a senseless life. We think of St. Jerome praying in front of the Crucified asking him: “Do not be my judge but my savior”. We remember that on his deathbed Jerome asks that a cross be painted on the wall in front of him and in his testament he recommends us to follow the way of the Crucified, giving our life as Christ did for us.

Brothers, sisters, if we want to know the love of God, let us look up, look at the Crucified, pray the Crucified, that tortured, dead man, who is God, emptied of divinity, soiled, “made sin” for me and for you. If we remain wrapped up ourselves and do not look up, if we do not pass from the love of ourselves to the love of God, we cannot experience salvation.

O Lord, grant us the grace to be able to better understand the mystery of our salvation, help us today to lift our gaze towards you, and give us the strength to be able to do so until the last day of our life.