Look Up and Live | The Bronze Serpent, False Stories, and the Cross (Laetare Sunday Sermon)

🐍 Look Up and Live

In the wilderness of Numbers 21, the people of Israel reach a breaking point. The journey is long, the desert feels endless, and the daily miracle of manna has started to look like nothing more than another burden. Their exhaustion turns into a dangerous story: God brought us here to die.

Then the snakes come.

But the strangest part of the story isn’t the judgment—it’s the cure. God does not remove the serpents. Instead, He tells Moses to lift a bronze serpent on a pole. Anyone who has been bitten can look at it—and live.

Centuries later, Jesus stands in the dark with Nicodemus and says something astonishing:

“Just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up.” — John 3:14

The cross, it turns out, is the bronze serpent.

In this Laetare Sunday message—the moment of joy in the middle of Lent—we explore a powerful truth: sometimes the thing that heals us is not escape from the wilderness, but the courage to look honestly at the story we’ve been telling about God.

Because false stories about God can become venom. But mercy can still be lifted high enough to see.

And when we look up— we live.

This episode invites listeners to reconsider one of the strangest passages in the Bible and discover how it points directly to the cross, to grace, and to life in the middle of the wilderness.

If you’ve ever felt stuck in the desert… If faith has felt heavy instead of hopeful… If you’ve wondered whether God is still good in the middle of the journey…

this message is for you.

🌿 Laetare Sunday — Rejoicing in the Middle of Lent

Laetare Sunday marks the halfway point of Lent, a moment when the Church pauses to breathe and remember that resurrection is already breaking through—even before we reach Jerusalem.

The road is not over yet.

But life is already appearing in the desert.

🔔 Join us on the road to Jerusalem

If something in this message stirred you—something you hadn’t considered before, or something you’ve heard a hundred times that suddenly landed differently—walk with us the rest of the way through Lent.

Go ahead and tithe your subscribe so you’ll know when we set our eyes toward Jerusalem and move closer to Resurrection Sunday.

Until then, friend— look up.

And live.

Scripture: Numbers 21:4–9 John 3:14–16

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