Numbers 21:4-9 / John 8:21-30
As we listen to the 1st reading, we may find it surprising that God told Moses to fashion a bronze serpent and to put it on a standard.
And if anyone who was bitten by a fiery serpent, he only had to look at the bronze serpent on the standard and he will live.
That would sound rather simplistic to say the best, and rather superstitious to say the worst.
But the figure of the serpent in the Middle Eastern culture has both a divine and a diabolic meaning.
We may be familiar with its diabolic meaning as we recall how Eve was tempted by the serpent in the book of Genesis.
But we may not be that familiar with its divine symbolism.
Among other things, the serpent represents wisdom and fertility, a figure of health and life and also an emblem for medicine.
Hence the interpretation of the figure of the bronze serpent has to be seen in its context.
So in the context of the 1st reading, the bronze serpent on a standard represents health and life and medicine, whereas the fiery serpents on the ground represent pain and death.
So it depends on where we are looking from and where we are looking at.
As Jesus said in the gospel, He is from above and His listeners are from below; they are of this world but He is not of this world.
Jesus want to raise us up from this world and free us from our sins.
But we must keep looking at Him and His cross which will be the means of our salvation.
Just as Jesus was lifted up on the cross, so too must we carry the cross of our lives.
Through the cross of Jesus, we will obtain forgiveness for our sins and strength to carry the cross.