Numbers 21:4-9 or Philippians 2:6-11 / John 3:13-17
It is only natural that we want to avoid suffering and pain.
And when we get afflicted with illnesses and diseases, we would immediately go in search of a cure.
At the same time, we would also turn to God and pray for healing.
In the first reading, the people encountered fiery serpents and their bite caused suffering, pain and even death.
But it was their own doing as they sinned against God.
They repented and Moses interceded for the people.
But what God told Moses to do was rather astonishing and puzzling.
God told Moses to make a figure of a bronze serpent and put it on a standard.
Anyone bitten by a fiery serpent would just have to look at it and be cured.
Strange as it may seem, it made the people look at their sins and to realise that the fiery serpents were their consequences of their sin.
That figure of the fiery serpent made them realise their sinfulness and to turn to God in repentance and to ask for forgiveness.
In the gospel, Jesus referred to that event but turned it around to show how much God loves humanity and want to save mankind.
The Cross on which Jesus gave up His life was not just a reminder of the sinfulness of humanity.
Jesus turned the Cross from being an instrument of sin and death into a means of forgiveness and salvation.
The Cross is now a sign of God’s love. When we look at the Cross it is more than just asking for forgiveness.
In the Cross, God reaches out to us with His saving love. Let us respond to God’s love by accepting suffering and pain and offer it to God with love.