The Sting
Read Numbers 21: 6-9
Aww, Spring. The season of spring is one of my favorite times of the year! Everything seems a little bit brighter and a little bit happier. But unfortunately with warmer weather comes bees, wasps and all sorts of flying things. I don’t just dislike bees. I hate bees. They’re always trying to get to my food or beverage, they buzz around incessantly, and, worst of all, they have sharp little javelins attached to their bodies just waiting to sting someone. Every year, I earnestly work to avoid them at church potlucks, summer barbecues and family picnics.
One summer night when I was 7 years old, my family was grilling burgers when a wasp started buzzing all around me. I began screaming hysterically, expecting it to sting me at any moment. But as quickly as the wasp came, it was gone. I looked around with my tear-stained face and saw my dad holding out his hand revealing the dead wasp and an angry red welt on his palm. He said, “It’s okay, I took care of the sting for you.” My dad had caught the wasp in his hand and willingly got stung so I wouldn’t.
We feel the sting today – the sting of sin and death. The good news is this sting is short–lived. The hurt we cause others, those words that we can’t take back, the weight of shame we carry is all completely taken away by Jesus. The author of John writes, “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life,” (John 3:14-15).
Just as the serpent became a source of life to Israel, so Jesus became a source of eternal life and healing for the whole world. The death and resurrection of Jesus insured our victory and His triumph over sin. It was His way of saying to us, “It’s okay, I took care of the sting for you.”
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