Daily devotional · March 10
Lifted Up
“Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes in Him may have eternal life. For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that everyone who believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through Him. Whoever believes in Him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe has already been condemned, because he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son. And this is the verdict: The Light has come into the world, but men loved the darkness rather than the Light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the Light, and does not come into the Light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. But whoever practices the truth comes into the Light, so that it may be seen clearly that what he has done has been accomplished in God.””
Jesus points back to a strange episode in Israel's wilderness years, when people bitten by snakes were healed by looking at a bronze serpent lifted on a pole. In the same way, he says, the Son of Man must be lifted up so that whoever believes in him may have eternal life. He is speaking of the cross before anyone understood it. Then come words that have comforted millions: God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, not to condemn the world but to save it. Notice the direction of the verbs. God gives, God sends, God saves. Our part is to look and trust. Light has come into the world, and Jesus says people either step toward it or hide from it. Today, choose to bring one hidden corner of your life into the light, and let his love, rather than fear, be what you feel there.
Prayer
Father, thank You for giving Your Son. Bring me out of hiding and into Your light. Amen.