March 3/Lent, 2024 Sermon
Rev. Robert McDowell
Beulah UMC & Oak Grove UMC
I was standing in the elevator of a hospital when a woman, noticing that I was wearing a suit and tie with an ID badge clipped to my suit jacket asked me, “What kind of doctor are you, if you don’t mind me asking?”
Now, I just can’t let these kinds of questions go by without having a little fun. I’m sorry, but you gotta have fun in life once in a while. Like the time when I was in a home improvement store and I was wearing khaki pants and a blue oxford shirt, the exact same thing that the employees of the store were wearing.
A customer came up to me and asked me where the power tools were. And of course, I couldn’t resist, so I said, “That would be aisle 23, across from the light bulbs.” I had no clue.
As this person started to walk away, I said, “Actually, the man over there will be able to help you.”
So anyway, I’m on this hospital elevator and this woman asks me what kind of doctor I am. And I said, “I’m a spiritual surgeon and I operate on sinners.” She actually thought that was kind of funny.
But truth be told, I think pastors are kind of like doctors, because in a way we’re both in the health profession, and we both care about the well-being of the people we see.
Think of all of the people that Jesus healed during his ministry. It seems like he was constantly laying hands on people who had infirmities and diseases so that they would be healed. You can imagine how the crowds were drawn to Jesus because of his ability to bring healing.
Today, as part of our sermon series on the crosses of Jesus, we focus on the Tau cross. Tau, spelled, “T-A-U.” And the particular meaning of this cross is that it is commonly associated with God’s gift of healing based on our scripture readings this morning.
In our Old Testament reading from the Book of Numbers we have this strange story, at least I think it’s kind of strange. Moses is leading the people of Israel through the wilderness toward the Promised Land, but along the way, they complain, and they begin to stop trusting in God and Moses, their leader.
And it’s to a point where there is a real possibility that the people who God had rescued from Egypt will turn back. As it becomes apparent to God that the people might totally give up on following Moses through the wilderness, God sends poisonous snakes which end up killing some of the Israelites.
But God also provides Moses with a remedy for these poisonous snake bites by having Moses make a bronze serpent, which he then wraps around a pole, and he tells the people to look up at the serpent so they can be healed.
Now, if you’re like me, that might sound like a really strange way for someone to be healed from a snake bite, but this is the image that various medical organizations use even today as their symbol. It’s the symbol of serpents wrapped around a pole.
But it wasn’t the bronze serpent itself that brought healing to the people. The point of this story is that it was the power of God through the symbol of the bronze serpent wrapped around the pole that brought healing. This just goes to show the power of symbols. Just by looking at this serpent on the pole, the people were healed.
During the time of the bible, it was believed that the type of pole that Moses used to bring healing to the people was in the shape of the Greek letter, “tau.” This is why it’s called the “tau” cross because the shape of it resembles this Greek letter.
Just like the medical profession has picked up on this symbol to represent healing, the Tau cross also reminds us that God wants to offer each one of us physical, emotional, mental and spiritual healing.
The Tau cross also reminds us of how Jesus healed people during his ministry. In the Book of James, we are told that we are to anoint those who are sick so that they can be healed. The anointing of oil has a long and rich history of being a means of grace by which God offers us healing.
Also, worth noting about this particular kind of cross, is that the Tau cross is often associated with St. Francis of Assisi who lived during the Middle Ages. St. Francis was known for ministering to those who were sick and especially to those who suffered from the skin disease of leprosy.
St. Francis chose the Tau cross as his emblem because it represented life-time fidelity in being a servant of Jesus Christ for the sake of others. It was a reminder of his pledge to offer God’s healing to the outcasts of his day.
St. Francis even had a special habit or robe made so that every time he would stretch out his arms, his body would take the shape of the tau cross. It served to remind him that he was called to be the hands and feet of Christ for everyone around him.
A little later in our worship service, an invitation will be extended to come forward to receive the Sacrament of Holy Communion.
In addition to the two people who will be holding the bread and the cup of grape juice, I will be available off next to them for anyone who would like to receive the anointing of oil. I’ll simply put a small amount of anointing oil in the sign of the cross on the back of your hand as a symbol of God’s healing presence in your life.
There is also a direct connect between our Old and New Testament readings this morning. Nicodemus, a religious leader came to Jesus to ask him some questions and Jesus ended up talking to Nicodemus about our need for spiritual healing.
Jesus said to Nicodemus, “No one can see the Kingdom of God without being born again.”
And Nicodemus is confused by all of this, thinking that it’s impossible to go through a second birth when you’ve already been born. To help Nicodemus understand what he is saying, he refers to the story about the poisonous snakes and the bronze serpent being put on a pole to bring healing to the people.
Jesus says, “Just 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.”
Jesus is referring to the time when he will be lifted on a pole. More specifically, he will be lifted on a cross to save us from our sins.
And right after Jesus uses this analogy of comparing his death on the cross with the serpent on the pole story, we get this wonderful verse that many of us know by heart.
“For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in him shall not perish, but have everlasting life.”
This is the good news of our faith that we can be born again just by looking at the cross, turning from our sins, and trusting in Christ. All we need to do is look at the cross and we can be born again.
As C.S. Lewis, the great Christian thinker of the last century once said, “It can happen today, if you’d like.”
The story is told of three men in France who were walking through the countryside together. And the one man kept going on and on how the problems of the country could be blamed on the church and the Christian faith.
Every time they would see a church, this man would point to it and say, “That’s the problem with our world today. Religion.”
As they were walking by a cathedral, the man started complaining about the Christian faith again as he pointed toward the building in disgust.
One of the men said, “Well, if you feel that way, why don’t you just go into that cathedral and tell the priest what you’ve been telling us?” And the man said, “Alright, I will.”
So he went inside the cathedral, found the priest and told him what he had been telling his friends all day long, that the Christian faith was just a bunch of superstitions and that the church was the reason the country was in such bad shape.
The priest listened patiently as the man went on and on with his complaints. When the man was finally done, the priest said, “Before you leave here today, I want to offer a challenge to you. I challenge you to go into the sanctuary and look up at the large crucifix with Jesus hanging on the cross, and I want you to say these words, ‘Jesus Christ died on the cross for me and it doesn’t mean a thing to me.’”
And the man said, “Sure, I’ll take up that challenge.” And so he went into the sanctuary as the priest instructed him to do, and he went up the full length of the aisle until he made it to the large crucifix. And after he stared at it for a few moments he said, “Jesus Christ died on the cross for me and it doesn’t mean a thing to me.”
He went back to the priest and told him that he did exactly what he had told him to do. As he was about to leave the cathedral, this wise priest said, “I dare you to do it again.” And the man shrugged his shoulders and said, “Sure, why not?”
Like the first time, this man slowly walked up the long middle aisle and when he finally made it to the foot of the crucifix, he stared into the face of the crucified Jesus again.
And as his eyes were fixed on the face of Jesus with the crown of thorns and his pierced body, he began to say those same words, “Jesus Christ died on the cross for me.”
He stopped for a moment and then he started over. “Jesus Christ died on the cross…for me. And, and it doesn’t…” He couldn’t continue. He stood there motionless and then he slowly knelt down there in that huge cathedral, and he began to cry.
By looking at the cross of Jesus, he was able to see just how much God loved him.
As the old hymn says, “There is a balm in Gilead to make the wounded whole; there is a balm in Gilead to heal the sin-sick soul.”
We are all invited to look at the cross of Jesus and receive God’s healing and saving love anew.
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