Uplifted Snakes?

One of the most intriguing characters in the Gospel of John is Nicodemus. He does not stand in the limelight but rather remains at the back of the stage, only popping up a few times (3:1-21, 7:50-52, 19:39) as John writes about the Messiah. Nicodemus’ story is not a momentous and immediate coming to faith in Christ, but rather a slow and steady process. This process begins in John 3 with Nicodemus pictured as one who comes to Jesus at night when others cannot see him. Furthermore, Nicodemus is shown at first, to be a man who is at best, confused by Jesus’ words and unable to understand about the Kingdom of God.
However, Nicodemus’ story comes to culmination at Jesus’ burial in chapter 19. Even though religious Jews were not supposed to touch dead bodies, (Pharisees indeed would cringe at even the thought of this, and Nicodemus was a Pharisee) with a servant’s heart, Nicodemus takes down the dead body of his Lord and lays it in the grave.
So what causes this change? I believe the starting place may be Jesus’ words in John 3:14-15. John 3:16 usually gets the most attention but the two verses before it are important for Nicodemus. In John 3:14-15 Jesus says that just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life. Since Nicodemus was a Pharisee, he would have had all the Torah, (including the book of Numbers) memorized, and Moses would have been his hero. When Jesus spoke these words, Nicodemus definitely knew what he was talking about. Numbers 21:4-9 tells a story of when the Israelites were wandering into the promised land and complained against Moses and God, saying, “why have you brought us out of Egypt to die in the desert.” Because of their complaining, God sent judgment on them in the form of venomous snakes which entered their camp and bit people. When the people realized that they had sinned they came to Moses and begged him to pray to God on their behalf. The Lord then told Moses to make a snake and put it on a pole, so that a person bitten by a snake may look at it and be healed of the venom. Looking upon this snake, therefore, took away the punishment and judgment from the people.
Back to Nicodemus, I believe that when Jesus initially spoke these words in John 3:14-15 to him, he was puzzled about their meaning. However, when Nicodemus saw the Savior hanging on the cross the words became crystal clear. Just as the carved snake on a pole took away the Israelites’ punishment and judgment, so the Son of Man takes away the sin, punishment, and judgment of not only Israel, but also of anyone in the world who believes in him. After seeing Jesus hanging on the cross, Nicodemus knew that he himself could look upon the Savior and have his venomous sin atoned for, and be released from God’s judgment. Though other Jews may have told him that he was “unclean” because he touched a dead body, I believe Nicodemus may have felt the cleanest he had ever felt as he reverently wrapped Jesus’ body for burial.