The Image of the Wound: Exaltation of the Cross

When I was little my favorite story was the Exodus, I mean the whole tale from the rise of Moses to the Promised Land. It definitely had the most exciting pictures and descriptions in my illustrated book of Bible stories: crossing the Red Sea, facing down Pharaoh, Mount Sinai, manna from Heaven, and more.

It’s still one of my favorites. The story of the Exodus is an absolutely defining moment for Jewish people and the way they understand who they are and where they’ve come from. But for us, too, all that significance didn’t just evaporate with the coming of the Christ. If anything, it comes even more into its own.

We covered the Exodus earlier this year in Bible Study and really focused on the parallel between this story and our Christian life. It begins by passing out of bondage, passing through water that symbolizes death and rebirth. The Red Sea was Israel’s baptism. It ends with entry into the Promised Land. Along the way they were given two great gifts: The Ten Commandments, God’s own words for their lives, and the manna, bread from Heaven. What sustains the Church, what sustains us today? Isn’t it still the Word of God and Bread from Heaven?

My children’s book with all the pictures didn’t spend much time on the forty years of wandering in the desert, but now it’s my favorite part of the story and one of my favorite parts of the Bible. Because that’s where you and I live. It’s like a big “You Are Here” marker in the middle of Scripture. We’ve passed through the waters of Baptism, we’re on the way to the Promised Land, we’re nourished by Word and Sacrament, but we haven’t arrived. I really encourage you to read through those chapters of Exodus with this in mind, and try to relate the events in the desert with your own life. Those forty years were a physical journey, but only sort of. These travels were almost a big circle. They started out now too far from the Promised Land, but they weren’t ready for it, and God sent them out for these forty years making a big circle that was, above all, a spiritual journey. Making a circle might not sound like progress, but that all depends on the circle. Aren’t we all trying to find our way home?

So here we come to a moment that, if you’re reading through Exodus for the first time, might not stand out as a highlight. It’s this small episode of the snakes and the staff, just a few verses. It begins with a critical detail: the Israelites had lost patience. Remember, this is most of all a spiritual journey, and that’s the spiritual reality of this story.

They speak against God and against Moses, and ask “why’d you drag us out here anyway, we’re sick of the crummy food and there’s no water.” How many of us have never grumbled like that? I’ve even heard Catholics leave the Church with the very same words: “I’m not being fed.” Really? The Word of God not doing it for you? The Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus Christ given at every Mass, and that’s somehow not enough for you?

Well, God’s response is what we might call a good old-fashioned smiting. It comes in the form of serpents. I suspect there’s probably a connection here involving the importance of serpents in Egyptian culture, but I’m not sure about that. But these serpents have a painful and deadly bite. It’s harsh medicine, no doubt, but reading Exodus you learn just how determined God is to do whatever it takes to get them to the Promised Land. It’s the same for us; God will give us medicine that we won’t always like. We do want to tread carefully here, though, when it comes to explaining bad things as God’s doing. We should admit that we don’t generally know. Losing your job may be God guiding your life in some new direction, and it may not. I saw a marquee sign on a church that said “If God shuts a door, stop banging on it.” That’s true in theory, but I think it’s very dangerous in application. In real life I’m afraid that might often translate to “if at first you don’t succeed, give up and blame it on God.”

Harsh or not, the remedy works, and the people repent of their grumbling and lack of patience. So now there’s a remedy for the remedy, which takes the form of a bronze serpent carved on a pole and stuck in the middle of the camp. And all who looked upon it were healed. It’s a funny sort of remedy, I mean another snake is the last thing we need, right? But the image of the wound becomes the means of salvation.

And then you keep reading and lots of more exciting Exodus stories happen, and you might not much remember these few verses about the serpents and the bronze image. But it’s this very episode that Jesus references and claims as an image of what He has come to do: “As Moses lifted up a serpent in the desert, so must the Son of Man be lifted up.” What do you suppose that means?

It is another case of the image of the wound becoming the means of salvation. Jesus came to heal us, not of snakebite, but of sin, and there’s never been a greater sin than what happened at Calvary. To see Jesus hanging dead on that Cross, you’d think it was one more act of violence, one more outrage, one more case of the powerful crushing the innocent, and certainly the last thing we needed. But this was different. Inside was hidden a singularity that ends up containing all else; almost like a Trojan horse sneaking the Author of Life into the realm of death.

So Jesus compares Himself on the Cross to that bronze serpent: the image of the wound becoming the means of salvation, that upon which you need only look to be healed. There really is a sense in which simply looking upon a Crucifix brings healing. I don’t want to overplay the point; if someone asks how Christians are saved, the best answer isn’t “by looking at crucifixes.” But there is something to it. As Jesus goes on to say, God so loved the world that He sent His only Son.” And what better proof is there of God’s love for us than a crucifix?

This is why it is a liturgical law that Catholic churches should all have a crucifix on or near the altar… not an image of the Resurrected Christ superimposed on a Cross, not a bare Cross with nobody on it, and not an image of Jesus having one hand loose and reaching out holding a bird. There’s nothing wrong with any of those, but churches are supposed to have an actual crucifix near the altar. That’s an important image because nothing else shows so strongly how much God loves us, how far God is willing to go to get us to the Promised Land. It’s also an image of our own calling to love in that same way.

Catholics are sometimes challenged for having crucifixes in our churches, on our walls, or around our necks. “Don’t you know He’s Risen?”, they’ll ask, “Don’t you know the whole point is that He isn’t on the Cross anymore?” Well, fair enough, but actually no, we haven’t forgotten that He rose. If He hadn’t Risen we wouldn’t have crucifixes or churches or any Christian religion at all. But I think we can point to John 3:15 as the best explanation of why there is power in contemplating the crucifix. Is it too much to say that simply the very act of looking upon the image of Christ on the Cross brings healing? I think it can and does. I think Jesus is saying as much Himself in John 3:15. Not because it’s some kind of automatic magical talisman, but because it’s God’s love at its most visible and astonishing and irresistible. 

The Cross of Christ has redeemed the world, and some of that power comes in even through our eyes. When you feel alone, look at Christ lifted up on the Cross and know that you are never alone. When you feel worthless or unwanted, look at Christ lifted up and know what God thinks you’re worth and how much God wants you. When you’re feeling unmerciful or unloving, look at the Crucifix and know that this is the standard of love to which we are called.

Most Christians could rattle off John 3:16 at the drop of a hat, and rightly so. I think very few could rattle off John 3:15 if you asked them too. But the two are intertwined. “As Moses lifted up a serpent in the desert, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, so that everyone who believes may have eternal life in Him. For God so loved the world that He sent His only Son…”

Look, and keep looking, and never ever forget how much God loves the world, and how much God loves you.