John 3:1-21 · Jesus Teaches Nicodemus
The Sign of the Serpent’s Tree
John 3:1-17
Sermon
by Lori Wagner
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Signs of the Holy Spirit are not just stuff of Pentecost. God’s Spirit has been “with” God’s people since the beginning of human life when God breathed into us God’s spirit of awareness. From there, God has dwelled with patriarchs and prophets, kings and priests until God sent God’s only Son, God’s own Spirit, to move us and redeem us into restored relationship with God.

Why restoration? It has to do with that blessed tree.

The tree of Life. The serpent’s tree. Both and the same. The forbidden tree, the tree not to touch, the fruit not to consume, the barrier not to trespass, the “no” we couldn’t honor. The sign of the “tree” is complex. Not arbitrary but two-fold, the tree reminds us both of God’s creation and promise of life but also of our transgression and death.

In our scripture for today, John notes the Hebrew scripture of Numbers 21:4-9, in which Moses lifts up a bronze serpent on a pole, so that anyone bitten by serpents in the wilderness might live rather than die. While we ponder the role of the serpent, evil and tragedy tamed and transformed by the tree in the form of a wooden navigator’s staff into a miracle for healing, the more interesting sign is the tree.

Is the serpent on the tree? Or is it part of the tree? Is the shepherd’s rod or staff wielded by Moses a wooden staff or a serpent? Listen for a moment to this passage in Exodus 4:1-3:

“What is that in your hand?” He said, “A rod.” And He said, “Cast it on the ground.” So he cast it on the ground, and it became a serpent; and Moses fled from it. Then The Lord said to Moses, “Reach out your hand and take it by the tail.” (and he reached out his hand and caught it, and it became a rod in his hand).

I ask you again, is it a staff or a serpent? Or is it both?

The tree you see is the interesting sign. For the tree of life indicates the power, the providence, the divine authority of God to bestow death or life. In the symbol of the tree, to which we are granted access, or not, we know the entirety of God’s sovereignty over the universe. God’s one-ness and vastness, God’s knowledge and logos is the All in All. The mysterious symbol of the tree notes that in God’s hands lies control over both death and life.

The tree lures us, tempts us with its sweet and alluring forbidden fruit, taunting us to try to grasp life on our own rather than acknowledging that all life is a gift from God to be given to us in the form of redemption and Spirit. When we turn from God we see the snake. When God redeems us, we receive the gift of life and access to the Tree.

The tree symbol is a shape shifter. The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil not only can heal but can smart, depending on the heart that approaches it and how it is received.

In the desert, when the Israelites are spouting venomous retorts toward God, complaining and moaning to Moses that they’d be better off on their own, they become plagued by serpents matching their own poisonous tongues. These little serpents (or manifestations of the tree or staff if you will) are a reminder of the consequences of sin, the knowledge of what sin can do.

In redemptive fashion, God instructs Moses to create a bronze serpent and to place it on a wooden staff, to hold it up and use it as a navigation tool / a shepherd’s staff to lead them. Those who look up to the serpent, recognize their sin, and follow God, will be cured. The snake on the tree becomes an antidote for the venom spewed, a tree of life. Both a serpent and a staff.

In the triumph of the tree, in following the shepherd’s staff, and the arm of God, the serpent of death is overcome by the gift of Life.

And then there is the cross. The tree of death once again made into the Tree of Life. Even as the serpent of death, human sin (for in his sacrifice, Jesus takes on the human sin of the world), and symbol of all of the poison the world can spew hangs upon the cross, God transforms the event into a redemption story of Life and Resurrection. And all who follow Jesus, the Tree of Life, will in turn be healed and receive eternal life as well.

The tree and the serpent are one. God’s redemption story is the transformation of the tree, of Jesus, of God’s self into a life-giving vehicle of grace. For God is the logos. The Spirit of power.[1]

Creator, Son, Holy Spirit – The All in All, the Tree of Life.

In the 1960s, a powerful symbol emerged in popular culture, a symbol that summed up the “spirit” of the age: the flower. In addition to the peace sign (in both gestural and written forms) and the Vulcan “live well and prosper” sign (based on the Jewish sign for peace), the flower soon became the ultimate icon for harmony, non-violence, love, peace, and freedom. Flowers were everywhere. On pocketbooks, on clothing, in hair, on automobiles. “Hippies” handed them out in airports. They appeared in graffiti. “Flower power” claimed the mission of changing the world by means of peace and love. This passive form of resistance, primarily to the Vietnam War, became soon a “march” for freedom, freedom from oppression in all of its forms. Free spirits danced, made music, put colorful flower chains in their hair, and declared freedom in every sense of the word. And yet during this same time period, in reaction to the same kinds of social issues and problems that produced non-violent peace lovers like flower children and Gandhi, came groups that would display vicious acts of violence, such as the Manson commune.

How is this possible?

The human spirit has always been a two-edged sword. We are capable of great acts of love, and we are capable of terrible acts of hatred and violence.

When left to our own devices, it’s easy for us to descend into venomous hatred and anger, even with righteous intention. Only when we allow ourselves to be guided by the Holy Spirit, putting God in control, can we be assured that our actions will be embedded in love and our “free spirits” will truly be “freed.”

The Tree of Life in the scriptural tradition is the ultimate symbol of life and freedom. Jesus is the ultimate symbol of Life and Freedom, freedom not just from the symptoms of sin, but from sin itself.

For in the Jesus’ hanging on the Tree, God is lifted up, and sin is ultimately conquered. Sin and Death are both ultimately conquered, and Life and Love reign.

The Trinity, like the entwined Tree, has always been a complicated symbol. Then again, life is complicated.

But this we can know: in Jesus’ death, Life won.

In Jesus’ sacrifice, the serpent was trampled.

Within the arbitrariness of the human spirit, God’s Spirit can triumph and bring out from within us the Image of God.

In this continued season of Pentecost, may the Holy Spirit continue to dwell with you. May you look upon the cross and see God’s victory in you. May Jesus remain with you and redeem you, now and always.


[1] For more on the complexity of the Tree of Life symbol, see “The Serpents of Orthodoxy,” Jonathan Pageau, April 18, 2013, orthodoxartsjournal.org.

ChristianGlobe Networks, Inc., by Lori Wagner