To live in the shadow… of the Cross..
Today’s Gospel has the verse probably most popular and memorized of all the verses in Scripture by Catholics, Christians, and even non-believers, John 3:16. For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but have eternal life. We know it, we love it, but do we believe it really?
John goes on to encourage us to live in the light—to let not only our goodness, but also our nastiness be upfront and honest in the light of truth, the light of Jesus. For he didn’t come to condemn us of our sins, but to save us. For he so LOVES the world!!! We don’t always want to believe it. We’re afraid of “showing ourselves” to Christ in the light for fear of failure, unworthiness, disbelief, or the blatant contentment with our own sinfulness. Because honestly, sometimes it’s just easier to live in the shadows…
In a way, Jesus says that’s alright… so long as it’s HIS shadow… You see, it is Christ, the true light, who walks before us, shielding the darkness from our path and saving us from ourselves. He’s been doing it since day one and gives us an example from about 1500 years earlier than this Gospel, during the time of Moses. As they did for many of their 40-year wanderings, the Israelites turned against God’s goodness. Consequently, they are infested and bitten by poisonous seraph snakes. Ironically, but not surprisingly, they ask Moses to pray to God to drive the snakes away and heal them from their sickness. God has Moses build them a bronze serpent mounted on a pole for all to see. Anyone who looked at it recovered. Jesus, being the “New Moses” compared his saving grace to this incident: “Just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert, so must the Son of Man be lifted up. So that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.”
The only shadow we are to live in is his own, the one he casts on us from his holy cross, the one that illumines our goodness and shortcomings alike. The one that if we gaze upon it and believe we too will be saved from the sinfulness that infects our being. Through it we have nothing to fear… not even the darkness. For if we believe the line we all know and have memorized, then we must believe that God really loves us that much. Know that love always ~ Sara