Nicodemus today.

We don’t just call various drawings signs; signs include writing, notes, objects, words, and thoughts… The Gospel says: “As Moses lifted the serpent in the wilderness, even so, must the Son of Man be lifted, that whoever believes…may have eternal life” (Jn 3:14). When the chosen nation left slavery in Egypt for the promised land of Canaan, the nation in the wilderness, under the leadership of Moses, often went against God’s will. The people often murmured. During one such grumbling, God sent poisonous snakes upon the Jews. This bit the people, and the nation began to realize that it had offended God. Therefore, they turn to Moses and ask him to plead with God to save them from the horrible death of being bitten by snakes. God then instructed Moses to hang a snake on a pole, which he was to cast out of brass. When he did so, everyone who touched or gazed upon this serpent of brass, even though bitten by snakes, did not die.

These people were saved through the Savior and Redeemer of all people, Jesus Christ. When Christ was dying on the cross, He was nailing the power of evil, the power of sin, to the cross at that time. The cross became the source of new life for us; it became the source of healing. This event wants to tell us that whoever looks at the crucified Christ wants to find eternal life. It is very necessary to take the time to look at the crucified Christ. When his gaze meets ours, it will pierce our pride, and we will feel the power of healing. Everything is Jesus’ answer to Nicodemus’ question: “How can this be?” (cf. Jn 3:9). Nicodemus was troubled; he did not yet understand how a person can believe and be born again of the Holy Spirit. This is the moment when one wants to solve everything by oneself, that is, before the illumination of the Holy Spirit. Jesus wants Nicodemus to believe in the atoning death of the Lord Jesus. Just as those who snakes bit and by looking at the brazen serpent were healed, so anyone who looks with faith at the crucified Christ will gain eternal life, be healed, saved and redeemed. As the Lord Jesus’ death on the cross was a necessary entrance into His glory, so for man, faith is the condition for attaining justification of sins before God, through being born again of the Spirit through baptism, and attaining glory in heaven.

Not only does the sacrament of baptism become for us the gateway to eternal life, but in this sacrament, we are also forgiven of all our sins committed before baptism. By baptism, we have regained what our grandparents lost by their disobedience in paradise. When we renew our baptismal vows, for example, in the church community at First Communion, on White Saturday, we realize that we renounce all sin, confess our faith, and thereby grow in our friendship with God. This, then, is our witness expressed in gestures, in words, and behind all this is something invisible to our eyes and yet so necessary for our life of faith – contact with God: this is what unites us and makes us true brothers and sisters of the Lord Jesus