John 3:14-15 “Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.”

Let me describe a man for you. He is filthy. He hasn’t bathed or showered in days. He doesn’t smell very good. His rather dull and unfashionable clothes are torn. He is loud. He is rough. He pays little attention to good manners. If he gets a chance to eat, he wolfs the food down as fast as he can.

He is a dangerous man. He is aggressive. He carries a gun and has even killed a few people with it. At other times he has roughed up people who threatened him.

What have I described? Perhaps you picture a street criminal, a gang member, a person for whom you would have little or no respect and avoid if at all possible.

What if I told you he was an American soldier in the midst of combat, a hero fighting to defend our country and protect your freedoms?

In order to understand this man’s actions and behavior, it helps to know who he is.

“The Son of Man must be lifted up.” This is the first time in his ministry Jesus spoke of his crucifixion, so far as we know. You probably know that not just anyone was crucified. The Roman writer Cicero, about a hundred years before Jesus, said that crucifixion was such a horrible thing that no Roman should ever have to witness it. And no Roman citizen could ever be sentenced to a cross. That may be why Paul, a legal citizen of the empire, was beheaded, but Peter, a Jew, was crucified.

Crucifixion was reserved for the worst and most dangerous. They were the criminals and enemies of the state. The Republic wanted to make examples of them. Spartacus, the famous gladiator, was crucified after he led a rebellion because officials were afraid he might inspire more slaves and gladiators to revolt.

Crucifixion slowly robbed you of your life. It was hard to breath if you didn’t pull yourself up by your arms impailed to the crossbar and push yourself up by your feet impaled to the pole. But that was painful, and eventually your muscles would cramp, forcing you to hang limp again until you were desperate for air and pulled yourself up again to breath. This went on, for days in some cases, until your heart gave out or you died of asphyxiation.

Jesus was lifted up on a cross. But not as a criminal. He was lifted up as the object of our faith, because here God himself took our place and died for our sins, the debt we could not pay ourselves. This is how it works in God’s Kingdom, different than any other kingdom, or any other religion in the world. The King’s Son dies for the crimes of his people. Believe that, see his work, and you are entering God’s Kingdom as you do.