Undeniably Visible

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“‘But I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to myself.’ He said this to show the kind of death he was going to die.” —John 12:32, 33

The reference cited here from John 12 is to events that took place in the wilderness as Moses guided a rebellious people in a dreadfully circuitous route to the Promised Land of Canaan. This journey, which should have taken weeks, turned into one of years. That “detour” was something that Israel had brought upon her own head. Numbers 21 describes one of the reasons it took God’s people forty years to get across the wilderness. They had gotten impatient and had begun to complain about their lot, and the Lord sent a plague of snakes to get their attention. People were bitten and began to die. It was the perfect portrait of Eden—bitten by a snake! When God’s people repented Moses was instructed to make a bronze snake and attach it to a pole. He was to tell the people that anyone who looked at the serpent would live.

Jesus used this Old Testament event to illustrate what would soon happen to Him. Like that serpent He would be raised up upon a pole and anyone who looked to Him in faith would be saved from death.

I find Jesus’ choice of words interesting. His manner of death would “draw all men” to Him. There is nothing in history that has caused more criticism, consternation, comment, and conviction, than the claim that the Son of God sacrificed Himself on a Roman cross as the only means through which sinners could be saved from a fate quite literally worse than death itself.  

I was surprised to discover that Elvis Presley is attributed with the words to this song, part of which we used to sing in Sunday School. It highlights my point:

So high you can't get over Him
So wide you can't get around Him
So low you can't get under him
You must come in at the door
(So High lyrics, Elvis Presley, 1966)

All men are drawn to the cross. Some will be repelled by it and others will be remade by it. But everyone will confront it. They must.

In his book, Six Hours One Friday, Max Lucado writes: “There is a direct correlation between the accuracy of our memory and the effectiveness of our mission. If we are not teaching people how to be saved, it is perhaps because we have forgotten the tragedy of being lost! If we're not teaching the message of forgiveness, it may be because we don’t remember what it is like to be guilty. And if we’re not preaching the cross, it could be that we’ve subconsciously decided—God forbid—somehow we don’t need it” (page 75).

If we are not preaching Christ lifted up on the cross, to what then will men be drawn?