The Garden of Eden and Medical Missions - Matthew 28:19.  Trinity Lutheran Church, Arcadia,

May 20, 2007 by Rev. Charles Webb, MD

 I will read the text later in the sermon.

 Introduction

I hate snakes!  They glide and slither. I used to think they were slimy and even if they are not they still seem so.  They’re scaly, repulsive and some are potentially lethal. They look at your with their hypnotic eyes, while their heads bob around and their forked tongues flicker threateningly.

 Snakes have been worshipped by many nations and cults. They have served as symbols of the sun and forerunners of death and and also as symbols of healing for thousands of years.

 The Romans, Greeks, Aztecs and Toltecs worshipped them.  Man’s fascination with them partly due to their regenerative powers and their mysterious, inscrutable stare.  

 Maybe there’s a good reason to hate snakes.  Something in our subconscious mind tells us, “Avoid them.”  It is probably some inherited memory of one notable snake that was at the center of a world-altering drama several millennia ago in a garden east of Eden.  Maybe that’s why I despise them –a sort of primordial memory of all the evil that first serpent generated.

 You know the story. The tree of the knowledge of good and evil was forbidden as a food source, but Eve under temptation of the serpent, Satan, ate of it and so did Adam.  The rest is painful history.  

 The interesting tidbit is that a snake and a tree are involved in the ultimate evil and that that theme slinks and slithers through the Old Testament like a fine thread that weaves mans’ history together into a complex tapestry that swings from good to evil to good again.

 The start of the thread is the Fall of man into sin.  The next thread in the tapestry appears in Numbers 21 where the people had begun to murmur and complain and God sent fiery serpents to punish them. Moses set a brass serpent on a pole and all who looked on it were saved from death.

 Listen! Where did we start? A snake and a tree = evil and harm in Eden.   And now a snake and a pole bring healing and good.  

 Then the story meanders its way to Hezekiah, the 13^th king of Judah, a few hundred years later. He set out to abolish idolatry in his kingdom. By this time, the cult of the brazen serpent had been established.  Looking to God had been replaced by looking to the “brazen serpent” set up by Moses so many years before.  A sect called the Nehustanim (“the brass serpenters”) worshipped the image and not the Lord.

 The serpent had reverted to its Garden of Eden evil.  God was replaced by idolatry.   A serpent – a pole- disobedience to God.   Sounds familiar.  Back to square one.  Back to Eden.

 And then, many centuries later, another tree played a part in this scenario:  Christ on a tree crushes Satan.   We are redeemed.  Christ becomes the exact opposite of Satan and the tree now comes to mean atonement, salvation, and eternal life.

 The thread: Christ – a tree – obedience to God - atonement.

 And then, several hundred years later, Aesculapius, the son of Apollo and god of the healing arts, enters the picture.   His symbol of healing: a staff entwined by one serpent, not two as is sometimes depicted.  Even though the Greeks did not realize it, I think the thread traces back to the Old Testament and the serpent.      

 The serpent as changed again.   A serpent – a pole – healing.

 Now, segue from the ancient Greeks to modern day America.  What do you see on countless ambulances and as the icon of medical practice?   A snake entwining a staff.   The symbol of healing and curing.  Wow!  What a revelation!

 A snake, a pole, healing!  It would seem that the thread has continued to the present day and that the snake harks back to the healing in the desert in Moses time and ultimately to the healing by Christ in the fullness of time.

 The snake and the tree are symbolic of the worst spiritual and physical disease in man and yet the symbol swings back and represents the best healing symbol of man.   The snake of Eden is replaced by our Redeemer Christ on Calvary.

 The snake (Satan) reminds us of Christ’s victory over sin and death on the Cross. Jesus said John 3: And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up:  That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life.  The bronze serpent foreshadows the atonement of Christ.    

 Just as the brazen image healed people from the venom of the snakes by the power of God, so  Christ atones for us and heals us and delivers us from the diseases Satan has put on us, from all sin and eternal  death.   John.11:25 “I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live”

  Where does all of this lead us?    I believe it is applicable to a couple of other points important for medical missions.  I believe it relates directly to the Great Commission and the healing ministry that threads through the ministry of Christ.  Matthew 4: 23 “And Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all manner of sickness and all manner of disease among the people.”  It doesn’t say that all were the faithful! 

 It is His love and desire for wholeness.  Wholeness now and for eternity.  Christ is a model for human concern in the now.

 He did it miraculously, but I believe that His desire for physical healing, for caring and curing has also been passed on to us.  God wants us to be happy and whole and is concerned about our physical well-being as well as their spiritual well being.

 For thousands of years priest and healer were coupled.  Physical healing was part of the priestly ethic and duty.   In Moses’ time the Egyptian priestly class both healed and interceded to please a whole company of demanding Egyptian gods.

 Moses and Aaron, on the other hand, served as healers and representatives of the one true God.

 The priest/healer class ceased with the coming of Christ and his loving care for people lay that mandate on all his disciples, not just on a priestly class.   

 Our text (Matthew 28:19) states: “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,” has an inherent command to heal and to do acts of mercy, to attend to man’s needs now and for eternity.” 

 After all, Christ wanted us to care and cure.  You cannot be a disciple without caring.  Caring involves applying Christ’s love to the entire condition of man, not just the world after death.    

 You make disciples of all nations by helping them NOW.   You reflect Christ’s love by applying His redeeming grace now.   We don’t live in an otherworldly vacuum.  We live now.  The disciples we recruit live now.    

 There is one difference.  Admittedly, we cannot miraculously heal like Christ did, but through His guiding hand we can make life fuller and more endurable.

A missionary in Africa was once asked if he really liked what he was doing. His response was shocking. "Do I like this work?" he said. "No. My wife and I do not like dirt. We have reasonable refined sensibilities. We do not like crawling into vile huts through goat refuse... Liking or disliking has nothing to do with it. We have orders to 'Go,' and we go. Love constrains us."

“Going” involves action.   You cannot go to the mission field unless you are actively  committed.   

You cannot go unless you are ablaze with the Word made flesh. You cannot go unless you are fired by the Holy Spirit and by  love for God and people. And, in reality, the mission field is EVERYWHERE.    

 You cannot go unless God dwells in you richly.

You cannot go unless you are driven by the zeal to help your fellow man now and for eternity.  “I am come that they might have life and that they might have it more abundantly”, is not preparation for the future, but action for life NOW.    “Lo, I am with you always even unto the end of the world” is the promise for today and the spur to treat the human condition today.

 Our Lord tells us to make disciples of all nations.   There are two thoughts here:  What are disciples and who are “all nations.”   

 A disciple is someone who follows the ways and teachings of his teacher.  A disciple is convinced that the master’s words and actions are good and that his beliefs and teachings are valid for life and applies them.  Philippians 1: [6] Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ.”

 An interesting point is that the original disciples were not educated, erudite scholars.  They were ordinary men from the trades. It does not take Rhodes scholars to preach the Gospel.   It doesn’t say to get a doctorate in theology and then make disciples.  The Gospel would never be spread if that were true!

 Interestingly, a number of studies have been done and the members of the congregation often do better than the clergy at evangelizing.  In one study, if a congregation member made a call back to a visitor, 60% would show up next week.  If a pastor did the same, 30%! People expect it of the clergy. 

 You have to remember also, that the job of evangelizing at home is in a sense tougher than going abroad.  Its easier to approach the poor, downtrodden than it is to preach to your coworker, your boss, your unbelieving relative.  But you must.

 Who are the nations?   Aye, there’s the rub!   So many in the past have interpreted the nations to mean the heathen in a foreign land.  If you understand the nations to be only the poor, downtrodden, the tribesman with no hope in life, then you miss millions. 

 The term is ALL-inclusive.   No one is left out.   It extends from the native in Borneo to the urbane citizen of Germany to the ghettos of Italy to the corporate world of America.  It extends from those caught up in the drug culture to those in the entertainment field to those in academia.  Whatever color and whatever creed or social or economic class.   ALL people of ALL nations!  No one is excluded.

 The mission is daunting.  I would rather preach to Guatemalan Mayans and Kenyans rather than to the smug CEO of a fortune 500 company.  Yet, he is not excluded.  

 I have a lot of difficulty talking to that strong, hard-driving man of the world, don’t you? I don’t want to talk to the academic with multiple PhD’s, but I must. 

 I want to talk to the simple folk.  They’re easy.   Success is just a simple word away.  It is far more difficult in the civilized world.  That world is mandated also:  Make disciples of ALL nations.

 So, in a real sense, your job as missionaries in everyday life is tougher than mine.

 Of course, the purpose is to bring Christ to the nations through baptism so that the old man might die and a new man be born daily in Christ.   Baptism and making disciples are concurrent.   You can only make true disciples through baptism and conversion to Christ.   Gal.3:27 “For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ.”

 Medical mission’s shares in this mandate – to serve the bodily needs of our fellow man.  True, the goal of feeding, clothing, showing mercy on, and redeeming all people is the total picture.  Medical missions focuses, however, on the curing and healing aspect of Christ’s healing ministry among us.  We have a responsibility to care and cure.   We have a healing tradition in Christ.

 The love of Christ and his sacrifice on the cross constrains me to go and make disciples and baptize.

 The healing ministry of Christ is my guide and standard.   Like Luther  “Here I stand.  I can do nothing else. God help me.“

 I must go.   It is my life to make life more tolerable and to bring more and more to the redemption won on the tree by Jesus.

 You must go!  We must go!

 Wholeness comes through Christ crucified on the tree. “It is finished” is only a beginning.   

 We must go forth and baptize and make disciples of all nations, and also reflect Christ’s concern for healing and caring in the here-and-now.

 I hate snakes!  I will never change.   The symbolic snake around a pole is so powerful that I also feel an affinity for snakes. 

 Eden is symbolic of our need for freedom from physical ailments and spiritual lostness and being made right with God.  

 The thread of history weaves that ageless quest for spiritual wholeness and well-being.

 I will always hate snakes.  I have another insight into the symbolism of the snake and the tree and the staff of Aesculapius in relation to the tree on which Christ was crucified.  The thread of history has given me a new insight into my goal as a healer and our goals as a church that cares and cures.

 I ask you to support the goal of making disciples of all nations, directly and indirectly, and of using our healing ministry to bring Christ to the nations and comfort to all peoples knowing that “by his stripes we are healed.”

  Amen.

And now may the peace of Christ who sacrificed all on the tree of death that we might have life now and for all eternity, be with you all.

Amen