Volume 47   Number 8                                                                       April 2005

In November of 2004, a most unusual transaction took place in the cybershop of E-bay®. A ten year-old grilled cheese sandwich (sans one bite) fetched $28,000 as the bearer asserted her belief that its emblazoned visage of “Mary, the mother of God” was found to be “looking back” at her. I’ve seen the food. If it is the picture of a female, the image could just as easily be acknowledged as that of Kate Winslett or Roxie Roker…why does it have to be Mary? (I have never understood how we can be so positive how a woman of antiquity looked, when she cannot possibly be visually identified.) Are we so desperate for a connection to God that we are relegated to imagining Biblical characters in melts, clouds, and sliced tomatoes? It’s sad that it’s so—but not that we’ve been driven to it by God. The truth is…we look where we please for what we please and, somehow, find it. Too often, we look for graven images to ignite the spiritual depravity within.

Some 750 years after God told Moses to raise a bronze serpent on a pole to abate a plague of venomous snakes from the camp of Israel (Numbers 21:5), we find that it still survived during the reign of Hezekiah (2 Kings 18:4). One might rightly say that this serpent-on-a-stick was a “good” thing, for it preserved countless lives. God commanded its construction. Jesus, Himself, claimed that it was symbolic of His death on the cross (John 3: 14,15), as The Father “made Him Who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Corinthians 5:21). What a fantastic relic. I mean, it’s not processed cheese spread on white toast, but surely Hezekiah could’ve gotten an opening bid. And if not, it was certainly worth keeping, right?

As the 2 Kings reference bears out, the “goodness” of the bronze serpent had ended long before Israel entered the Canaan land. It had become a stumbling block to the nation. What had been purposed by God to be a momentary object of His mercy had become an object of worship and wonder…diverting attention away from The Creator and towards the created. Although Hezekiah destroyed the idol, the damage to the spiritual psyche of God’s people had been done—they had spiritually enslaved themselves to things other than God, and they would soon be taken as slaves, themselves.

May we draw a productive warning for ourselves from this most unhealthy of Israel’s habits? …Perhaps there may be more than one. Do we view a former virgin as less of a momentary vessel of God’s mercy, and more like a Goddess of the Grilled Cheese? Do we divert proper attention and focus away from serving God to serve our curiosity and wonder? Are we looking for The Creator in the created…or are we really looking for Him at all? Have we enslaved ourselves to statues, traditions, mantras, and philosophies—none of which have the Spirit of God in them (Colossians 2:8,9)?

A most unusual transaction has taken place, and I fear we may miss truly honoring its importance in our lives. More outrageous than thousands of dollars for two pieces of bread and a slice of dairy: Jesus, the Living Bread (John 6:35), was sold for the price of a slave (Zechariah 11:12,13), paid the debt of all men’s sins (Hebrews 2:9), and the emblazoned image of His Father, the Invisible God, is found in Him (Colossians 1:13-15).