Life and death, seeing and believing in God’s love and mercy are at the heart of the story of the bronze serpent. Just as the serpent was lifted up and the people found life, so will Jesus be lifted up and those who believe in him will find life. In the gospel this week, God’s saving activity is expressed in terms of ‘love’. God’s love is explicitly related to the gift of Jesus, God’s Son, for the salvation of the world. Salvation resides in acceptance of Jesus while judgment is the refusal to accept Jesus as the revelation of God .Later in the gospel, Jesus will again reference the bronze serpent story in an expansive embrace of all creation: “And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all to myself.”