21
I don’t have a tattoo. There was a time, in my younger days, when I wanted one. I sketched it often: a snake coiled around a cross. The symbolism was Biblical. It was also borrowing the serpent imagery from my college fraternity, although the meaning of that symbol has faded from memory. But most of all I just thought it would look tough.
During that same period in my life, I found myself going to Laughlin casinos frequently to gamble with my friends, as you might expect a snake-tattoo-obsessed frat boy going to college near the Nevada border would. My game of choice was blackjack, and I became known for a signature phrase: “Twenty One!” I would exclaim in sort of a game show voice. Whether I hit blackjack or not, I would amuse myself and my table mates by saying it confidently and expectantly as each player card was dealt. The catchphrase traveled home with me, becoming a general exclamation synonymous with “cool.” It represented winning, not just in blackjack but in many games we played – basketball, ping pong, horseshoes or cornhole. I would say “Twenty One” in a variety of circumstances to express agreement, enjoyment, or excitement. I even had a custom baseball cap made with the number “21” embroidered on it, which was obviously my favorite hat to wear to the casinos. I would also wear it to the bars, hilariously pointing to my hat when I would get carded by the bouncer. If someone asked what the hat meant, I would often joke that 21 was my favorite number because it was my preferred Constitutional amendment – you know, the one that repealed prohibition. That hat was full of stories.
The night before my college graduation, I lost that beloved 21 hat in a bar fight, exchanging it for a black eye. I graduated, moved to California, got married, and years went by. One day my wife, Erin, who remembered the hat from our early dating days at college, surprised me with a birthday present: A new, custom-made 21 hat. Naturally, this became my go-to hat once more, until I lost it again. Well, this time I was approached by a rather intense-looking homeless man on the streets of Los Angeles who demanded to buy it for five dollars – and let’s just say I didn’t want to argue with this particular fellow. Another period of time passed before Erin came to my rescue again, with yet a third version of the hat. I wore it proudly, as the legend of the resurrected 21 hat seemed to grow with each passing year.
By the early 2020’s, I had developed some new, positive spiritual habits as my relationship with God was growing. We got a dog, and I began every day by taking her for a long walk. During those walks I would wear my in-ear headphones and listen to worship music, and try to connect with my Creator. After a few songs, I would then listen to audio Scriptures via my Bible app. That morning ritual has become an important part of my spiritual growth and maturity.
One day, as I was walking and listening to my Jesus music, my mind began to wander. I was wearing my 21 hat, and for some reason I started wondering what I would say if someone asked what it meant. Over the life of three different 21 hats in as many decades, it wasn’t an unusual question. But I became uncomfortable with the whole casino/bar backstory. “What if my pastor asks? What if anyone asks? I don’t want to come across as some sort of depraved heathen,” I thought to myself. I was suddenly, oddly unsettled about the meaning of that 21 hat. The Holy Spirit was convicting me out of nowhere.
As I was contemplating this, I reached the point in my walk where I transitioned from music to the Scriptures. I had started a “read through the Bible in a year” plan a few months earlier, so I happened to be in the book of Numbers. Specifically, Numbers 21. As the narrator began by saying “Numbers 21…,” I was struck. Here I was pondering the meaning of the number 21 embroidered on my hat, when a clear voice spoke out loud, directly into my ears, “Numbers 21,” and, after a pause, began to read the passage. This couldn’t be a coincidence, right? I listened intently.
As it turns out, Numbers 21 is where you’ll find an unusual story – one that had served as the inspiration for the snake tattoo idea many years ago.
The book chronicles the Israelites’ journey as they wandered through the desert after God freed them from slavery in Egypt. There in Numbers chapter 21 is a seemingly random, weird little story, right in the middle of this saga. It seems so out of place, and isn’t referenced again anywhere else in the Bible – that is, until Jesus recalls it in John 3:14, right before he launches into the Super Bowl verse, giving this peculiar story profound meaning.
As the story recounts, the Israelites wandered through the wilderness, and increasingly became ungrateful, whiney little jerks. God had miraculously rescued them and went with them, sustaining them on their way to the promised land, yet all the Israelites seemed to be able to do was constantly mess up and complain about their situation. “The food sucks, the lack of water sucks, life sucks! We wish we were back in Egypt,” they would grumble toward God.
Like a parent wanting to train obnoxious kids, God then allows the Israelites to endure the consequences of their rebellion. Venomous snakes make their way into the camp and start biting the people, killing them. The people panic, realize their mistake, and beg for forgiveness. “Tell God we’re sorry,” they plead with Moses. “Ask him to take these snakes away!”
And then God does something very strange. He tells Moses to make a bronze snake, and put it up on a pole – and explains that anyone who is bitten can simply look at it, and live. Moses complies, and sure enough, as people got bitten, they would go look at this bronze snake on a pole, and they were supernaturally healed.
What? Such a bizarre story, right? And then the text just moves on abruptly, leaving one to wonder why it’s there, and why God would seemingly arbitrarily use a snake on a pole to save his people. But then, a few thousand years later, Jesus brings that account back into view, connecting it to what would become the greatest story in all of history. In one of his most famous teachings, Jesus tells Nicodemus:
“Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him.” John 3:14-15
And just in case you forgot what comes next:
“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” John 3:16
And now it begins to make sense. You see, we are all rebellious kids. We’ve all been bitten by the “snake”, which represents evil. Remember, the devil came in the form of a serpent when he instigated the original sin of Adam and Eve, there in the garden where they chose to turn away from God. The penalty of that sin – the snake’s venom – is condemnation and death, and it afflicts us all as fallen people in a fallen world.
When God told Moses to put a snake on a pole, and have the people look at it to live, he was pointing to Jesus on the cross. It was a type and a shadow, foretelling how God would bring eternal salvation to his people through his Son. Jesus would willingly become sin – symbolically, he became the snake – sacrificially taking upon himself our evil nature, all the guilt and shame that comes with it, and the punishment for it as he was nailed to the cross and lifted up at Calvary to suffer and die. And the good news is that we only have to look on Jesus and believe, and we will be healed. God loves us so much that he gave his Son to atone for our sins. And so we will not perish, we will have eternal life.
This substitutionary atonement principle was established long before Jesus arrived and fulfilled it once and for all. In the Old Testament, God had allowed his people to make amends for their sins by symbolically transferring them to an animal, often a lamb, and then sacrificing that animal. The shed blood of the substitute lamb would cover the sins of the people temporarily, and thereby meet God’s standard for justice. It was the only way the people could stay in relationship with a Holy, righteous God. This ritual was a precursor to Jesus, the ultimate sacrifice, the “Lamb of God, who takes aways the sin of the world!”
I find it so interesting that God created the natural world to demonstrate deep spiritual truths. A rattlesnake is so venomous that a bite can quickly cause organ failure and death. The cure is antivenom. How is antivenom often made? Lamb’s blood, which generates antibodies that neutralize snake venom!
For our salvation, Jesus became sin (the snake), suffered the penalty (the venomous bite and death), and simultaneously became the cure (the sacrificial lamb, whose shed blood is our antivenom). It’s an incredible picture of love and redemption.
The other part of the redemption story is that it doesn’t end with Jesus’ death on a cross. He rises victorious from the dead after 3 days, conquering sin and death, restoring humanity’s relationship with God as we trust in him, and promising believers eternal life with him in his heavenly kingdom. That’s the Gospel…the “good news.” That is the story God had put on my heart all along, as I filled those sketch books of a snake coiled around a cross in my youth.
This is the story I want to tell people. Now, when someone asks what my hat means, I’ll say excitedly “I’m glad you asked! Let me tell you a weird little story about Numbers 21.” I’ll recount the whole story of the snake on the pole, and the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Then I’ll tell you about my past – how I used to seek identity and fulfillment in the wrong places. I’ll tell you how God never stopped pursuing me, reminding me where to find true identity and fulfillment as his beloved child. I’ll explain how, just like he changed the meaning of this 21 hat, he changed me. He’s given me a new spirit and the hope of eternal life in heaven. And finally, I’ll let you know this hope, this redemption, is available to you, too. All you have to do is acknowledge you’ve been bitten, look to Jesus and believe, and be healed. It’s the greatest decision you will ever make, to accept this gift from the God who made you and loves you!
As I was at Church one Sunday, I was thinking about this story, my 21 hat, and how I might use it to evangelize. At the end of that service, a guy came up to me with a prophetic word. He said that I was going to share the Gospel with many, and he prayed over me. I wrote this story a few days later in the hopes that it will carry the message of God’s love and mercy and redemption to whomever reads it. Maybe someone will greet me in heaven one day and thank me for it. If they do, I’ll bet I respond with a smile, and say “Twenty One.”
