Idiom

Mark 16:18
“They will take up serpents; and if they drink anything deadly, it will by no means hurt them; they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover.”

That’s an idiom, an expression whose meaning is not predictable from the usual meanings of its constituent elements. Say what?! It’s an expression like “Raining cats and dogs” or “Kick the bucket”. The meaning is implied but not literal based on the words used. There, that’s enough grammar for one day; now time for some scripture and Jesus!

Sometimes I get a little upset with God, not because He does things to make my life miserable but because He stands outside of time. I think that sometimes He forgets, or chooses not to remember, that I operate inside of time. Take, for instance, 5:00 a.m. During that time, I operate on a sleep schedule. I’m sleeping! God, however, thinks nothing of waking me up and saying, “Hey, this verse about holding snakes and drinking poison...you should look into that! There’s more to it.” So, guess what I did today?!?

Good guess; you’re right. I did some research into this verse and I learned some things that I’d like to share with you.

First of all, Jesus is in the middle of talking to His disciples when these words come out of His mouth, so this verse is most definitely for us to know of and understand, being that we are His disciples as well. The second thing that I learned is this: the word “serpents” used by Jesus in this verse is the same word that He used when rebuking the Pharisees. This was my first revelation: Christ was using an idiom!

When Christ rebuked the Pharisees He called them serpents and vipers (Matthew 23:33). He was making a connection between them and the Devil. He wasn’t calling them Devils, but rather showing how they operate like the Devil. They, the Pharisees, along with the Devil, used the Law as a way to condemn others; it was their way to bring guilt, shame, and regret into the lives of people.

Christ goes on to say that if we drink anything deadly it won’t hurt us. Why? Because He has already consumed, drank, partaken of, the entire cup of God’s wrath (Matthew 26:39). Christ bore our sins and drank of the cup of God’s wrath as He hung on the cross. He is telling us that even if we hear the teaching of the Law and the condemnation it brings into our lives (2 Corinthians 3:6), it will by no means kill us because we have been set free, through Him, of its curses and death. He already died our death for us!

This verse means so much more than playing with rattlesnakes and drinking arsenic juice (He doesn’t want you to do that!). It’s Christ telling us that we, His disciples, will uproot and carry off the teachers of doctrines of condemnation. He’s telling us that even though we’ve heard the message of the Pharisees and felt the pressure of the Devil’s cunning use of God’s perfect law, there is no death sentence for us; we are made alive through His death. He’s giving us the power and the authority to heal the sick, not through our works or perfection, but through His!

Christ has imparted to us, through His death and resurrection, power and authority to proclaim His gospel of Grace. He has perfectly sanctified us from the death sentence of the Law by drinking, to the last drop, the cup of God’s wrath. He has empowered us to lay hands on the sick, hurting, broken, and weak and promised that they will recover! Praise, honor, and glory to Jesus Christ!