Moses erected a bronze serpent in the desert as a promise of salvation for those who sinned. This story influenced John's presentation of Jesus' three prophecies of His Passion. While the Synoptics give these three predictions in a more descriptive form with many details, John presented them in a more symbolic form, through the verb "lift up". In Jn 3:14 he refers explicitly to today's passage from Numbers about the bronze serpent and affirms that the Son of Man must be lifted up in the same way. In Jn 8:28, in today's Gospel, he affirms the importance of his being raised up to bring about the revelation by which we will come to know he is God. The third time, (Jn 12:32), Jesus tells us that, when He is raised up, He will draw all people to Himself.

John may have used the expression "lift up" because of its various applications. Jesus was lifted up upon the cross, He was raised [lifted] up from the dead, and He was lifted [taken] up into heaven, thus completing the work of our redemption.