John 3:14 Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, 15 that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him." 16 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. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. 18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God's one and only Son. 19 This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. 20 All those who do evil hate the light, and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed. 21 But those who live by the truth come into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God.
As usual, given John's Gospel, there is a depth of richness in these words; and the passage itself is densely packed.
The lectionary pops us into a conversation in progress. This is the well-known "Nicodemus at night" passage, where one of the members of the Jewish ruling class comes to Jesus by night with his questions. Nicodemus, the New Testament later tells us, became one of a hand-full of the elite who accepted Jesus as Messiah. Anyway, this Sunday's passage opens with the conversation in progress and with Jesus talking.
Vss 14-15 would make for an interesting sermon all by themselves. As the words of Jesus link himself and his upcoming death to the Moses/snake incident of the Old Testament (Num 21, the OT lesson for the day), the concept of HEALING is irrevocably introduced. Digging deeper, Numbers 21 is fascinating because the people are sick and suffering from the snake bites **precisely because of their own sin. Their sin had brought on the judgment of the snakes. God's divine/parental love, however, brought healing. They needed only to believe the words of Moses and LOOK UP to live. Similarly, we see the divine/parental love operative in John 3. We as humanity are suffering the results of sin. Granted, sin is inherited and we can do nothing to stop it; yet all have most certainly made decisions of the will to wallow in it from time to time. It is many things, including a sickness in need of divine healing.
And then comes VS 16, the so-called "Gospel in a nutshell" and probably everyone's most favorite verse. Not to take away from the significance so many people personally attach to this verse, but a couple of things are worth mentioning given the context. The first is to REMEMBER that Numbers 21 is still in the background in terms of the context: the sickness/dying of the people that is occurring because of their own sin. Vs 16 now widens that concept. Turns out its a "cosmic problem," literally. ("for God so loved the cosmos" it says in the Gk). Here again is the image of divine/parental love at work. The cosmos is sick and dying because of sin. A "deadbeat dad" version of the deity might not concern himself. But the heavenly Father is no deadbeat dad. HE LOVES (agape); and HE ACTS; He sends not just *an antidote, but *the perfect and perfectly righteous antidote to the cosmic sin problem.
The second highly noteworthy aspect of this passage is the absence of direct divine judgment. This is perhaps best seen as a theological truth *highlighted by John the writer. Yet, it seems important to him to stress. God is the SOURCE OF HEALING, not the source of judgment. V17 says the Son was not sent to condemn. This does not mean that there won't be condemnation, however. But what it does mean is that the condemnation that occurs will be the result of self-condemnation. Again, the image of Numbers 21 is informative. Anyone bitten by a fiery serpent need only LOOK UP (faith is implied, obviously). But what of those who are bitten who refuse to look up? Sorry. There's no antidote behind door #2. This is it. The same reasoning applies to John 3. Any and all who look to the cross of Christ in faith are "healed," but those who refuse to "look up" stand SELF-CONDEMNED. There is no antidote... there is no savior standing behind door #2.
For me this Lent, I have been trying to see RENEWAL in God's activity and in the Sunday readings. In week 1 I saw renewal of HOPE. In week 2 I saw a call to renewal of COMMITMENT. Last week I saw a renewal of our FOCUS. This week it's difficult to put into words. HEALING is almost a synonym for 'renewal.' Is this a renewal of renewal? On second thought, as *central as healing is to the passage, perhaps I shouldn't side-step the opportunity to highlight the 'renewal of the IMAGE' of God at work in John 3. After all, images of the 'angry judge' go flying out the window in this passage. I see a child who has a 'boo-boo' and comes crying to his/her mother, who bends down and kisses the 'boo-boo' and "makes it all better." How many times have we witnessed such an act of love? And more importantly, how many times have we witnessed the fact that it actually DOES make it all better! That is truly the image of God presented in John 3.
Cheers,
TM
No comments:
Post a Comment