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 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 people in Num 21 who look up and live... will die
another day. Those who "look to" God's Son on the cross for their
soul's salvation will live...never
perish...even though they die].
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.
As always a common theme in Lent is Baptism, and baptismal RENEWAL.
With this reading there is opportunity to highlight renewal; renewal of the
cosmos because of Divine agape love; and renewal of our perception of God.
After all, images of the 'angry judge' go flying out the window in this
passage. I see a child whose carelessness with a baseball has broken an expensive
and difficult to repair window; to a certain extent this brings automatic judgment;
the judgment of a mess to clean up; the judgment of the outdoors now coming in
through the broken window; the judgment of the child having a problem much bigger than his own ability to
solve. The absentee deadbeat dad would leave the problem unsolved. The
authoritarian judgmental father may spank the child for his carelessness. The
loving father repairs what the child has broken and could never repair on his
own. Baptismal renewal entails recognition that this is the sort of image Jesus is trying to portray of his heavenly father, .... and his
heavenly father is our heavenly father.
Cheers,
TM
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