14And just as Moses lifted up the serpent
in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted
up, 15that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.
16For God so loved the world that he gave
his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish
but may have eternal life.
17Indeed, God did not send the Son into
the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be
saved through him. 18Those who believe in him are not
condemned; but those who do not believe are condemned already,
because they have not believed in the name of the only Son of
God. 19And this is the judgment, that the light has come
into the world, and people loved darkness rather than light because
their deeds were evil. 20For all who do evil hate the
light and do not come to the light, so that their deeds may not be
exposed. 21But those who do what is true come to the
light, so that it may be clearly seen that their deeds have been
done in God.
God so loved the world that he gave his only Son so that everyone
who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.
According to Martin Luther, that single verse, John 3:16 is the
gospel in miniature… Of course when we're reminded of this gospel
in miniature, it is almost always out of context. For years, it
seemed like the only place I would see John 3:16
was on Sunday:
not so much in worship services or even on church signs or
bulletins. It wasn't on the Christian TV channels where everyone
has big hair and lots of make-up… No, I saw John 3:16 on CBS, NBC
and Fox TV, every time Doug Williams or Mark Rypien threw a fade
route into the endzone, every time the ball sailed end over end
through the goal posts… there it was, a homemade sign held by
someone in the front row, reminding us to take a look at John 3:16…
There's part of me that wonders if that's why the Seattle area has
so many fewer Christians than the East coast… our trips to the
endzone were few and far between back then… we didn't get the
John 3:16 reminder… but I guess that's a different story.
Like all passages, It's helpful to reunite this passage with its context in order to understand it, so here goes… In John's gospel, Nicodemus came to Jesus in the middle of the night to ask Jesus if he was the messiah. Jesus talked about being born again and Nicodemus didn't understand. Jesus talked about the spirit moving and Nicodemus didn't understand. And then we get to our passage… Just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the son of man be lifted up. It's not terribly often that Jesus refers to a story in the Old Testament quite as directly as he does in this first verse of our reading today, but Nicodemus was a Pharisee and a Jewish leader. He would have known the Old Testament reference well. Generally speaking, we aren't quite as versed in the Old Testament, so it was nice of the people who put together the lectionary to partner this text with the Old Testament text that it refers to.
The story takes place in the wilderness, as the Israelites are
learning what it means to be God's people. They had received God'
s covenants that we've been talking about for the last three weeks
and they're on the way to the promised land. They'd already seen
the promised land but there were major obstacles in their progress
toward it. The king of the territory that held the most direct
route to the promised land told the Israelites, if any of you step
one foot into my territory, we will come out to meet you with the
sword. You will not be allowed to pass through my land.
So they
turned to find another way to get there. It was the beginning of
wandering that lasted forty years.
Our text says that the people became impatient along the way. They
forgot the covenants God had made with them but they remembered the
food and water that was relatively plentiful in Egypt where they
were slaves. Impatience is probably a fine way to describe what
they were feeling, but the literal translation of the Hebrew is
something closer to they became short in spirit.
I know that feeling… to be short in spirit, when even the littlest
things set me off: when things feel more stressful than they should
and everything together feels more stressful than I want it to. I
don't particularly like living in that space, but I think it's
part of being human in 21st century America. I'm not sure if it's
a cause or a result of being short in spirit but the stress seems to
be accompanied by a feeling of overwhelm, that says this isn't
how it should be…this isn't what I expected… I don't know how I'
m going to keep going.
I imagine that's something like what the
people in the story were going through. So they spoke against God
and they accused Moses of being against them.
Walter Bruggeman, is one of the leading Old Testament scholars alive
today and the way he sums up the next few verses is that this is one
of the instances where God gives the Israelites exactly what they
want. When they accuse, God responds negatively. When they
submit, God responds positively.
The snakes are a trouble that
are so intense they're literally life threatening but God acts to
save the people by giving them the means to be healed. It troubles
me a bit that our text says that God sent the snakes. And yet, the
ancient Jewish community understood this story to be about God's
grace. In fact, the story was such a powerful example of God's
grace that the people of Israel kept the bronze snake that was
lifted up in the desert. It was given a place in the temple for the
next five hundred years to serve as a reminder of God's saving
activity.
As Jesus sat with Nicodemus in the middle of the night, he pulled
out all the stops to help him understand the way that God works.
After a few other metaphors didn't work, the one Nicodemus seemed
to understand was that the son of man would be lifted up just like
the bronze snake in the wilderness, so that people would be saved.
This was God's way of providing healing and grace. When Jesus saw
that Nicodemus might be getting it, the next words out of his mouth
were this gospel in miniature. God so loved the world that he
gave his only Son so that everyone who believes in him may not
perish but may have eternal life.
Throughout John's gospel, Jesus' words and activity are understood to be a gift of grace given to the world for the benefit of people. Eternal life was a real concern, but as important as quantity of life was, quality was even more important. Cleansing the temple, Healing on the Sabbath, speaking with women, making the blind see and the lame walk, eating with tax collectors, touching lepers and forgiving the woman caught in adultery … and on and on and on. Jesus continually gave of himself and even put himself at risk so that others could live more fully now… not just in the by and by.
We get the same sense from the phrase in verse 18 which reads
those who don't believe are condemned already.
It bugs me when
people hear that and they turn the message which Jesus proclaimed to
Nicodemus as good news about the saving work of God, into a message
of ungrace for those who don't believe. They envision that phrase
to mean that non-believers are already eternally condemned. But
Verse 19 lays out the judgment, and this is what it says: The light
has come into the world and people loved darkness rather than the
light. Every theologian I read this week said that this passage is
as much about how to live now as it is about what happens when we
die. What is it about darkness that we love? What is it about
light that we fear? Maybe the grace of God's saving activity in
Jesus Christ is as much about abundant life as it is about eternal
life.
When we look around at the things and the images that surround us on
a daily basis, they encourage concern for only one person. They
seem to say, Whatever you do, make sure you have a good strong
hold on what's yours.
Over time our culture has seemed to trust
less and less. We have this idea that we need to make fists, partly
to hold on to what's ours, out of self-reliance and partly to
protect ourselves from other people, out of fear. And I can't help
but wonder if this tendency is the shortness of spirit of our day
and age.
How can we even hope to receive the gift of God's grace when this is our interior disposition? Ultimately gifts become gifts only when they are accepted, when they're given a place in the life of the one who receives it.
We have this funny little tradition on my mom's side of the family where the most recently married descendant of my grandparents is given a set of poodle ladies. They're ceramic dolls, one's pink, one's green and they each have a dog. One of the poodles got lost in a move so it was replaced by a dog that doesn't match the set. One of the ladies got dropped and she's been glued back together. On the whole, it's the kind of thing that people might not want in their house, but the rule is that from the time that you get married till the time that the next direct descendant of my grandparents gets married, the poodle ladies are to be displayed prominently in your house. Rebecca and I had the poodle ladies for about 5 years. I don't know where the tradition started, but there's wisdom in it. The poodle ladies may just represent our family and that family is a gift to all who are part of it. But gifts don't become gifts unless they're given a place in the life of the one who receives it.
It may sound simple, but it's not easy. Receiving any gift requires a readiness to unclench fists and to begin let go of the fear which tells us to build barriers and keep a safe distance. Receiving the gift of God's grace asks us to go one step further and to live in expectation that the God who makes everything new can actually make a difference in our lives in whatever situation we find ourselves.
I once heard a pastor distill the gospel in miniature even further…
he said, this is all you really need to know about grace. God
loves, God gives, we believe, we have life: end of story
… a
little later he went on to modify what he just said. The change was
ever so slight but it gave a more full picture of grace. God
loves, God gives, we believe, we have life and that's just the
beginning of the story.
Perhaps the challenge of the gospel lies precisely in the invitation to accept the gift of God's grace. You see, of all the things God is, God is not short on spirit. There's plenty to go around, and God gives it freely. And when that gift is given a place in the life of the one who receives it, it frees us from fear and gives us the ability to live more fully because it reminds us who God is and it reminds us what God has done. The gift that we've received becomes visible in our joy, in our song, in our worship and in our connection with one another. It's a gift for which the only thing we can give in return is gratitude. To say thank you with our voices in worship and to say thank you with our hands in service. In the middle of the journey of Lent, receive the gift and display it prominently.
Alleluia and Amen.
The foregoing sermon was given by Rev. Dan Holland on March 22, 2009 at the United Parish of Bowie.
© 2009 Daniel Holland
