by Rev. Canon David B. Tabo-oy
v16For God loved the world so much that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not die but have eternal life. v17For God did not send his Son into the world to be its judge, but to be its savior.v18Those who believe in the Son are not judged; but those who do not believe have already been judged, because they have not believed in God’s only Son. v19This is how the judgment works: the light has come into the world, but people love the darkness rather than the light, because their deeds are evil. v20Those who do evil things hate the light and will not come to the light, because they do not want their evil deeds to be shown up. v21But those who do what is true come to the light in order that the light may show that what they did was in obedience to God.– John 3:16-21
Our gospel lesson this Fourth Sunday in Lent contains the most translated verse from the Bible not to mention the most memorized by Christian believers, John 3:16. This verse is also dubbed as the miniature gospel or the summary of the gospel message. The most deeply moving truth that the church preaches is that we are forever loved by God. Christianity rests on the firm conviction that God’s love reaches down into our sick, bruised, and hurt world in the person of Jesus. For every faithful heart this is the very essence of the gospel story. No passage in scripture puts it better than the words which Jesus spoke to Nicodemus, ‘For God loved the world so much that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not die but have eternal life.’
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Let us go deeper to what the passage is telling us beyond just quoting and committing it as one of our ‘memory verses.’Our Lord again reminds us that the manifestation of our love for Him will be in our obedience to His commands. Keeping Christ’s commandments is and always has been the best test of our love for Jesus.God’s way of loving the world was to send the Son to save it. Jesus is God’s expression of love and longing. The light comes to find us, to illuminate our path for our sake, because God wants us. God reaches out through the Son with the sheer purpose of sharing everlasting life with us. Eternal life is the end goal. Our common understanding is that eternal life means going to heaven when we die. But eternal life can be had here and now. God’s offer of salvation through Jesus does not just save us from this world but saves us for this world. You and I have become saved by God, received eternal life, to be what Jesus calls the ‘light’. We are called by God to represent the ‘light’ to this dark world and those who walk in it. Which is the very last point – that in Jesus we have a choice to make. Will we choose the light? Will you be the people that God is calling you to be?
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God shows his love for us that while we were still sinners, he sent his son into the world to save and not condemn. This calls us out of the misplaced comfort of darkness and into his light which exposes our sin but at the same time cleanses us from it.John tells us there are real consequences in our daily life and our everlasting relationship with God. But he tells us in order to help us see the contrasts, look clearly at our lives, appreciate the gracious gift of God as a gift of love, and live in fearless confidence of that love. Have we ever been so truly and consistently desired by another as we are by God? No indeed. God loved the world in this way that he gave the Son so that we might live forever with God.
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Our love for others comes nowhere near the kind of love God has for us. Such is the extent of his love for the world, that he offers life to all and excludes nobody. God loves each of us as if there is nobody else to love. He is the father who wants to walk with his family as they go through life and who can not be satisfied until all the wandering children have come safely home. We begin to realize the magnitude of God’s love for us by looking at the crucifix. This portrays the image of the suffering Christ lifted upon the cross, absorbing the full brunt of the evil of our sins. ‘All life’s cruelties, hatreds and injustices are concentrated in that cross planted on the hill of Calvary.’ (Desmond Knowles). One of the most amazing facts about the passion and death of Christ is that it has become the supreme proof of God’s love. When all else fails, the down and out, the despairing, and the lonely are drawn towards that far off cross on the hillside, aware that there is someone to turn towards. The upright cross, once the sign of shame and humiliation, becomes a channel of healing grace. The tree of death becomes the tree of victory.
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Redemption could be the one word that sums up the lesson from our gospel text this week. Redemption is about taking something that once was beautiful, became ugly, and making it beautiful again. It’s picking up the pieces of a broken vase and carefully piecing it back together till it holds a full bouquet of flowers again. Jesus is redeeming us in the same way, but also in loving the world. He’s redeeming all of creation. Later on in Jesus’ life, he invites a mysterious thing to come to the world. God’s kingdom. He asks us to pray, ‘thy kingdom come, on earth as it is in heaven’. In redeeming the world, He has brought the Kingdom of God – through His death and resurrection. Whether the world or anyone likes it or not, it will reach every part of this earth. God’s redemption through Jesus has brought the Kingdom of God into this world.
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This is the 26th day in our Lenten journey towards Easter Day. We continue to review fluttering resolutions and to ask if our lives are joyful responses to God’s love. Is his love finding expression in the way we live? What are we doing to bring the love of God into the lives of our friends? Lent is a call to step out of the ways of darkness into the light of Christ.
Let us pray.
Almighty God, whose Son our Savior Jesus Christ is the light of the world: Grant that your people, illumined by your Word and Sacraments, may shine with the radiance of Christ’s glory, that he may be known, worshiped, and obeyed to the ends of the earth; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who with you and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, one God, now and for ever. Amen.**
