God so Loved the World

God so Loved the World

Fourth Sunday of Lent

Jn 3: 14 – 21

Today is the fourth Sunday of Lent. Our Gospel reading is a beautiful passage from the Gospel of John. This gospel passage is actually Jesus’ reply to Nicodemus, a Pharisee who came to Jesus under cover of darkness and was searching for answers for the things he could not totally understand.  In this conversation with Nicodemus, Jesus somehow reveals to Nicodemus his own life mission and the very nature of God himself.  

Jesus then begins by bringing up to Nicodemus the story of the bronze serpent which Moses lifted up in the desert. This story is narrated in the book of Numbers. In this narrative, the people of Israel while in the desert, began to speak against God and against Moses. As punishment, the Lord sent poisonous serpents among them. Many die that day from being bitten by these serpents.  Then the people begged Moses to ask the Lord to take away the serpents. Moses then prayed for the people. In response, the Lord tells Moses to fashion  a poisonous serpent  made of bronze and set it on a pole so that everyone who is bitten shall look at it and live (Numbers 21: 1 – 9).

Jesus then tells Nicodemus that just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert, so too must the Son of Man be lifted up.  Jesus was referring to how he would die. He was to die “lifted up” on the cross. While the serpent which Moses lifted up became the only way for people to stay alive, so too Jesus when lifted up on the cross becomes the only way for man’s salvation.

Like the Israelites in the desert who murmured and rebelled against God and against Moses, all of us have in one way or another murmured and rebelled against God in our lifetimes. We all have sinned. And for all the sins we’ve committed, we all deserved punishment. God, instead of punishing us for our sins, took away that punishment and allowed his son Jesus to bear the burdens of that punishment we deserved by lifting him up on the cross to suffer and die in our stead.

In comparing himself with the saving bronze serpent that Moses lifted up  in the desert,  Jesus reveals to us his own nature – that it is his nature to save. It is not his nature to condemn or judge, but he is here to save. It is not his nature to point to us all the sins we’ve committed and blame us for our wickedness. Instead, he is here to readily carry and bear the burden of our sins so that we may remain unburdened by the evil we have done.  It is his nature to heal us from all the wounds inflicted by our own doing so that we may go through life whole once more.  He is the lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world and in being lifted up on the cross, becomes our salvation.

The conversation between Jesus and Nicodemus then moves on and shifts to an even higher level. Jesus tells Nicodemus: “ God so loved the world that he gave his only son so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life.” In saying so, Jesus reveals to us something incredible about God. In fact, he reveals the very nature of God – that God is love.

If there is one thing we can be sure of about the kind of God we believe in, it is the certainty that He is love; that He is loving and will not allow any harm to come to us ; that He is ready to give up what is so dear to him in return for our well being and welfare. The depth of this love is unfathomable and have led many wondering why.  Perhaps finding the reasons why so much love has been poured on us is less important than realizing the worth and value we have in the sight of God who has invested so much for our sake. More importantly, it is always good to know that no matter what, we are certain that we are loved. We are loved by none other by God himself. No amount of failure, weakness or sin is going to separate us from this incredible love.

At the end, what should our response be to this loving God? Jesus tells Nicodemus: “ whoever believes in him will not be condemned..” Jesus tells us that believing in him is the way we can respond to this incredible love. To believe in God’s love, to believe in Jesus and to believe in our own worth and value as people in whom God has poured out himself so much is the way to respond to this incredible reality.  In being lifted up for us, Jesus practically tells us that his life is worth giving up for our sake, if only we believe in him and in the Father who loved the world so much. Amen.

“ God’s love was revealed among us in this way: God sent his only Son into the world so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins”  (1 John 4: 9 – 10).