Tag Archives: John 3:16

For God so loves…

Numbers 21:4-9                 Psalm 107:1-3,17-22         Ephesians 2:1-10               John 3:14-21

For 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.

Objectively, this verse is the most famous of all Jesus’ quotes. It is probably the most popular bible reference in the world. And a verse that elicits more than 2 million internet searches, month upon month. It is often described as the ‘bible in a nutshell’.  It features on signs at sporting events, on the underside of paper cups in a well-known American burger chain. In the Baptist church of my childhood, it was even the code for the burglar alarm – 43:16! And is a passage one is hard pressed to pass over, when it crops up in the gospel reading for the day. Truth be told though; I don’t love it. And spending a week studying it has forced me to consider why.

As I have read commentaries and sermons, so I discovered I’m not alone in this opinion. More than a few other preachers struggle with it too. Some write that they don’t like the ease with which it can be used as an exclusionary way of saying ‘I am in’ and ‘you are out’. And because it isn’t the whole message of God’s love for God’s world. And for too long, it has been used in more conservative contexts to highlight the doctrine of Penal Substitution, which says God gave His son to die on the cross, to take the punishment of the sins of the world; that Jesus died as an atoning sacrifice, so humanity could be reconciled to God.

And, as one commentary writer said, either we believe in a God who forgives, or we don’t. And if we subscribe to a belief in a forgiving God then we can’t also subscribe to penal substitution – because that isn’t forgiveness, that is atonement. If we believe in outrageous grace and unconditional love, we can’t also believe a price needed to be paid.

You see why I have struggled with this verse?! But I think it says three really important things. The first is this:

It says that God looks at the world and loves it, loves us, loves. God loves.

For God loved the world so much that He gave.

God’s heart, God’s opinion of the world is summed up in one word – LOVE. It is God’s love for us – for us all, for all God has created – that means we can be in relationship. Not blood sacrifices, not right thinking or believing or feeling – simply that we are the recipients of God’s love and grace. And that is enough.

As St Paul wrote in our epistle for today, ‘God, who is rich in mercy, out of the great love with which he loved us… made us alive together with Christ – by grace you have been saved …this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God’.

The next thing we can learn is that this gift of love changes everything.

So here is an interesting thing; almost everywhere else in John’s gospel, the word “world” is used negatively — to refer to an entity that is at odds with God, even the enemy of God. So, in Jesus’ farewell discourse we hear that he is not of the world, we are not of the world, the world will hate us, just as it hated Christ…and so it continues. So, it is remarkable in this passage to find Jesus say God loves this God-hating world so much that God is willing to give the most precious gift God has, as God’s most profound act of love for this world. And this gift is so that the world might be changed and saved.

Not from a wrathful God, but from itself. From a place of darkness into a place of light.

And that is the third thing…

God sent God’s son as a transforming gift, from darkness to light.

Jesus came to a world that was hostile, but beloved of God, as a life-giving, love-proclaiming gift, and a source of unquenchable light.

And what did the world do? The world loved darkness.

The world loved darkness because darkness hides our actions, our meanness, our corruption, our wrongdoings. The world loves darkness because we can do what we want and not get caught.

So God, the brightest light of the world, the one who created light, sent a fraction of Godself, wrapped up in the skin of Jesus to bring light – the light of the world. Not to shame the world, not to trick the world into being exposed, but as an outrageous gift of love, to say ‘I see you, and I know you, and I still utterly adore you’. I can see what you are doing, and I love you. Don’t run and hide – you are loved.

And the world hated it.

Not the whole world, of course, but the people and places of power and evil – the systems and structures that needed darkness so their work could thrive and spread. They didn’t want light. They needed darkness to be able to function. So when they encountered The Light, they killed it. They killed the expression of undeserving, unmerited love – the gift of God – the true light.

But God’s love has never been destroyed. God’s light has never been extinguished. And in this generation and in this place, we are it. We are the light bearers of the God who loved the world so much. And that gift – that free gift – needs to be taken to the world’s darkest places and shone on the world’s most corrupt and dark systems, policies, and ruling forces so they are revealed and potentially redeemed in that blaze of light. And we are the hands and feet and voices and actions that carry it.

In our baptism, we were given the charge to ‘shine as a light in the world to the glory of God the father’ and that charge has never been revoked. We don’t need to chase darkness away – indeed, we cannot – we simply need to shine God’s light, that the world may know it is loved, and that we might be reminded that we are too.

So shine as a light in the world to the glory of God the Father.

Or as one of my favourite poets would say:

‘we step out of the shade, aflame and unafraid…

For there is always light,
if only we’re brave enough to see it.
If only we’re brave enough to be it.’

May we see it, may we be it and may the world be changed. Amen.

A Homily at Wollaston Theological College

19th April, 2023

For 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.

Objectively, this verse is the most famous of all Jesus’ quotes.

Probably the most popular bible verse in the world.

And a verse that elicits more than 2 million internet searches month upon month.

And a passage that a preacher is hard pressed to pass over, when it crops up in the gospel reading for the day – especially when she is standing before a group of budding theologians. But pass over it, I will, because I don’t like it much. I don’t like the ease with which it can be taken out of context and used as an exclusionary way of saying ‘I am in’ and ‘you are out’. Because it isn’t the whole message. And because that reading from Acts is so exciting and intriguing

The high priest and the Sadducees are FURIOUS. They had managed to kill Jesus but his message of outrageous love, unconditional grace, and his uncomfortable speaking of truth to power, was still bursting out all over the place. This wasn’t working out how they intended at ALL! So, they’ve arrested this renegade gang of Jesus-followers and thrown them into prison.

That group of repentant tax collectors and fisher-folk and street sleepers are locked up for passing on this God-man’s message and would you look at that! Their Jesus – the one who was no respecter of locked doors – sends his angels to do his bidding. And this angel comes, unlocks the doors, and says ‘go, stand in the temple and tell the people the whole message about this life’. The day breaks and they enter the temple and go on with their teaching.

The high priests, the elders of Israel, the chief priest, the captain of the prison and the temple police all hot foot it over to the prison. The doors are still locked, but nobody is inside. And someone says, ‘the men you put in prison are in the temple teaching the people’. And they were afraid.

They were afraid. I bet they were! Things are way out of control! That crucifixion really should’ve put paid to the problem and instead it has made things a lot worse. Before there was only one crazy-ass radical preacher man, but now there is 11 and more and they are multiplying and spreading, and the message cannot be contained. And even locked prison cells can’t keep them secured.

And what is it that they are teaching? The angel was very specific. He told them to teach the whole message (not just John 3:16, by the way, but all of it).

What is the whole message?

It is a message of love – God SO loved the world and all its people – all of them – every single one – that God gave. God gave all of God’s self as an incredible act of love. God gave life in place of death, saving grace in place of condemnation; light in place of darkness; truth in place of evil; and unconditional welcome in place of exclusion.

And the ruling powers didn’t like it much. They didn’t like it because corruption needs darkness to be able to function. Power needs the threat of death if it is going to control.  And society needs to be able to say some are in and others are out if it is going to entirely serve itself. So when love and life and light and grace abound – and that is the WHOLE message – nothing more and nothing less – when that message is taught; when it is encountered and known and believed; it is too pure, too real, too much, too revealing and it is terrifying.

Those followers of Jesus believed it so much they were prepared to go to prison for it. And they were prepared to keep on telling people about it when they were released. They were not prepared to be silenced. They couldn’t be silenced. And almost all of them followed their leader to a martyr’s death. And, friends, what that gospel demanded of them, it demands of us. It really does.

Following Jesus is not for the faint hearted. It’s not an easy life that gives us a shiny gold ticket for heaven. It is costly – it demands everything of us – but it is utterly compelling. Because we have seen something already of that life and light and love. We have known something of that truth and grace and freedom from condemnation. At least, we think we have, because that’s why we have said a tentative yes to this call to ordination and beyond.

The whole message demands our whole life; the bits we love and the bits we have condemned. It requires all of us; the bits we like to show off in the light and the bits we prefer to keep hidden in the darkness. The bits of us that are holy and the evil bits. Those true parts and the false parts. God wants it all – because we can’t share the whole message without allowing God to make us whole too. Those disciples had to go through betrayal, abandonment, denial, as well as redemption, healing and restoration.

So will we allow God to do God’s deep work of transformation on us?

Will we willingly step out from the darkness into the light – warts and all?

Because as the angel asked those first disciples, so we are also being asked – tell the whole message, that many may believe and that all may have life. Amen.