2nd Sunday in Lent Year A 2020

The Second Sunday in Lent-Year A March 8, 2020 I can’t hear the verse from John 3:16 without thinking of my former co-worker Don London. Don used to like to quote John 3:16 in the noonday chapel service at Stewpot, which was an exceptional worship experience, filled with people from truly all walks of life. Homeless men and women would sit beside successful business people, attorneys, work-from-home moms, and we would all worship together. In that setting, Don would quote the King James Version’s translation of John 3:16: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” And then he would say it again: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” And then he would look around with a big smile on his face and say to the gathered congregation: “How many “whosoevers” are here today?” It was often the homeless and the poor folks who caught on first, and would raise their hands. And Don would keep asking the question, looking around, until everyone in the room had caught on and had raised their hands embracing the notion that they, too, were a “whosoever” that this verse referred to. John 3:16 is one of the most often-quoted, often referenced verses of scripture. From Martin Luther referring to it as “the gospel in a nutshell” to the guy in the clown wig who used to hold up the sign that read John 3:16 at professional sporting events. It has also been used in more evangelical churches to emphasize the importance of being “born again” by accepting Jesus as your Lord and Savior and believing in him. I wanted to see this passage with new eyes, so I took a deep dive into it this week, and here is what I found. First, it’s important to remember that Nicodemus is a Pharisee and a leader of the Jews. This means that Nicodemus is well-versed in scripture, as is Jesus, so we must read this passage as if we were getting to listen in on two biblical scholars talking about their understanding of God. Nicodemus comes to Jesus under cover of night, earnestly seeking deeper understanding, and Jesus responds to him in a different way than Jesus usually responds to Pharisees who are out to trap him in very public displays. Jesus goes so far as to use gentle humor with Nicodemus as they talk. The crux of what Jesus is trying to impart to Nicodemus seems to be about the nature of God, and he uses references to two different stories from the Old Testament which Nicodemus would have picked up on to emphasize his point. First, he references Numbers 21 (verses 4-9), which is a time when the children of Israel are wandering in the desert after their deliverance from slavery in Egypt. They take a detour, to avoid Edom, and the people become impatient and begin to revolt, complaining against Moses and God, who has provided them with manna to eat in the wilderness so they do not starve. Numbers says, “The people spoke against God and against Moses, [saying]‘Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and we detest this miserable food.’ Then the Lord sent poisonous serpents among the people, and they bit the people, so that many Israelites died. The people came to Moses and said, ‘We have sinned by speaking against the Lord and against you; pray to the Lord to take away the serpents from us.’ So Moses prayed for the people. And the Lord said to Moses, ‘Make a poisonous serpent, and set it on a pole; and everyone who is bitten shall look at it and live.’ So Moses made a serpent of bronze, and put it upon a pole; and whenever a serpent bit someone, that person would look at the serpent of bronze and live.” This is a story about how God’s people rebelled against God, and how God relented in punishing them by telling Moses to create an image of the very thing that was making them sick, and putting it on a pole, so that when the sick looked up it, they would be healed. The other story that Jesus references in this passage is from Genesis 22 (verses 1-14), when God tests Abraham and tells Abraham to take his only son, Isaac, to the land of Moriah to offer him as a sacrifice to God. It seems Abraham is prepared to go through with this demand; he goes so far as to bind his son and to stack the wood and light the fire, and he even draws his knife to kill Isaac when an angel of the Lord stops him just in time and provides a ram to use as a sacrifice in Isaac’s place. It’s an astonishing story about Abraham’s fidelity and devotion to God. Another point that I encountered as I was diving deeper into this gospel reading this week is the way that very familiar King James’ Version of the John 3:16 has actually muddied its translation for us because of an older use of a simple word. When we hear the word “so” as in God so loved the world, we think of it in the ways that we usually mean so—like I am so tired or I am so hungry. For us, “so” is a synonym of very or abundance. We might understand that Jesus is saying “God very much loved the world…” But when the KJV was translated, so had a different meaning. The Greek word houtos which is translated as “so” in this passage actually means “in this way.” Jesus is saying, “God loved the world in this way…” In the gospel of John, “the world” is representative of an entity that is hostile to God. And when we look back at the Numbers passage that speaks of our rebellion against God, you could go so far as to translate it as “God loved the God hating world in this way…” Jesus is emphasizing the nature of God for Nicodemus, this faithful Jewish scholar and leader in two ways: 1. He is underscoring God’s desire to save sinners, even those who are in open rebellion against God. And 2. He is underscoring God’s deep devotion, commitment, and fidelity to humankind. He’s answering Nicodemus’ unspoken question, “in what way does God love?” by saying in this way…And this is a little bit about what the cross means to us—it is a revelation of how much God wants to save even those who rebel against God to follow the devices and desires of their own hearts and the lengths God has gone to in order to do that. So, what does that all have to do with us? I read a story from another preacher that gets to the heart of all this. He tells about hearing a story from his parishioner Tom and his encounter with his son. He writes, “Several nights earlier, Tom's six year-old son Benjamin protested his bedtime. Frustrated by his father's refusal to budge, Benjamin finally became so frustrated that he said, "Daddy, I hate you!" Tom, possessing the presence of mind I wish I more frequently displayed, replied, "I'm sorry you feel that way, Ben, but I love you." To which Benjamin replied, "Don't say that!" Surprised, Tom continued, "Ben, but it's true -- I love you." "Don't say that, Daddy." "But I love you, Ben." "Stop saying that, Daddy! Stop saying it right now!" And then it came: "Benjamin, now listen to me: I love you...like it or not!" He continues, “Even at six years old, you see, Benjamin realized that in the face of unconditional love he was powerless. If Tom had been willing to negotiate -- "I'll love you if you go to bed nicely" -- then Benjamin would be a player: "Okay, this time, but I'm not eating my vegetables at dinner tomorrow." But once Tom refused to negotiate, refused to make his love for his son conditional on something Benjamin did, then Ben couldn't do anything but accept or flee that love.” He concludes, “The same is true with us. If God makes God's great love for the world and us conditional, then we, suddenly, have tremendous power. We can negotiate. We can threaten to reject God's love. We can even tell God to take a hike if we don't care for God's terms. But when God just loves us -- completely and unconditionally -- and when God just goes and dies for us, well then the jig is up, there's just nothing we can do to influence God.”i How many times in our relationship with God do we try to work to earn God’s love, or our salvation. What would happen if we spent some time this week recognizing that we are already loved, not matter how often we rebel against God, and that through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, nothing more needs to be done? For God loved the God hating world in this way, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. Like it or not. i. David Lose at http://www.workingpreacher.org/craft.aspx?post=1525