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March 22, 2009
John 3:14-21Rev. Dr. David A. Davis
Lent IV
“Shining Star?”According to John and his gospel, after Jesus had cleansed the temple, thrown out the money changers, and talked about the temple being destroyed and in three days he would raise it up, after that early temple tossing (early when compared to the other gospels that tell of Jesus cleansing the temple much later, after the Palm Sunday parade), soon after that temple scene in John, there was a Pharisee named Nicodemus, who comes to Jesus by night. “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do apart from the presence of God.” Jesus responds to Nicodemus, telling him that no one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above. Nicodemus, being somewhat of a concrete thinker or a left brain operator or a specialist in the letter of the law, or a really religious guy prone to want to take Jesus at his word, literally, Nicodemus asks how anyone can enter a second time into the mother’s womb. Jesus answers with a reference to being born of water and Spirit and the wind blowing where it chooses. You can hear it but you don’t know where it comes from or where it goes. That’s how it is when someone is born of the Spirit.
“How can this be?” Nicodemus asks as he sort of fades back into the darkness here in the 3rd chapter of John. Jesus’ answer begins with a bit of snippiness. “Are you a teacher of Israel, and yet you do not understand these things?” And then for the first time in John, Jesus expounds further. For the first time in John, Jesus offers more than a short answer, a brief command, a comment, or question. John’s Jesus, in John’s gospel Jesus’ first words are “What are you looking for?” and “Come and see” and “You are Simon son of John. You are to be called Cephas” Here, early in John, Jesus says to the first followers, “You will see greater things than these” and Jesus tells the wedding caterers to “Fill the jars with water.” In the temple, Jesus shouts “Take these things out of here! Stop making my father’s house a marketplace” and then he adds “Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up.”
And after the initial exchange with Nicodemus here in the dead of night, as Nicodemus’ question seems to linger longer than he does in John’s unfolding of Jesus, the Word, the life that was the light of all people, the true light which enlightens everyone. The question “how can these things be” hangs in the air as Jesus for the first time here in John, Jesus moves to center stage, and everything else fades to black and he continues to speak. It’s not the Sermon on the Mount with a crowd all around. It’s not Jesus in the synagogue standing up to read from Isaiah; “the Spirit of the Lord is upon me”. It’s not Jesus explicating why it is harder to forgive sins than to say stand up and walk. This is John and it is Jesus speaking into the darkness in response to the Pharisee who came to him at night. “How can these things be?”JOHN 3:11-21
I just saw it again this weekend. I thought it had finally died down after all these years. But I was watching the NCAA basketball tournament and there behind one of the baskets, hard to miss in the camera shot, was the sign that said John 3:16. I’ve been watching that same guy at all kinds of sporting events my whole life. Has anyone ever, someone watching the Super Bowl, or the World Series, or the Stanley Cup, has anyone ever walked away from the television to go get a bible and try to look up John 3:16? But you know there’s a second grader somewhere today who is getting a star in Sunday School class up on the chart on the wall because she was able to memorize it, and recite it. “For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever should believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” Yeah!
If you were diagramming the sentence, John 3:16, or you were responsible for the artwork that was going to go on the front of the bulletin, text art of John 3:16, where would you want the eye to focus. “For God so loved the world that God gave his only begotten Son, that whoever should believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” If you were the director of a speech choir, something like we heard last week from Soul Purpose on Psalm 19, where would the voices come together for emphasis. “For God so loved the world that God gave his only begotten Son, that whoever should believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” If you were conducting the choir in a few minutes as they sing Stainers’ For God So Love the World, what would you want the ear to never forget. “For God so loved the world that God gave his only begotten Son, that whoever should believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”
Life. Everlasting life… Believe. Believe in him. Whoever. Anyone. Everyone who believes in him… Son. Only Son. Only Begotten Son. Son…. For God. God gave. God loved. God so loved….the world….world. God so loved the world….For God so loved the world that God gave his only begotten Son, that whoever should believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life….How would you paint it, sing it, oral interpret it, embody it, live it? Beyond memorizing John 3:16. If I ever meet that guy with the sign, at least I want to add “—17”. John 3:16-17. “Indeed God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.” The world. The world. The world.
Back in John’s gospel, when you put the big yellow sign down, it’s Jesus all by himself here at stage center. Nicodemus is back in the shadows. Jesus speaks out of the darkness. “Very truly, I tell you….” In the Gospel of John, Jesus often grabs these moments for a bit of soliloquy. Discourses the scholars say. As in Jesus and his Farewell Discourse. “This is my commandment that you love one another as I have loved you.” The discourses often start with “very truly, I tell you.” Jesus on the Son’s relationship to the Father. Jesus on the bread of heaven. Jesus on the shepherd of the sheep. Jesus on those who love their life losing it and where I am, there my servants will be also, and whoever serves me the Father will honor. Very truly, I tell you. Nicodemus fades to black here in the dark of night and Jesus, speaking to anyone who will listen to him here amid all the darkness, Jesus offers his first discourse in the Gospel of John.
Very truly, I tell you….For God so loved the world that God gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life. Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that world might be saved through him. Those who do not believe are condemned already. And this is the judgment…the light has come into the world, and people loved darkness rather than the light because their deeds were evil. Those who do evil things hate the light. They don’t come to the light. If they came to the light, their deeds would be exposed. 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.
Jesus standing here in the dark talking about the light, and judgment, and condemnation, and eternal life, and the world and God’s love for the world. Jesus here at the center surrounded by the night. Jesus. The light of all people. The light shines in the darkness. The darkness did not over come it. The true light which enlightens everyone was coming into the world. John’s Jesus, his first speech comes at night. I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness but will have the light of life. (John 8) “This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light and in God there is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with him while we are waking in the darkness, we lie and do not do what is true; but if walk in the light as he himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all in (I John)”. The promise of Jesus comes in the darkness. It comes surrounded by darkness. It comes when the darkness is all around. When it all just seems do dark, Jesus speaks. John 3:16, it’s not intended for the spotlight. It doesn’t come in a crowd. It comes at night with Jesus at the center. Jesus the solitary shining star.
Growing up in my neighborhood, a favorite game was “Grey Ghost”. It was a variation on a theme. It was played at night. One person was it. Everyone was else hid. When the Grey Ghost caught you, you went to base and waited for someone to come release you. I was the youngest in the crowd, playing mostly with my brother’s friends. I was always the first one caught. You see, I didn’t like the dark very much and so I was over near the street light, or just off the back porch, or in the bushes in the front where the light from the window seeped out. I was easy to spot. The light that made me more comfortable also made it easier for all to see me….over and over again.
That’s how it is with light, when it shines in the darkness. But some times people love darkness rather than light. When Jesus comes here do breath the gospel amid the world’s ever gathering darkness, when those who have ears to ear find themselves leaning in and clinging to the promise of God, when Nicodemus falls back into the shadows and you and I find ourselves listening to John’s Jesus and him alone, when our prayers turn again and again to the daily weight of the world that so presses down on us, when the very light of God shines afresh, when the faithfulness and mercy and promise and God pierces the night over and over again, that light, it shines on us too, on every part of us. That’s how it is with the light.
“For God so loved the world….” Beyond memorizing John 3:16. How about you take it to the darkest or the loneliest or the hardest or the most helpless part, take it to the shadowy side, or the I am powerless place, where you experience the dead of night, and then hear what he has to say. John 3:16. It’s the promise of God all the time. But when you receive it as John intends, surrounded by the dark night of your humanity, than it is the gospel.
“For God so loved the world that God gave his only begotten Son, that whoever should believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”
© 2009, Property of Nassau Presbyterian Church
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