Readings
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. 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.”
Although I wonder whether it has any real impact, thanks to countless individuals at sporting events, this is probably the most cited passage of scripture ever. Who hasn’t seen someone hold up a sign that says “John 3:16?” Unfortunately, most people, including many Christians, do not necessarily recognize the citation and the message is lost.
Even so, for many Christians these sentences are a source of great comfort. We are reminded that God loves us and God’s good purpose is not to condemn us but to save us. All we need do is believe in him.
But I want to ask what might seem like an obvious question. What does it mean to “believe” in Jesus? The answer may seem obvious, but perhaps it is not.
The question of belief comes up in the story of the children of Israel from today’s Hebrew Scriptures. In that story the Israelites are being assailed by poisonous serpents because of their lack of faith. Moses, after the people repented, prayed for them and he is instructed by God to put a bronze serpent on a pole and tell the people that whenever they are bitten to look on the serpent and they will live. It is through an active act of faith that the people are saved from death. Jesus relates his being lifted up, crucified, to this story. In other words, Jesus is saying that his death will be for the salvation of others and not just the sacrifice of his life. He then continues with the passage we already quoted.
So, then, we can’t escape it. The question of belief is present. What does it mean to believe in Jesus?
Is belief in Jesus simply mentally acquiescing to the idea that he is God? Is that sufficient?
I don’t think so. This passage is set in the larger context of a conversation with Nicodemus. Nicodemus comes to Jesus at night and engages him in rabbinical debate. On the one hand he was quick to affirm who and what Jesus is. But for Jesus that was not enough. In fact, that alone did not allow Nicodemus to fully participate in Jesus’ life and ministry. No, for Jesus, there is more. Earlier in this conversation he speaks of being born from “water and the Spirit.” He reiterates that one must be “born from above.”
Clearly for Jesus this means that simply mentally holding the truths of who Jesus is are insufficient. No, even in this brief passage it is clear that we must be willing to act. We, like the children of Israel who looked upon the bronze serpent, must be prepared to publicly claim our faith and participate in Jesus’ ministry. We must be participants in the kingdom of God. In other words, belief in Jesus isn’t so much about what we think as it is about what we do.
Jesus was inviting Nicodemus to come out of the shadows and claim his faith. He was inviting him to make his faith active and alive. And he was promising Nicodemus nothing less than the kingdom of God if he was willing to do so.
This is what Jesus is getting at when he says that God sent his son so that all that believe in him may not perish but have eternal life.
The promise of God is not simply in an afterlife, although we hold that as true. Rather the promise of God is to be able to participate in eternity now. To know that our material existence is not all that defines us. To, as I said on Ash Wednesday, recognize that we are not human beings who have spiritual experiences from time to time, but spiritual beings who are having a human experience.
Jesus came to be the embodiment of this truth and to invite us into it. And we enter into that truth by living out the shape and pattern of his life in our own. We do so by becoming agents of peace and justice. We do so by engaging in acts of care and compassion. We do so by working for the restoration of our ecological environment and seeking for and affirming the fundamental goodness of humanity. We do that every time we are willing to take up our cross and follow him.
When we do all of that, we make manifest the love of God. We offer an alternative vision to the one which dominates our discourse and our vision in the world today. And we step away from the temptation to judge that selfsame world, instead embracing the saving grace of God.
The incarnation of God in Jesus was a fundamental act of love on the part of God. It flies in the face of the medieval assumptions that dominate our theology to this day. As Jesus says in today’s scripture, God does not seek our condemnation but our salvation. God seeks nothing less than healing and restoration. And we are not simply recipients of such a gift, but co-creators with God.
As we move deeper into our Lenten journey let us reflect on such a thing. Let us commit ourselves to being a people of belief. Not simply intellectual assent, but action directed towards the salvation of the world. Let us know that God in Jesus is afoot in us and through us. Let us take comfort in that knowledge and let us heal and comfort a broken and fractured world.