God’s Love is Not Only About You
Sermon on John 3:14-21
When I first started seminary, I also met evangelical Christians for the first time. Well, not for the first time. But for the first time in a Lutheran context. Many of my fellow students had been brought up in rather conservative churches. And they knew their bible. Especially chapters and verses. One would say something and the other would just nod and answer, yeah, man, Matthew whatever. I usually stared at them blankly. Because that was not how I had learned about my bible. I had heard stories from the bible. Lots of stories. And stories from other people’s lives. Knowing bible verses had not been a part of that curriculum. Honestly, I still am not great at memorizing bible verses. Even my confirmation verse. I know it, I can tell you stories about why it’s important to me and how it has been used and heard in the history of the church. Yet, I still have to look up the exact verse.
Of course, in seminary, there was this one week in my life, when I knew it all. For the exam on bible verses. Got my A and gone it was.
My evangelical friends had favorite bible verses, of course. And they remembered them. And they used them often what felt like a powerful weapon. John 3:16 was one of them. When I first heard it, I put on my “o sure, I know what you are talking about” face. I mean, John 3:16, everyone. Right? And then ran into my room to look it up. “For God so loved the world…” I read. Beautiful words.
It’s all about the context. That’s the first lesson of today’s Gospel. Maybe even the most important one.
And it’s also all about reading carefully.
John 3:16 is a favorite bible verse for many. Especially for people who enjoy what they have more when knowing that others don’t have it. And by people who mostly believe in personal choices.
If you are still wondering what John 3:16 says, here it is. 16 “For God loved the world in such a way that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.”
Let’s ask some simple questions? Who does God love? The world. What did God give? His only son.
What happens next? Believers will have eternal life. It’s pretty impressive how John walks from an all-inclusive God who loves the entire world to “believers will be fine, others will perish” within one sentence. It’s even more impressive what Christians have made of this.
We have basically taken God’s love and turned it into a weapon. We have taken Jesus’ life with all its teaching and acting and restoring people and started caring only about the very end of that life. The crucifixion, the sacrifice to atone God. Turning an act to bring redemption to the entire creation into an act of individual salvation. And we Lutherans play a main part in that shift.
Luther, as we all know, asked how we could get a gracious, loving, forgiving God. Instead of one that condemns us for any trespasses we might ever commit. And Luther’s answer was simple: God loves you first, God calls you and God forgives you through Jesus Christ. Just walk with God, pray, do good and you will be fine. As I mentioned in the beginning, context matters. Luther fought against an institution that was using the fear of a hell of an afterlife to keep people bound and small and dependent. And thankfully, Luther challenged that dangerous and hurtful thinking. Not works but faith, not hell but love, he preached. And, to hell with everyone who thinks differently.
Which is something that John and Luther have in common. They both are part of a small group of people who challenge the dominant powers. Luther called out the pope. And John tries to help his fellow Christians not to give up and give in. Not to surrender to the Roman empire, not to deny Jesus Christ to merely survive. Back then it was all or nothing. Being eaten by a lion or praying to the emperor and denying Christ.
No wonder, John struggled with a God who loved the entire world. Including God’s enemies. No wonder, John needed the reassurance that whoever doesn’t believe in Christ is condemned. Because for John’s people believing in Christ meant to be condemned in life. It’s just fair to give back the favor, right?
Yet, as I said, context matters. We are not an endangered minority anymore. And John 3:16 shouldn’t be read without the next verses.
“For God loved the world in such a way 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.”
God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world.
Hear that? God did not send the Son into this world to condemn the world. Jesus didn’t come to judge people and make them feel miserable when he pointed out their sins. Jesus didn’t blame and shame people in a form of discipline. Because that never helps people change or improve. That just makes us ashamed and blamed and defensive and hurt. Which is not a good start for any change ever. It just makes us withdraw into our little social bubble and shut the world out.
Jesus came to tell us the truth, which might hurt sometimes. He came to shed light on everything evil.
Not to blame and shame. But to reveal and heal. Instead of rubbing our noses in our sins, God sent Jesus. Instead of blaming us for all the stuff we have invented to keep people small and God out of our hearts, like sexism and racism and ageism and whatever ism you can think of, God shows us a way out of it. Every day. And all we have to do is, and spoiler alert, this is going to sound very evangelical actually, all we have to do is look at Jesus’ life and death.
Of course, the great question is what we choose to see there. And while some just want to talk about the blood of Christ shed for our sins, about the Great Atonement, John 3:16 everyone, it’s at least as important to talk about what got Jesus to die at the cross in the first place.
And, to continue to sound evangelical here, the general theological answer of course is, our sins. And then, we all look knowingly and purified and rejoice in being saved. Which we are! No worries. But that doesn’t mean we have freed this world from sin. Not even a tiny bit.
Because sin is not just an old biblical concept to make humans feel bad. Sin is a word for the reality we live in. For all the injustices people continue to face. For all the injustices we continue to perpetrate. For all the injustices that come with living in a wealthy part of the world. And by the way, that’s what we call systemic injustices.
Or, we can just call it sin. Sometimes, it’s easier for us to admit that we are sinners than that we are part of a structurally unjust system. Even though, both concepts talk about the same thing in the end. About us not making sure that every single living being created by God has the resources to thrive. About us even benefitting from those injustices, actively or passively.
Maybe that is the greatest revelation of Jesus’ death. That sin is so systemic that God had to die to get the point across to us. That God had to give everything to make us see what’s going on around us. It’s not about whether you told a lie or stole a pack of gum at the age of 8. Yes, God will hopefully forgive us those individualistic sins as well. But the cross is about much more.
To change the world, to do Jesus’ death justice, requires a process that ends hate, injustice, and oppression and replaces it with justice, compassion, mercy, love, and equality for all. And verses 19-21 tell us that this will be a long fight. Because some choose hate over light, evil deeds over good deeds, and therefore they reject the light of the son of God. That’s the reality we live in. And it shouldn’t stop our call for a better world. If anything, it should rise our passion to restore the world to its original intent from a world full of evil and injustice to a loving, just, and caring world.
Because God loves the entire world. Because the world may very well be the last place — and the last person — on earth we think God would love. And so, God decided to become part of creation and feel our pain and our losses. And to teach us the skills we need to overcome evil dressed in sins.
“For all who do evil hate the light and do not come to the light, so that their deeds may not be exposed. But 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.”
The bigger I make myself, the more I fall into the individualistic “love yourself and everyone will be loved trap”, the more shadow I cast on others. The less light I shine on others. If we humble ourselves as Jesus does in becoming our whole-making Light, no-one needs to choose to live in the darkness of evil & the pain it brings. Think about it, Jesus died at the cross. The cross sheds basically no shadow! So, come to the light and shed light on God’s world.
“For God loved the world in such a way 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.”
Amen.
