This Week: Lent 4B
Gospel: John 3:14-21
This week’s gospel brings with it a ton of baggage and none of its context. Which is a deadly combination. While I dug into the context earlier in the week, and showed off a bit of the baggage in the reflection, I’ll be quite specific here.
One verse from this passage in particular gets a great deal of attention: John 3:16. And it has rarely worn the attention well.
Often treated like an encapsulation of the gospel, determined persons with evangelical zeal have offered it as a profound statement of faith that needs to be shared with others.
The verse’s two most famous apologists are Rollen Stewart (the guy in the rainbow wig) who is, as they say today, problematic. And the other is retired NFL quarterback Tim Tebow.
Making John 3:16 the summary of the gospel is on the other side of useless. As a former professor liked to say, don’t quote John 3:16 without also quoting 17.
This is precisely because the vision of John 3:16 as a summary reinforces an individualistic, consumerist faith in a God of willful sacrifice, which is far from the most traditional of theological convictions.
Every time we read this in church, we deal with this. Anyone over 30 or raised outside the mainline is carrying these bags in with us.
Do we have to dig into deep theology?
Probably not. However, I also refuse to listen when people say we shouldn’t deal with theology in our preaching. Partly because I think that’s wrong. And partly because I like proving people wrong.
Mostly, however, I’m not sure it’s wise to avoid the theology here. Particularly in at least addressing the nature of the question at the heart of the conundrum: what do we make of Jesus’s sacrifice and its relationship to God’s love?
And to that, I make one strong suggestion:
Set up the foundation first.
Part of the way Evangelicals have dominated the discourse around atonement and the nature of Jesus has been to ground a vision of personal faith into a prescribed economy of faith. God sacrifices Jesus for us. And you give of yourself so you can receive from him. Boom. Next.
This isn’t the only game in town, but many like to pretend it is. And when we don’t talk about it, we shouldn’t wonder when theirs becomes the only game.
Atonement isn’t a dirty word.
Stop pretending it is. Use it better.
Atonement is how we describe what is happening with Jesus. It is not a synonym for penal substitution. Let’s get used to talking about it more effectively.
Personal witness isn’t the goal.
Much of Evangelicalism guides us toward a personal relationship with Jesus and through him, the achievement of personal benefit in an afterlife. These are not the central theological tenets of Christianity. And developing or looking out for one’s self is not the goal.
Being Kin-dom people is a much closer goal. And exemplifies the wider need to wrestle, not only with ourselves but with our being something together.
Our faith isn’t personal. It is always also public, corporate, and common.
Jesus’s death is not the summary of the gospel.
Tradition names four moments as essential parts of the Christ Event:
- Incarnation
- Crucifixion
- Resurrection
- Ascension
And most Christians are deeply attached to the teachings of Jesus, particularly the parables!
When we see the death of Jesus as the summation of the gospel, we’re leaving most of the essentials on the cutting room floor.
Love is God’s essential character.
Rather than read a concept that doesn’t sound like an expression of love and think “How can I make this sound more loving?” perhaps we begin with the idea that we not make such assumptions?
Which seems more loving: a father sending his son to die or a father grieving his son will die?
Jesus is our opportunity for redemption.
This is the thrust of Jesus’s words to Nicodemus. That being redeemed is a God thing. That the purpose isn’t judgment or condemnation, but love, change, and new, present, vibrant living.
It is easy to see why we get taken up in these ideas. The ideas alone seem justified by that particular verse framed in isolation with particular dogma. Like the popular mug and T-shirt slogan says: “I can do all things with a verse taken out of context.”
Our wider context in the gospel of John reveals a different focus. Not on individual salvation through faith and a reward of an afterlife. But a vision of Jesus as the revealer of the grace of God — and a God willing to bestow grace.