Jesus’s gospel of redemption
Lent 4B | John 3:14-21
This morning, we read from the gospel of John. Chapter 3, verses 14 through 21. And this story contains one of the most famous verses in modern Christianity. A verse that a crazed evangelist would paint on a sign to hold up at sporting events in the 1970s and Tim Tebow wrote on his eye black.
But not the verse itself. The signifier. Signs saying: John 3:16. Just that.
This story is anything but simple, however. And these attempts to use this one verse to evangelize the world—well…they offer us a snapshot into the foolishness of an easy faith.
Here’s what we’re going to do today. We’re going to break apart the simple idea, to reveal why it is much more complicated. And then, how we are entrusted to make sense of it anew.
Sound good?
Alright. Let’s start with the gospel itself, then we’ll contrast theologies before we build it back up.
Part One: Snakes
Jesus is talking to somebody and he brings up the story of the snakes. The story we read for our first reading. And in it, we are invited to see a contrast: between a God who punishes and a God who restores life.
We’re often wrestling with an image of God who is both: the punisher and the redeemer. That God wills the evil and the good alike. And this story from Numbers seems like that sort, right? God sends the snakes and then the antidote.
But we also know that the people misbehave and then repent. And if we’re thinking like parents, we know what we do when our kid doesn’t do what they’re supposed to do, right? You ground them or send them to their room or whatever. Then, when they’re ready to apologize, you forgive them.
The point isn’t to punish. Nor do we stop loving when we do. The point is to guide behavior. So our attention is geared toward the change in behavior. And so God transforms the very thing—the snake—into a method of redemption. Notice, too, how this reverses the story from Genesis 3. God can turn sin into salvation.
Now Jesus uses this story of transformed sin to name God’s glory. That the snake on a pole isn’t just an animal or a sign, but the very symbol of God’s vision for human redemption. And that this is what we are glorifying.
Now, why is he talking about this?
Part Two: Secret Conversations
Jesus is talking to somebody, right? Who is he talking to? Do you remember? In John 3, Jesus is talking to a prominent Pharisaic leader named Nicodemus. And to be where he is, he needs to know his scripture and theology. He is likely both wise and intelligent.
And this guy visits Jesus under the cover of darkness. I like to call him Nick at Night. And Nick has some questions for Jesus.
But it isn’t his questions that matter, but what he first says about Jesus:
“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.”
-John 3:2b
This isn’t idle flattery. Nicodemus is naming Jesus’s connection to God. He’s the first one in this gospel to go on the record and say essentially—Your doing stuff proves God is here with you.
The conversation keeps going, but this statement about the presence of God in Jesus—as a means of beholding God’s glory and revealing God’s grace is established here.
So when we get to that famous verse, we now have the context of how God’s grace is being revealed in Jesus.
So I think we’re ready.
Part Three: Theological Debate
My Greek professor says we should never read John 3:16 without also reading 17.
“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.”
-John 3:16-17
At this point, it should be easier to pick out an assortment of theological debates. About the nature of God, of Christ, of the purpose of atonement. And we should also be able to see why an evangelical commitment to John 3:16 as a summary of the gospel is appealing.
It makes the gospel small, personal, and relatable. That our faith in Jesus alone may grant us a heavenly reward. This, of course, isn’t the summary of the whole gospel. It’s just a narrow conviction that makes a Christlike life seem easy. Believe and get a reward.
But as we see in both Nicodemus’s conviction about the signs and in Jesus speaking of his own symbolic character as reflecting the grace of God, we’re talking about something far greater than personal benefit.
Because we aren’t talking about goodies in heaven. We’re talking about redemption through God’s love.
Part Four: Redemption
Jesus’s role in the story isn’t to die. The cross isn’t the summary of the story. He is born, lives, teaches, reveals the love of God, is killed, then raised, and finally ascends. It is too small a thing to assume his death is “the important part” much like focusing on the inevitability of his death can make God into a monster.
What Nicodemus sees in Jesus is the very glory of God. And what Jesus tells Nicodemus is that God’s greatest gift to us is redeeming us. Because we’re the ones doing the stupid stuff.
It isn’t snakes killing us. And the devil isn’t making us do stupid stuff. We just do it. Because we’re stupid. Or we’re super smart but lack wisdom or humility. Or we’re just really selfish and like things our way.
Jesus is the sign. Because he is revealing the Kin-dom to people.
What the Kin-dom offers is a different way of being from our culture. And that includes the infamous Judeao-Christian American culture.
A Way of serving over accumulating, loving over hurting, including over shunning, and being with other people over striving for personal greatness.
So, in Jesus, we know that the way we join the Kin-dom is by letting go. And accepting the road to redemption.
This is what the pursuit of power avoids and obscures. That we might not only be tempted to refuse to sit with Jesus, but condemn anyone who actually does. Who worries so much about being condemned by culture, that we refuse to be redeemed through Jesus.
In other words, the idea that Jesus’s death redeems us to power is a perversion of the gospel.
Jesus redeems us from our desire for power, control, and safety.
The Conclusion: Life
Simplicity exists as a paradox. For something to be made simple, one takes something complex and devises useful shortcuts. Reading the Spark Notes is not the same as reading the novel. But when done well, we can get the gist.
The easy answers we long for in faith aren’t real. We disprove the idea that John 3:16 summarizes the gospel in every Eucharistic Prayer when we recall his death, resurrection, and ascension.
But we can also hide in complexity. And refuse to make the kind of truth claim that Nicodemus does.
So yes, we can make truth claims. And we can make things a little easier for ourselves, because we get the shortcuts we are making.
When we welcome the stranger, we are sharing the love of Christ, right? That’s a shortcut we get!
So let us see how Jesus reveals God’s grace this way. And how we are given new life that isn’t defined by our consumption and the pursuit of power, but by forgiveness and redemption.
Because, as we pray daily, we ask God to forgive our debts as we have already forgiven the debts of others. So as Christ reveals forgiveness, our praying leads us to forgive.
Perhaps it is really that simple. And exactly that difficult.