Parallels and paradox abound in these passages: the
source of harm becomes the source of healing, those who see the darkness are brought to
the light. What is exposed offers a route toward wholeness despite––and even
because of––brokenness.
The preacher today may focus on the call in Lent to
look squarely at the roots of self-deception and dishonesty. Looking at what
harms us is the beginning of life abundant.
John 3:14-21
While nearly everyone is familiar
with John 3:16 and the verses that immediately follow it, most readers are
probably unaware of the verses that immediately precede it, included in today's
reading. “And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness. . .” refers
to an oft-overlooked incident during the Israelites’ wandering in the wilderness
(see below).
Just as Moses turned the serpent,
something that was originally the cause of suffering, into a means of saving
lives, the gospel writers made the cross, originally a symbol of shame and
suffering, into a symbol of eternal life. . . .
While most readers are familiar
with John 3:16, many may overlook the inherent tension between inclusivity and
exclusivity in [the passage as a whole]. . . “God so loved the world” suggests
the possibility of inclusion (whereas many places in the Bible speak of God's
exclusive love for the chosen people), but “everyone who believes in him”
limits the reward of eternal life to believers. The next verses increase this
tension, since unbelievers are condemned on the assumption that they've had the
opportunity to believe and have chosen not to. . .
While many readers have accepted
this exclusivity. . . we must consider the audience to whom this gospel is
speaking. Some have suggested that the Johannine community felt so beleaguered
by “enemies,” not only the synagogues from which they'd been expelled, but the
followers of John the Baptist as well as other early variants of Christianity,
that they needed encouragement that they had made the right choice. From this
perspective then, the exclusivity may be less important than the emphasis on
belief in and loyalty to Jesus. –– Jonathan Lawrence
Numbers 21:4-9
This passage provides the
background to the cryptic statement that precedes John 3:16. As they often do,
the Israelites complain against God and Moses. . . [but] unlike the other times
when they complained and God provided food or water, this time God sent
poisonous serpents among them and many people died.
When the people realize their sin
in criticizing God and Moses, they repent and God instructs Moses to place a
bronze serpent on a pole so that anyone who was bitten by the serpents could
look at it and live. . . The concept is
of God providing a way to rescue the people from the situation they found
themselves in due to their sin, offering a logical parallel for the gospel of
John. –– Jonathan Lawrence
Ephesians 2:1-10
Whereas John described Jesus as a
signpost of hope to which people could look and be saved by belief, the writer
of Ephesians sees the problem not so much as unbelief as the sins they have
committed under the influence of the “ruler of the power of the air.” No longer
under the sway of their fleshly passions, the Ephesians have been “raised” up
and seated with Christ in the “heavenly places.” As in John, they are saved
through faith, but there are also echoes of Psalm 107 in the references to
God's help and healing. –– Jonathan Lawrence
Jonathan D.
Lawrence, an American Baptist
Church ordained minister, teaches Religious Studies and Theology at Canisius
College, Buffalo, New York.
Homily Service 39, no. 4 (2006): 44-52.
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