John 3:14 - 21
“God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, so that whoever believed in him might not perish but have eternal life.” This is probably the most famous verse of the New Testament among Christians in the United States. When you see a placard at a football game that says “John 3:16” that’s the verse. And it seems so comforting. All you have to do is believe in Him. But what does that mean? Does it mean that you believe that Jesus was the second person of the blessed trinity? Does it mean Jesus founded a church that would last till the end of time? Which church, what does “church” mean anyway? Or does it mean that Jesus suffered and died so that we wouldn’t have to? It’s pretty important to know what Jesus is talking about. IF we get it wrong, we might perish.
The first thing to think about is that God so loved the world that he gave his only son. A lot of us forget that the world needs saving; if it didn’t God certainly went to a lot of trouble for nothing. I think anyone who looks at the world, either now or 2000 years ago or even way before that, could deny that the world needs saving, and, unfortunately, will always need saving. And you and I can choose to be in the world, needing saving, or not of the world, and not being subject to condemnation.
In his dialogue with Nicodemus, Jesus refers to an event described in the book of Numbers. Numbers, by the way, is the account of the Jewish people’s wandering in the desert after escaping from Egypt. They called it Numbers because there are a lot of genealogies there. Numbers contains the origin stories of the tribes of Israel as well as some of the other tribes of the middle East of that time. One theme going through Numbers is that the Chosen People did a lot of grumbling and falling away from their covenant with God. Usually these bring on some kind of reaction on the part of God. In this particular case the people complain against God because they have run out of water and are tired of eating manna. So the story goes that the Lord sent poisonous snakes among them and many of those bitten died. When the people repented they asked Moses to pray to God to spare them, and God’s reply was to tell Moses to make a bronze image of the serpent and put it on a pole. And this is the point: the people had to look at the image in order to recover from their snakebite. Why all this trouble? Why didn’t God just cure the people? Well, I don’t speak for God, but I suspect it’s something like many other miracles. Naaman the Syrian had to bathe seven times in the Jordan river to get over his leprosy. It seems like you need at least a little faith to take advantage of a miracle, and so God required the people who had been bitten to fix their eyes on the bronze serpent.
And that gives us a hint as to what Jesus means when he says “whoever believed in him might not perish but have eternal life.” Believing in Jesus isn’t just agreeing with statements of fact. It’s also not the same as feeling love. It really has to do with something very difficult to do -- as long as you have the mistaken attitude that you are the center of the universe, something we all have to some extent, I’m pretty sure. Jesus over and over demonstrates that he can deal with our problems. He can drive out demons, heal us, raise us from the dead. And not only does he demonstrate that he has the power, he tells us in many different ways that we will be a lot better off leaving him to take care of things rather than trying to do it ourselves. Believing in him means trusting that he’s in control and has our best interests at heart.
What does that look like? As I said, it’s very difficult so don’t look at me. But we can look at saints, especially martyrs. Bishop John Fisher went to his execution in his best clothing, telling those around him that this was his wedding day. Maximilian Kolbe traded places with a prisoner who was going to be starved to death. Lawrence the deacon, it is said, was roasted on a gridiron and called out, turn me over, I’m done on this side. When we believe in Jesus, we no longer fear death because we trust what he has told us. When we believe in Jesus, we have the potential to be martyrs. When we believe in Jesus to that extent, we are no longer part of the condemned world, and we escape judgment.
And believing in Jesus means that we recognize our helplessness. In the story of the Pharisee and the tax collector, the Pharisee was obviously a good man – prayed, avoided sin, gave to the poor, fasted twice a week – and he even thanked God that he was like that. But the tax collector went home justified, because he recognized that he was a sinner and could only beg for mercy. Saint Francis de Sales nearly had a nervous breakdown when he became serious about his faith, because he saw how far he was from what the gospels seemed to imply. It was only when he decided to accept the mercy of God that he developed the peace that characterized his life. So believing in Jesus becomes easy once we realize that even the gift of belief comes from Him, not from anything we do ourselves.
And during this lent let us look upon the crucified Christ who went to his own death totally trusting in the Father’s love and pray to have that same kind of trust and pray that prayer, “Lord, I believe, help my unbelief.”
