+ Lent 4 – March 15th, 2015 +
Redeemer
Lutheran, HB
Series B:
Numbers 21:4-9; Ephesians 2:1-10; John 3:14-21
In the Name of the Father and of
the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
The players line up. Snap. Kick.
The football splits the uprights. It’s good. And then the camera zooms in on a
celebrating fan hoisting a neon construction paper sign, and on it, only a name
and a few numbers…John 3:16.
We’ve probably all seen some
variation of this: sky writing, bottom of the In N Out cup, or at a sports game. Next to Psalm 23, John 3:16 is probably one of the most well-known Bible
verses. And for good reason. Like the season of Lent, Jesus’
words point our eyes and our ears to Jesus Crucified for you. The closer we get
to Holy Week, to Good Friday, the more Jesus points our eyes and ears to his
death for you.
John 3:16 is the Gospel in a
nut-shell. It’s as comforting as it is memorable. You can carry it with you to
your neighbor or anyone who asks for a reason for the hope that is within you.
But what does this verse mean?
For God so loved the world that He gave His only
begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have
everlasting life.
Here’s where our English language
gets in the way of understanding this verse. We hear the word “so” and think
“so much”. Like a little girl stretching out her arms and saying, “Daddy, Do
you love me this much?”
True, God’s love for us is
unfathomable. We could travel across time and space in a police box or a
DeLorean and never reach the end or limit of God’s love. For as high as the heavens, so great is his steadfast love towards you
(Psalm 103:11). It’s true, God loves you in Christ Crucified to infinity and
beyond. But there’s more to this verse than the magnitude of his love.
And speaking of love, we use the
word love for anything: I love Tillamook Cheese. I love Oregon microbrews. I
love rain. I love lamp. Misuse a word long enough and we lose the meaning of
the word.
We typically think of love as
magical wistful like Princess Anna in Frozen, who got engaged to a guy the same
night she met him at a party (btw, he turned out to be a villain), or tragic
love like Romeo and Juliet, Gus and Hazel, or Edward and Bella. Eventually, love
becomes all about our contentment, our peace, our happiness. This romanticized view
of love is what drives the debate over same-sex marriage. “I can love whomever
I want”, we hear. Or, “We love each other and that’s all that matters.”
Problem is, we think of love
primarily with our emotions. Love is how we feel about something or someone. Or
rather, how someone or something makes us feel. Do you see the problem?
Inevitably, our love leads us right back to our greatest love of all…ourselves.
We take God’s gift of love and twist it into an idol. Love is all about my
contentment. My happiness. Or whatever makes me feel good. And haven’t we all
thought that? Repent. For this is selfish, self-love of the highest order.
For who of use can say that our
love is long suffering, patient, or kind? That we do not envy others or boast in
ourselves? That we’re not rude, arrogant in constantly insisting on our own
way? Not a one of us. For in truth, we delight in doing wrong.
And this
is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved
darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.
In sin, that’s what we love: the darkness. For apart from
Christ all our loves - the people, places, and gifts in God’s creation that are
good and lovely – are idols.
But while our love looks inward,
God’s love looks outward. Where our love desires only our own interests and
well-being, God’s love desires and seeks the well-being of others. Though our
love is selfish, God’s love is selfless, self-giving, self-sacrificing – for you.
Jesus isn’t sitting in heaven
writing schmaltzy Hallmark cards or country ballads. God’s love isn’t about warm
fuzzies or Jesus-is-my-girlfriend songs. In John 3, Jesus is teaching
Nicodemus, and us, how God loves the
world.
Now…try reading John 3:16 again like
this: God loved the world in this way,
that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not
perish but have everlasting life.
John 3:16 isn’t about emotional or
self-serving love, but divine love. God loves the world in this way: the Father
gave his Son into death as a ransom for rebels who hated him and killed him and
only love themselves. God’s
love is gift-love.
Jesus’ death on
the cross is how God loves the world. Jesus dying for you is how he loves you
and makes you his again.
God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that
while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Romans 5:8
In this the love of God was manifested toward us,
that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live
through Him. In
this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation
for our sins. 1
John 4:9-10
As great as our love for ourselves
is, Jesus’ love for you on the cross is greater. Where our love is all about
taking for ourselves, God’s love for you is all about giving himself to save
you. Love is what God does for you. Love is who he is.
The Father gives. “The
Father gives all he is and has to the Son. The Son gives Himself back to the
Father, and gives Himself to the world, and for the world to the Father, and
thus gives the world (in Himself) back to the Father too” (Lewis, The Four Loves, p. 7).
The Father does not withhold from
us His Son, His only Son. Jesus stretches out his arms on the cross for you to
show you how and how much he loves you. He loves you to death. For God did not send his Son into the world
to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Jesus’s
death atones for all of our love – the good, the bad, the ugly. Jesus covers
our selfish love with his sacrificial love.
For God’s love in Christ Crucified
is patient and kind. God’s Son is not arrogant or rude; He does not insist on his
own way. God’s love for you in Christ Crucified never fails.
This is why Christians often make
the sign of the cross. Or why we display a crucifix or cross in our church and
homes. The cross tells us who Jesus is and what he does. The crucifix shows us
the clearest picture of God’s love. It’s a sermon all by itself.
But Jesus’ love doesn’t stop at the
cross. God continues to love you in this way: You are baptized. God drenches
you in his saving love by water and word. God proclaims his unconditional love
for you in absolution: You are forgiven all your sins. God loves you in this
way: He pours the blood of Christ into your mouths so that you will not perish
but have eternal life.
In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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