Introduction
If you’ve been following this commentary for a while, you know that I’m all about narrative. The context of the story matters. I feel that these authors/storytellers were incredibly sophisticated in their compositions of these gospels and so it’s important to know how they are placing these passages within the context of the overall narrative. And I still believe that. But I’m not sure it’s as important this week.
Of course, this is the great story introduction to Nicodemus (who will come around two more times in the gospel). But if ever there was a pericope that fell outside of the context, it’s this one. Apart from vs 14 and 15, the rest of the passage seems to be a narrative aside. Do we think that Jesus continued to speak to Nicodemus in this way from 16-21? No, this is a beautiful aside that helps the reader/listener understand the depth of where the story is going.
And while narrative and cultural context is important in the epistles too, I think we could look at this Gospel text more like one of Paul’s letters. It so clearly seems to be articulating a theology that the author is trying to impart to their community.
Additionally, many times that we get this passage we stop around verse 17. This is a chance for us to hear the end of the chapter and there’s a lot to it. So, I’m not going to go into Nicodemus this week. Instead, I’m going to try and focus on the verses that we have because they are already packed with theological implications.
Getting into the text
This Lenten season, most of the gospel images have been centering around the cross and resurrection. The first Sunday was the wilderness temptation with Satan and the baptism (Mark 1:9-15) but then it was the first pronouncement of his death and resurrection (Mark 8:31-38) and then last week we heard the ‘subtle’ reference to Jesus being raised in three days in the temple incident (John 2:13-22). Now this week we have (maybe) the most familiar verse in the gospels in John 3:16.
So, what can be found in this text that hasn’t already said?
Preaching Possibilities
John 3:16 – New Life Now
If you are feeling courageous and you want to ruffle some feathers, there are a lot of odd translation issues around John 3:16.
Of course, the NRSV translation is becoming more familiar to us as we use it over and over: 16For 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.
But this translation was heavily influenced by the King James Version (as are most translations) which reads: 16For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
There are a few issues here. First, while poetic, the opening line leaves some ambiguity. As Professor Mark Vitalis Hoffman likes to ask in classes at ULS, “Does God still love the world?” Additionally, the word “begotten” is not really in the Greek, it’s just “only.” But then finally, the big question is around everlasting/eternal life. This “but have” or “but may have” language seems to suggest a time in the future. And so, for many of us, theologically, we take this to mean life in heaven. An eternal life with God in our mansions with many, many rooms. However, the Greek doesn’t necessarily indicate that. The “have” or ἔχῃ is the present active subjunctive tense. It indicates an ongoing action not just something in the future. So, the believers should already be experiencing eternal life.
So, Mark Vitalis Hoffman translates verse 16 this way:
“For in this way God demonstrated love for the world: God gave the one and only Son, so that everyone who is believing in him may not perish but may be experiencing eternal life.”
To some, this may seem like splitting hairs, however, there’s a big theological difference. Are we being promised eternal life in heaven, or does believing in Jesus give a new life here and now?
If you wanted to connect with Nicodemus, this would be the time. Nicodemus is concerned with exactly this issue; how can someone be born anew/again? If we read the Greek, this seems to be a response to that question. Those who believe in Jesus experience new life here and now.
I don’t think that this negates or contradicts our belief in an afterlife. We can still rest our hope in the life to come. We do not need to take that away from our faith. However, it is important for us, in our Christian faith, to emphasize this promise and expectation for our lives here and now. Belief in Jesus means something for this moment too. When we believe in Jesus our lives change.
John 3:14-16 acknowledges that our Savior, our God, was lifted onto the cross as the serpent was lifted up by Moses so that we might be free to live. Free to live in a different and changed way. By looking at the cross, we see the violence, terror, and sin of our world. Our healing comes from seeing that we can live in a different way. We can choose to live with new life of peace, love, and hope here and now. Not just in the life to come.
John 3:19-21 – Look into the Light
These verses are building off of each other. By looking at the serpent, the Sin of the world is exposed. Violence, terror, sin, jealousy, hatred, greed. All of these can be found in the response to Jesus. Not just from the religious leaders, crowds, or Romans but from Jesus’ own disciples. Judas’ betrayal. Debate around who is the greatest. Questions of who should sit on Jesus’ left or right as he comes into his glory.
The cross is a light for us. A bright, radiant, light that calls us to see the world as it is and how it needs to change.
“And this is the judgment, that the light has come into the world…”
Light exposes us. All of us. It can be terrifying. And it can be liberating.
Light reveals everything. It reveals the beauty of something or someone. And it also reveals our faults, scars, pains, the things that we don’t want to be seen. To see our faults and mistakes, to look into the light and to truly see who we are, is scary. It can be as simple as shedding light on a messy house, to a more complicated matter of hiding or concealing truth because they don’t want to be exposed.
“For all who do evil hate the light and do not come to the light, so that their evil deeds may not be exposed.”
It is a painful process to see yourself in the light. The light of God has shined on me quite a number of times in my life. Exposing me for who I am. And each time, it is challenging and yet each time, it is freeing.
As an alcoholic, before I began my life in recovery, I tried to hide many things. First and foremost, I tried to hide my drinking. Although I couldn’t admit that I had a problem, some part of me was embarrassed about how much I drank. So, I would hide bottles of alcohol in my room so that no one else could find them. I tried to hide my pain and my depression. I tried to hide my feelings and instead would distance myself from people. I tried to hide and forget how I would treat people while I was drinking. I didn’t want to face the fact that I was being mean and hurtful to others.
When I was hospitalized with pancreatitis because of my drinking, the light had finally come on in my life and there was no hiding anymore. My parents needed to go into my room to find clothes for me in the hospital. when they went into my room they found countless empty bottles of alcohol. The light had been shed on how much I had been drinking. Doctors and therapists needed to ask me why I was drinking so heavily, and my alcoholism, depression, and pain were revealed.
The first few months of recovery were some of the hardest months of my life. Not just because I couldn’t drink anymore but because the light of God had shined on my life and it was really difficult to look into the mirror. In the light, I saw everything. I saw how fragile I was. I saw the pain that I caused others. I saw how lonely and afraid I was. I saw me. All of me. And it was terrifying.
But it was that same light, that showed me something else.
After a few months and time to process and see what had been exposed, I didn’t just see the faults. As I looked around, I saw my parents by my side helping me to find a new way of living and supporting me through it all. I saw my friends sitting next to me in classes and making sure that I was comfortable in social settings and that I felt like I had enough help to continue with the semester. My internship congregation had welcomed me back with loving arms, embracing me and helping me to continue to forward in my ministry.
The light shined on something wonderfully amazing. My internship supervisor gave me incredible words that showed not only a new way to see myself in the light, but it showed light on my path moving forward. She said, “Micah, you can now use this story to speak to others and share the truth that could help them to come to the light.”
In that moment I saw my life, I saw my faults and my errors, I saw my story, not just as something to shame myself for, but as a way to walk in God’s light. My alcoholism and recovery were not things to be ashamed of. They are my ministry. I can use my story to help others to the light. I can help others to see their blemishes, but then to see that they are also beautifully made in the eyes of God and can use their stories to help others and to walk in the light of God.
If we truly look to the cross, then the light of God shines on us so that we can see the truth of it all. The ugly. The bad. The good. The beautiful. We see the light of God shining on a new life and path in front of us. Walking into new life, choosing new ways, choosing God’s way.
Look to the cross. Look into the light.
Micah Krey 
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