It all starts with God's love.
We live in very interesting times. A number of the kids I worked with at El Hogar years ago have friended me on Facebook. This week I received a question from a 15-year-old young man in Honduras. He wanted to know what age I thought it was appropriate for a teenager to get into a relationship.
I had to confess that we set the age at 16, but one son met his wife when they were 14, and that our culture and customs are likely different from Honduras anyway. Then he asked, “What is most important in a relationship?”
I thought about it. Here is a 15-year-old in another country, he lives with his aunt because his parents are either dead or unable to support him. Should I say love, trust, commitment, honesty? After a few minutes I said, “Faith.” I went on to explain that faith in God was the starting point for all our relationships, that he should find his security and happiness in Him. Then he could love and care for others without fear of rejection.
The three theological virtues are faith, hope and love. Remember that Paul told us in 1st Corinthians, “Faith, hope and love abide these three, but the greatest of these is love.” But they aren’t separate, they work together and faith is at the root of love.
If we were to take a survey this morning about our favorite verse in the Bible, John 3:16 would likely receive the most mention. It is the verse that the guy in the crazy rainbow wig used to hold up in the end zone of pro football games. Tim Tebow placed “John 3:16” under his eyes during the 2008 National Championship Game and triggered millions of Google searches that night. Whether or not it is your personal favorite, it is very likely one you know by heart.
“For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish, but have eternal life.”
If this is your starting point for your faith, you are in good company. William Temple, the Archbishop of Canterbury for much of World War II said, “This is the heart of the Gospel. Not ‘God is love’ – a precious truth, but affirming no divine act for our redemption. God so loved that he gave; of course the words indicate the cost to the Father’s heart. He gave; it was an act, not only of a continuing mood of generosity; it was an act of a particular time and place.”
In other words, the Beatles had it partially right – “All you need is love”, but no parent ever accepted a partial truth from a wayward child. Neither can we accept partial truth when the full truth has everything to do with life, death and salvation. We start with God’s love, love that gives, love that cares, love that rescues, love that saves.
And while this verse is the heart of the Gospel, we must put it in its context to better understand what Our Lord means to say when he speaks these most lovely words at the heart of His Gospel.
We go back one verse to John 3:15:
“And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.”
In order to understand that verse, we have to go back to Numbers chapter 21. This is during the Exodus. Moses had led the people of Israel out of Egypt, through the Red Sea and now they are in the wilderness. We pick up at verse 5. (Read Numbers 21:5-9.)
Nicodemus doesn’t understand. Jesus is using this as an analogy. God so loved the world that he is doing something like this again. To understand the analogy, we may assign parts as though this were a play being acted out in our own time.
Who will play the people? We must! And we are in trouble. We have spoken and acted against God. We call that sin. We are sinners speaking and acting against God. The serpents are the consequences of sin. In order to escape the consequences of sin – death – the people must look on the bronze serpent. That is an act of faith, doing as God instructed, facing their fear and their fate by turning their faces – their trust - to him.
The bronze serpent, as Jesus notes, is him. Just as the people were spared suffering death as a consequence of their own sin against God by looking upon the bronze serpent as a symbol of God’s faithfulness and mercy, so we are to turn to Christ as the saving gift from God for all our sins and gazing upon him brings eternal life.
Just as the bronze serpent was “lifted up” and nailed to a pole, so must Jesus, the Son of Man, be lifted up and nailed to the cross – this ultimate sacrifice as the gift of God’s great love for the whole world.
The act of looking upon the bronze serpent was given to the people as a sign. It was meant to bolster their faith and thereby restore life. Our analogy is that just as looking upon the bronze snake delivered the people from the consequences of speaking and acting against God if they will but look upon it, so looking upon Jesus and his death on the cross saves the whole world from the consequences of our sin - if we will believe in Him.
Nicodemus understood. We know because he pops back into John’s Gospel, if only briefly, once in chapter 7 to argue for a fair trial for Jesus. Then he shows again in chapter 19 as he is the one who brings the spices to anoint Jesus after the crucifixion.
Nicodemus knew. He came by night, maybe because he was afraid to be seen or maybe the darkness reflected his desire to seek the light of Jesus. He came to try and reconcile all he had been taught and learned and practiced his whole life to the wonder of this Jesus saying and doing such signs that must be of God.
This is the gift God has given us not because we had been so good, but because God so loves the world that he wants to rescue us from the consequences of our sins, speaking and acting against God. Instead of another sign, he sent His only Son.
God told Abram to go, so Abraham went. As Paul notes, God’s promise to Abraham came true only through Jesus. Nothing that happened before Jesus spread faith in the one true God to all nations and nothing else has since. You have trouble, real trouble – lift up your eyes; from where is your help to come? It comes from The Lord. Everyone who believes in His only Son may not perish but have eternal life.
Get that relationship right. Whatever challenges and troubles you face today, the first thing is to wrap your faith around his love. Make that relationship strong. Keep your eyes on him and live. That is step one for a teenager in Honduras thinking about his first relationship. It is step one no matter what.
AMEN