Step Into the Light

John 3:16. [HOLDING UP LARGE POSTER BOARD WITH "JOHN 3:16" LIKE GUY IN NFL FOOTBALL STADIUM.]

This is perhaps the most famous verse in the entire New Testament. Even some non-Christians know it by heart.

Usually people react to it in one of three ways:

1. They love it because it expresses the gospel in a nutshell: "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."

2. It is so familiar that they don't even hear it anymore.

3. They have a negative reaction because this verse has sometimes been used in an exclusive or divisive way: repent or perish; eternal life for those who believe, condemnation and death for those who don't.

My goal this morning is twofold: I want to counter the negative view of this verse, because I think it is based on a misreading of the text, and I would like to break through the familiarity of the words so that we might be able to hear it again as good news.

Let's look a little more closely at this verse in its context. This passage is part of a dialogue with Nicodemus, a religious leader who comes to Jesus at night to see if he really is the Messiah. He asks Jesus a question, and Jesus says, "No one can see the kingdom of God without being born again." Nicodemus interprets this literally and says, "How can anyone be born again after growing old? Can one re-enter the womb?" Jesus makes it clear that he was not speaking literally-he was referring to spiritual rebirth, not physical rebirth. Then he teases Nicodemus for being so literal-minded: "Are you a teacher of Israel and yet you do not understand these things?"

This dialogue is one of many in John's gospel in which Jesus speaks metaphorically and people misunderstand him by interpreting his words literally. Of all the gospels, John's gospel is the most symbolic and the least literal. The symbolism in this passage begins with the fact that Nicodemus comes to Jesus at night-the darkness symbolizes his fear and his unwillingness to acknowledge who Jesus is.

As the dialogue with Nicodemus unfolds, Jesus challenges him with a stark choice which he expresses in terms of a series of opposites: light/dark, eternal life/perishing, salvation/condemnation, doing truth/doing evil. The choice is one which all of us face in our spiritual lives: will we choose light or darkness, truth or evil, life or death? For us who are called to follow Christ, this choice is summed up in the choice of whether to trust Christ or not. The language of polar opposites is used symbolically, to jolt Nicodemus (and us) into realizing that our choice is profoundly important for us and for everyone around us. I don't think we are intended to take Jesus' words literally as condemning those who don't believe in Christ.

But if that argument doesn't convince you that this text is not intended to condemn non-believers to hell, then we can turn to Jesus' next sentence: "Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him." It's almost as though Jesus anticipated that people would use his words to condemn others and tried to prevent that by spelling out what he meant.

If you agree with me that we should not read this passage literally, how then should we read it? The passage really has two parts: in the first, Jesus tells us what God has done for us in Christ, and in the second, he presents us with a choice.

Out of love for us, God gave his only Son, to be lifted up as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness in our Old Testament reading for today. "Lifted up" in John's gospel means crucified, but it also means exalted-which includes the idea of resurrection and ascension. The reference to the story of Moses and the bronze serpent in this context is a key to understanding this passage. In the story from Numbers, the people are once again complaining to God on their journey from Egypt to the promised land. This is late in their journey-they have already complained numerous times, they have been disobedient, and they have rebelled several times as well. But even though God miraculously rescued them from slavery, fed them and guided them in the wilderness and forgave them for their rebelliousness, they are still complaining. There's an element of humor in the complaint-we're going to die, we have no food or water, and the food is terrible. Wait a minute, I thought you said you had no food?

Anyway, God loses patience with them and sends poisonous snakes to bite them and some die. Moses once again intercedes for them and God tells him to make a bronze serpent and lift it up so that people can look at it and live. And they do.

In the same way, this gospel seems to be saying, if we look at the crucified and resurrected Christ, we will live. Notice that in the story from Numbers, God does not get rid of the snakes, just as God does not get rid of all that afflicts us now. We still live with sin, suffering, evil and death. But just as the people of Israel were able to survive the snake bites by looking at the bronze serpent, so we are able to survive all the evils of the world by keeping our gaze on Christ.

The promise is not just survival, it is eternal life. In John's gospel, eternal life does not just refer to life after death-it also refers to new and endless life that begins here and now.

The first half of our passage is clear: out of love for us God has given us Jesus who has been lifted up for our sake. If we keep our focus on the one who has been lifted up, we will follow his trajectory-from death to resurrection to ascension. And we will have new life starting right now if we trust him.

But that new life has a cost. When we encounter Jesus and his offer of new life, it creates a crisis for us. The Greek word for judgment is krisis, from which we get our word, crisis. The crisis is that we have to make a decision-will we trust Christ or not? Will we step into the light or not?

This process of stepping into the light and living in the truth is not easy. Most of us have parts of our lives that we would prefer not to look at, let alone allow others to see. Unhealed wounds, grievances that we have not forgiven, guilt over wrongs we have done, self-destructive habits or relationships and so on. It is tempting to stay in the shadows, rather than come out into the light of day and face the challenge of changing our lives. We cannot encounter Christ and go away unchanged.

Recently I met a man who asked me about confession in our denomination. I told him that we offer individual confession but it's not required. Then he confided in me that though he goes to confession, he doesn't believe that God can forgive him for all he has done. He felt he had ruined his life and hurt others through alcoholism, and he did not think there was any hope for him. It took courage for him to tell me that, and it gave me an opportunity to tell him that nothing is beyond God's power to forgive, and that God loves him. It may take him a while longer to accept this, or to find the courage to get help, but he took the first step toward the light by opening up about the darkness in his life.

Living in the light is a challenge for all of us, and for our faith community as a whole. Do we dare to share our struggles with each other, and let others help us and at times challenge us? Will we take the risk of being honest about our lives, even though we are afraid of what people will think of us? The cost may be a blow to our pride but the promise is healing and new life. And each of us has the opportunity to offer hope when someone shares their struggle with us-we can share our belief that God does not condemn us, but loves us and longs for us to have life and have it abundantly.

St. Paul says that perfect love casts out fear. We are loved with a perfect love. God has given us Christ, and Christ has been lifted up for us, to give us new life. If we can just keep our eyes on Christ, we will not be afraid to make the hard, but life-giving choices that we face each day.