Scripture: John 3:14-21 (NRSV)
As we approach Easter and recognize the necessity of Jesus’ death and celebrate his resurrection, I must take care to wear my Easter bonnet rather than my doctoral cap when I read passages such as John 3:14-21. With my trained eye, I spot the elegant series of proofs that first provide an analogy and God’s motive to explain how Jesus’ death is a life-giving event and then a description of the character of those who cannot believe. With my Easter faith, my fear of death slides off as easily as worn out shoes, the burden of past failings is lifted off my shoulder, and I put on those crisp, clean, new clothes that represent my life in Christ, those clothes that I want to parade about and show the world. I want to come out into the light and proclaim my trust in God’s love.
This Easter, as I ponder Jesus’ words, I plan to treat each step of preparation, from preparing the Easter egg hunt for my little neighbors to dressing for church, as an expression of celebration of my share in eternal life. Jesus does not speak explicitly of the Church in John’s Gospel, but right before this passage he describes being born anew through water and spirit (3:5), an allusion to Christian baptism. When I walk through the door of the Church on Easter morning and proclaim, “Christ has risen,” I know that I will be standing within the resurrected body of Christ.
Scripture: John 3:14-21 (NRSV)
And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, 15that whoever believes in him may have eternal life. 16“For 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. 17“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. 18Those who believe in him are not condemned; but those who do not believe are condemned already, because they have not believed in the name of the only Son of God. 19And this is the judgment, that the light has come into the world, and people loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil. 20For all who do evil hate the light and do not come to the light, so that their deeds may not be exposed. 21But those who do what is true come to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that their deeds have been done in God.”