Preaching Paths 10 March 2024

Sally A. Brown, Professor Emerita, Princeton Theological Seminary

John 3:16, nested in today’s text (John 3:14-21), is a verse recognizable even to non-Christians. This reference, and sometimes the entire verse, has been emblazoned on everything from placards held aloft in a football stadium to highway billboards and bumper stickers. Unfortunately, it has been reduced in popular parlance to a spiritual “hack” for claiming a ticket to eternal life. One need only assent in one’s head to a concept: that Jesus is God’s Son. So easy! –and so misleading. Preachers can welcome the chance to restore this verse to its context, inviting fresh reflection on its meaning.

Beginning at v 14, Jesus proposes to Nicodemus (a Pharisee, and therefore a keen student of the Hebrew scriptures) an analogy between an OT story and Jesus’ own identity and mission. The story Jesus cites, found in Numbers 21:6-9, is a strange one, to say the least. The complaining Israelites are plagued by deadly serpents, sent into their midst by God (!) in response to their endless complaining. But God also provides a cure. God directs Moses to craft a bronze serpent and raise it on a pole in the middle of the camp. Anyone who is bitten and looks toward the serpent will be healed. One need not get lost in wrestling with this story. It will be sufficient to frame it as a lesson in trust, as well as God’s gracious intervention on behalf of people undeserving of such grace. For Jesus, the key parallels are the “lifting up” of the serpent and the healing of those who trust and follow the divine instructions.

Jesus’ analogy governs the meaning of John 3:16 and nuances our interpretation of its vocabulary. First, the word routinely translated “believe” (pisteuo) is better translated “to trust in” or “to rely upon.”  Trust is not a momentary thought, but sustained action, as vv 19-21 suggest. What does “relying upon” the Son look like? It looks like actively abandoning evil, self-serving deeds done in “darkness”–or in the shadows. It means choosing instead truthful deeds, revealed in the light as harmonious with the ways of God (v 21). Life “eternal” begins here and now—not at our death.

Second, as mentioned above, popular understandings of this verse have thrown around the word “saved,” but reduced it to a “get-out-of-hell-free” pass.  Here again, the deliberate analogy Jesus establishes between the healing consequence of gazing upon the lifted-up serpent in Numbers 21 and trusting in his own lifting up on the cross helps us. The analogy suggests that the best translation of the underlying Greek word, sozo,  in this context would be “healed” rather than “saved.” The Son will be lifted up for the healing of the world, with all the metaphorical nuance that word implies.

Two other terms merit reflection: “world” in v. 16 and “condemned” in vv 17-18. God loves the “world”—the “cosmos,” all persons, all creatures. Using John 3:16 to threaten people with God’s wrath denies what this text affirms. While “condemned” is a possible translation of the underlying Greek in vv 17-18, “disqualified” may be more accurate. Clinging to evil deeds amounts to a pre-emptive self-exclusion, a closing of the door on that quality of life Jesus calls “eternal.”

Midway through Lent, John 3:14-21 bids us choose the way that leads to life: active, deliberate, day-by-day reliance upon the Son God has sent. One can choose against the outpoured love of God. One can trust one’s own schemes, devices, deceptions, and shortcuts to power. One can refuse to rely upon the one God sent to heal the world. Or one can trust the divine Son and his ways. Jesus alludes here, early in John, to his eventual lifting up on a Roman cross. It will look like defeat—this healing Son impaled. But this “lifting up” will be God’s glory revealed, the unlikely triumph of life abundant.