Christ Church, Falkirk

Readings

Psalm 107: 1-3 17-22

Ephesians 2: 1-10

John 3: 14-21

Sermon

The context for the words of Jesus in the Gospel reading (below) is this.  Nicodemus, a Pharisee and member of the Jewish ruling council, comes to Jesus at night, not exactly with a question, but a statement of belief.  He starts by saying to Jesus, ‘Rabbi, we know you are a teacher who has come from God, for no-one could perform the miraculous signs you are doing if God were not with him.’  I think it’s interesting that what has immediately gone before this encounter is Jesus overturning the tables in the Temple!  No wonder, then, that Nicodemus comes to Jesus by night, clearly not wanting anyone to know – Jesus has not made himself popular with the important ‘religious’ people of the time.  However, Nicodemus is clearly intrigued by Jesus, and wants to know more.

So Nicodemus comes to Jesus at night, and there is quite a lengthy dialogue in which Jesus teaches the Pharisee about himself; his relationship to God; and what he has come to do.  Jesus has talked of the reality of having to choose between belief and unbelief; judgment and condemnation; truth and untruth; good and evil.  Jesus starts in this section we’ve heard by comparing what must happen to him – dying on a cross - with the serpent in the wilderness.  This was the serpent that Moses lifted up to God’s people when they were wandering in the wilderness, so that when they looked upon it, rather than perish, they lived.  How simple!  How wonderful!  Jesus is saying that all people need to do is to look upon him as their Saviour, lifted on the cross, and they will live.

By comparing the way in which he himself would save the whole world with the serpent being lifted up, Jesus is not setting a high bar for those desiring to be saved from their brokenness.  All it took, all it takes, is to look upon Jesus, lifted on the cross, and believe in his power to save.  The divine plan of God – no story so divine! - is summarised in the wonderful words here of verses 16 and 17: ‘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.’  And there’s more: ‘For God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.’ 

No story so divine, indeed!  God’s divine plan, for the whole world to be saved through the self-giving of Jesus, was, and is, perfect.  Today’s reading, verses 16 and 17 are called ‘The Gospel in Miniature,’ because they tell us all we need to know.  Without the giving of God’s own self in his Son, our world would be left to brokenness, ruin, destruction and violence – but that was not in God’s plan at all.  Instead, we are invited into faith through the words and actions of Jesus: ‘Everyone who believes in me may not perish but have eternal life.’  It’s not just an invitation for you or for me, but for the whole world.  God desires to save the whole world from the brokenness which marks so much of its dealings.  This, after all, is the world he made, and saw that it was good.  It was the world he made, out of his love.

Of course, we may also have in our minds that today is Mothering Sunday.  How appropriate then, that we should hear words in which the one perfect God-made-man gives life to all people, and through his great love, brings us back into relationship with our heavenly parent.  For no matter what our relationships are like here on earth – and let’s face it close relationships can be difficult – we have a perfect parent in our Father God, and a perfect Saviour in Christ Jesus.  The Father did not abandon the Son to death; we will never be abandoned either, whether or not we feel we deserve it!  When others condemn us, or we condemn ourselves, God does not condemn us; when we are rejected or overlooked, even by family and friends, God does not reject or overlook us; when we lose the ability to hope, God draws us back into hope – and warms our hearts once more to love. 

In the reading from Paul’s Letter to the Ephesians, Paul seeks to explain how God’s great love brought mercy and grace through faith in Christ Jesus.  He says these words, ‘God, who is rich in mercy, out of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ, and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places.’  No story so divine!  Not only are we saved by simple faith in Jesus as our Lord and Saviour, but we are, in a sense, already with Jesus, at the same time as we look forward to the day when we will, with all our sisters and brothers gone before us, be with Jesus for ever and ever, and see him face to face.