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Sermon - The Fourth Sunday in Lent (B) - 22nd March 2009
St Aidan's Anglican Church West Epping 8:30am
Readings: John 3:14-21
We have lined up this morning three amazing Bible readings. And each reading is telling us much the same story. The point of each reading is to explain to us the heart and nature of God. The big question we face in life is what is God like? Then in response to that question we have doubt and belief. I see doubt and belief as the two sides of the one coin. But they are not black and white. We can’t expect to reach a point of absolute belief without any doubt. Rather we slide up and down the continuum – sometimes more faith and less doubt – sometimes our faith shrinks and our doubts overwhelm us.
This is much like our first reading. Here were the Israelites marching through the desert on their way from Egypt, heading for the promised land. But they found they had to take a detour, they had to travel further than they had planned. They found the path much harder going than they had anticipated. And so they began to complain. Why had Moses brought them to this place in the desert? They’d only come here to die. It would have been better back in Egypt. But here there was no bread, no water and the food they did have was miserable.
But if they thought that was bad, it was about to get a lot worse. God heard their complaining and sent snakes into the camp to bite them. People were bitten and people died. The Israelites then came to their senses and approached Moses for help. They wanted the snakes to be gone. Moses prayed and look at the answer he received. The snakes weren’t taken away. But if they looked at the bronze serpent then they would be healed. They had to demonstrate their faith in order to be healed. And by this strange method the people were saved.
Of all the stories in the Old Testament that Jesus used to describe his mission he used this one, perhaps because of its simplicity. Simply looking at the bronze serpent was enough to be healed. But here was Jesus speaking with Nicodemus. Nicodemus was obviously struggling in his attempt to understand Jesus and his mission. Nicodemus had come to him under the cover of darkness to ask Jesus his questions. But he never had a chance to get his questions out. Jesus made the demand that he must be born again. Nicodemus had no idea what this meant, and no idea about how this fitted in with Jesus mission. Jesus criticised Nicodemus saying he was one of Israel’s teachers yet he didn’t understand what all this meant.
So it was at this point that Jesus referred to the Numbers story. Jesus had him remember how Israel was rescued if they looked on the bronze serpent. So Jesus is saying in a similar manner Jesus too would be lifted up and if people believed in him like Israel had believed about the serpent then they would receive life. But as we come to the famous John 3:16 verse notice what is different here. Here are two Jews in Israel discussing the work of God. Jesus is using a story from the Old Testament regarding the rescue of Israel. But suddenly Jesus changed the whole focus. He is no longer talking about just Israel. This is a statement concerning the whole world and God’s attitude and intentions concerning the whole world.
We can compare this moment to God’s behaviour in Genesis 6. There God looked at the world and he was not impressed. He was very sorry he had made humankind. So except for Noah and his family, he decided to wipe the lot out with a flood. Then we have the flood story which finishes with God promising he’ll never do that again. But now in John 3 we have God considering the whole world and this time we are told he loves the world, and its out of this love that God acts by sending his son. And perhaps Jesus too was thinking about Genesis 6 when he says that God did not send his son to condemn the world but instead, through his son he acted to save it. Now we have the contrast between the perishing as they did in the days of the flood and the new gift of eternal life.
And what is expected of us? The response that is expected is belief. Just as those who looked on the bronze serpent were given life, so those who believe the Son, that is, believing that he is the Son of God, will receive eternal life. In other words, believing is about recognizing that Jesus really is what he says about himself. And this believing changes everything. Grasping this one truth is like coming into the light. Nicodemus had come to Jesus during the dead of night. He is a man of the darkness. Yet his mind was clouded too. His thinking was in the dark. But Jesus slowly brought him to the light. And it is through gradual steps he came to understand what is true. And to begin with Nicodemus had to understand the truth about Jesus, and in believing in that truth, he too would have eternal life.
So Paul applies these same ideas of life and death to the church at Ephesus. But Paul changes the language slightly because he lives after the resurrection. Paul also changes the life and death image. Rather than being under the threat of death, Paul describes the Ephesians as already dead, that is, people already under the judgement of God. He describes them as the objects of wrath. And that is what we’d expect to see in the Old Testament. But things have changed. This is now the post-resurrection age. Paul has a unique description of God which is stronger than Jesus’ description. In John’s gospel we have “for God so loved the world.” But now in Ephesians we read “God who is rich in mercy.” This is God who has a super-abundance of love. This is God who overflows with love and demonstrates it in his world. And here Paul links the life experience of Jesus with our own. Jesus lived and died. And we too were dead. Then just as Christ was raised from the dead, we too were raised with him and God seated us in the heavenly realms in Christ.
So as we come to celebrate Easter and Christ’s death and resurrection we are celebrating our resurrection as well. Our status in heaven has been altered. We are seated with God and in Christ. Sitting seems like a comfortable posture but sitting is a picture of a victory won. If we were standing in heaven, it would mean there was more work to be done. But sitting implies the job is done, the victory is won. And God does this so he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us. In other words, we have been saved by God’s grace. This is how God acts. He does these things because he is determined to love us.
But like the Israelites of old, we are often tempted to doubt him. Things go wrong. Disappointments overwhelm us. Life is often unjust and unfair, the wicked prosper and the guilty go unpunished. We never struggle to find reasons to be angry at God, to doubt his goodness or his love for us. Sometimes God seems just too far away. And so its at those times particularly that we need to give ourselves a history lesson. We need to remember the past. We need to remember what God has done for us out of his great love for us. If he didn’t spare his own Son so he could rescue us, then there is nothing he won’t do for us in the present. And in the future, our hope is secured through the gift of his Son. All our hopes are safe – guaranteed by Jesus Christ himself.