John 3:16

John 3:1-17

Second Sunday in Lent ~ February 17, 2008

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ. Our Gospel lesson today contains one of the most recognized Bible passages outside of Psalm 23, that is John 3:16, “For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.” Even people who have never opened the Bible or been to church have probably heard this verse. And it is a great verse because in Jesus words He sums up the plan of salvation.

Many years ago in college I had a chance to visit the Billy Graham center at Wheaton College in Chicago. At the time we were visiting there was an art display based on John 3:16. The idea of the project was to see all the other 3:16’s of the Bible and see what each verse said. Most of the artwork was calligraphy of the verses. What was amazing was that you got a sense of the whole of scripture, and of God’s love for us, out of most of these 3:16 verses.

We know what John 3:16 says but do we know the context around this verse? I would like to spend a few moments seeing what prompted these words of Jesus. We go back to verse one of chapter three and here we see a Pharisee named Nicodemus coming to Jesus. Usually when a Pharisee was coming to Jesus it was to confront Him or test Him. But I think Nicodemus was really searching and wanted to see for himself who is this Jesus. He even acknowledges that what Jesus has been doing so far shows that He is from God.

But we also see a hesitation on Nicodemus’ part. You see the text clearly says that he came at night and I think this is identified to show that Nicodemus didn’t want others to see him with Jesus. And we also see as the conversation goes on that Nicodemus, while curious, wasn’t opening his heart to Jesus and seeing Him for who He really was, the Messiah.

Jesus talks about being born again and instead of seeing the spiritual side Nicodemus gets caught up in an image of physical birth. He gets more confused as the conversation goes on. But I think Jesus is also planting the seeds of faith for Nicodemus to someday see who Jesus really is. Jesus now tells him that just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness so will the Son of Man be lifted up. Here Jesus is relating a familiar Old Testament story that Nicodemus should know and comparing it to what Jesus will do later.

Now we don’t know what happened to Nicodemus. We at least know he wasn’t quite getting it at this time with Jesus. But I would like to think that maybe his heart was open enough to receive the message of Jesus. And I also think that Jesus’ words about being lifted up may have prepared Nicodemus for seeing the truth down the road. Imagine Nicodemus being in Jerusalem a few years later and seeing Jesus being lifted up on the cross. I can imagine that he would have remembered these words of Jesus now and I hope that his heart would have broken open to see Jesus for who he was – the true Messiah.

God always plants seeds through His Word that can bear fruit in someone’s life. But those seeds need to be planted. Aren’t we sometimes like Nicodemus? Not that we don’t know who Jesus is but aren’t we like him and come under the “cover of night” when we are confronted about our faith. We may be ready to tell someone that we go to church or that we are a Christian. But how often do we tell people what Jesus really means to us? How often do we get real specific about our faith and tell the whole truth to other people? Or do we prefer to stand back and not make waves, not stir things up, not be bold in sharing our faith.

John 3:16 and sharing our faith boldly got me thinking about an image familiar to many of us. It is the image of what I will call the “Banner Man.” This is the person who puts together a large poster that simply states, “John 3:16” and holds it up at sporting events. Often simple black letter on a large white banner. Very simple yet very bold. I didn’t watch the Super Bowl this year but I am sure there were those who were there with their banners ready to lift up when a field goal was being kicked or when they saw the camera’s were on their section of the stands.

Many years ago there was a song with the title “Banner Man” written and sung by a Christian musician by the name of Steve Taylor (I have eclectic tastes in music). It was a tongue-in-cheek song that painted this person to be like a super hero lifting his banner at just the right time. But there is a phrase in the song that it really powerful – “he ain’t going to change the world, but he knows who can.”