John 3:16 - Part 1

Whether they smuggle them into the stadiums under their jackets, or walk in boldly holding them high for all to see, I’m not sure. But at some point in the proceedings, the homemade banners are draped over advertising hoardings or held aloft for the worldwide TV audience to see.

And "John 3:16" is all that they say. And I guess the hope is that a few curious souls, realising this is a Bible text, will go and hunt it down to find out what it means and just maybe find themselves pondering the meaning of life.

So why this verse, out of the tens of thousands that could be chosen?

I guess it’s because for many people there’s no better summary of the message of the whole gospel:

“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”.

It’s all there – the Father, the Son, the problem, the solution and the promise. And that’s part of the reason this particular verse has become embedded in the Christian psyche.

But like everything that’s become over-familiar to us, we can become immune to its real meaning. So over the next few weeks we’re going to live with this verse and unwrap each clause slowly to see what Jesus is really saying through these words that John has recorded.

“For God so loved the world.”

Those six words will do us for today.

Does God love this world, do you think?

It’s a fair question. Looking around at some of the things that go on in the world we might wonder what on earth God is making of it all. And we probably know enough of the Old Testament to be familiar with the image of an angry God standing in judgment against the nations, including Israel, for living godlessly.

Does God love the world? It’s not an easy question to answer, and Christians answer it in different ways.

Go into any church and listen discerningly to the choice of hymns, and the prayers, and the sermon and you’ll pretty soon work out where they’re coming from. Is the world something to celebrate, or something to tolerate as we make our way to heaven? Is the world the object of God’s love or God’s wrath? Arguments can be made either way from Scripture.

Some religious communities seem determined to get through this life with as little contact with outsiders as possible. Is that what God wants from us? Is that how to be authentically Christian?

And how do we reconcile the parts of Scripture which seem to set God in opposition to the world with the parts that speak of his love for the world?

Well as I puzzled over that this week I found myself drawing an analogy with my studies in chemistry from days gone by.

When you first start doing chemistry you’re told that the atom is a bit like a mini solar system. In the middle there’s the nucleus with the protons and the neutrons and orbiting around them on the outside are the electrons. It’s all black and white – nice and simple.

Once you get that into your head, they start telling you that you that the electrons don’t move in nice circular orbits, but buzz about so quickly that you can’t know where they are at any one time. If you were able to plot the movements of an electron around the nucleus it would look more like a cloud than anything else.

Then they tell you that most of an atom is actually space, that protons, electrons and neutrons are incredibly small compared to the size of the atom, and then they blow your mind by telling you that within these particles – which you’d been told were the smallest that exist - there are even smaller subatomic particles called quarks. And it’s some of the more elusive quarks that the scientists at CERN in Switzerland are trying to detect with their Large Hadron Collider.

Now it’s not that the simple model of the atom we were taught at school didn’t have some truth or value in it. It explained a lot and it was our way in to the science. But the simplicity of that model hid a far more wonderful set of truths that we just weren’t ready for. We needed to walk before we could run.

Sometimes I wonder if we should carry that thinking with us when we read the more black and white passages in the Old Testament which seem to suggest God loves Israel and hates the nations, or God loves the good people and hates the bad people. Nice and simple, maybe, but we know there’s much more to the story than that.

As you read through the Old Testament and into the new it’s clear that the writers are becoming more aware of the wideness of God’s mercy – that God has designs not just on Israel, but on the whole of creation.

And in these words that we have before us today, we hear categorically from the mouth of the Son of God the most amazing, beautiful truth, spoken with the authority of the only one who really knows for sure. And He says “For God so loved the world”.

Whatever else we might need to say about judgment or sin, and there’s much to be said, God’s fundamental orientation towards this world in all its ambiguity, is love.

For God so loved the world.

Now - think about someone or something you love for a moment. Could be a person, could be a place.

Could be the land you farm, a pet who’s been in the family for a long time. Could be a spouse or a child, a parent or a friend.

Ask yourself this: Why do I love them?

At its simplest, isn’t it because, in some sense, you belong to one another? You’ve worked that land; you’ve cared for that pet; you’ve shared your life with that person? You belong to one another, for better, for worse, for richer for poorer.

And what do you will for them as a result of that love?

Isn’t it peace, contentment, purpose; the hope that your relationship with them will grow and deepen?

And will your love fail when things go wrong?

Well, sometimes hard things have to be said or faced up to. And it isn’t always possible to make things work – that’s in the nature of love, it has to flow both ways – but as Shakespeare once wrote – ‘love is not love which alters when it alteration finds’. Love toughs it out. It always hopes, always trusts, always protects, always perseveres as the apostle said.

This is how God loves the world he formed, and saw was good; and he will not rest until that goodness is set free from everything that constrains it.

And in the mystery of God’s grace, this divine love is set on everyone and everything. The word translated ‘world’ in the Greek is kosmos, from which we get our word ‘cosmos’! John is telling us that God loves the cosmos – the whole created order.

Willie Barclay puts it this way: “It was the world that God so loved. It was not a nation; it was not the good people; it was not only the people who loved him; it was the world. The unlovable and the unlovely, the lonely who have no-one else to love them; those who love God and those who never think of him, those who rest in the love of God and those who spurn it – all are included in this vast inclusive love of God”.

Even those who think they are beyond the pale, or whom others think are beyond the pale are included.

I love the old story about the soldier with a troubled conscience who goes to visit a monk to make his confession: “Can God ever forgive me for all the wrong that I’ve done?” he asks.

“Tell me” said the monk. “When your cloak is torn, do you throw it away?”

“No – I mend it and I use it again” he said.

“If you’re that careful with your cloak” said the monk “don’t you think that God will be just as careful with his creatures?”

God is careful with his creation. God loves what he has made.

Easy to believe that as you look out over the white beaches and turquoise sea on a sunny day in the western Isles. Harder to believe when you watch the news, or find yourself in the company of someone who’s making life difficult for you. But it’s no less true.

For God so loved the world says Jesus. The cosmos. The whole thing. He loved it so much he wills its redemption.

Whether it will let itself be redeemed is another story. But more of that in the weeks to come.