Thought for the day
People undergoing counselling and therapy sometimes have a block or memory, which is holding them back, usually an earlier difficult experience of some kind. Something like that is happening in the Old Testament folk tale of the bronze serpents: the power of the serpents to cause harm is taken away once they are confronted straight in the eye, through the symbol of the bronze serpent. We may say the same of Jesus as he faced death for us. Being lifted up for our sake, he looked death in the eye and took away its power over us.
Prayer
Loving God, in your beloved Son, lifted up for our sakes, you took away the power of sin and death. Help us to continue to live as people set free, so that we may come to the eternal life you hold out to us. Amen.
Gospel
John 3:13 [Jesus said:] No one has ascended into heaven except the one who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. 14 And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, 15 that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.
John 3:16 “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.
John 3:17 “Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world but in order that the world might be saved through him.
Initial observations
(i) This is a great feast, offering a rare opportunity outside of Lent and Holy Week to reflect on “the great events that give us new life in Christ.” In particular, John’s Gospel presents us with an alternative to the standard western doctrine of redemption (“penal substitution”
(ii) We need an alternative or alternatives because the traditional narrative no longer works, as history or as theology or as spirituality. Science has moved on and we think differently of human origins. Theology has moved on and we think differently of God. Spirituality has moved on and we are no longer content to work on the basis of guilt and punishment.
Although the Anselmian doctrine is embedded in our western tradition, art and prayer books (and probably also in our subconscious), it is worth remembering two things.
(a) As Anselm candidly admits, it is not based on Scripture—and he is right! Scripture does not teach penal substitution and the historical Jesus did not understand his own death as a punishment.
(b) The mode of redemption was never a matter of church dispute and hence never defined by a church council.
(iii) Every New Testament text reflects an understanding of Jesus’s death and resurrection. However, three documents are outstanding in this regard: the Letter to the Hebrews, the Gospel of John and the Pauline corpus (i.e. the seven undisputed letters). The Fourth Gospel alone offers a rich palette of understandings: healing and lifting up (our reading), glorification (throughout, in the sense of the revelation of the “heart” of God), Passover (John 6 and 19), new creation (John 1, 19 and 20). Our reading establishes the important theme of the lifting up, an image taken from Moses, showing the radical unity of cross and resurrection. Within John 1-4, the core teaching of 3:16 is found within a reflection on new birth and baptism, that is, on “access” to salvation, mediated by the Nicodemus episode. The wider context for understanding this reading will be pursued below under NT foreground.
Kind of writing
i) The episode with Nicodemus, of which our reading is a part, is a quest story with a difference. Unlike the other quest stories typical of this Gospel, this is a failed or fractured quest. Nicodemus “vanishes” but turns up later in John 7 and 20.
(ii) The whole of chapter is a diptych or two-panel scene. The other half of the panel is made up of Baptist traditions. These two panels do parallel each other is a subtly calibrated manner.
In both panels, the other character (Nicodemus / John) sort of vanishes and a monologue about Jesus by Jesus continues, reflecting Johannine tradition and vocabulary.
Old Testament background
Abraham and his son
The angel of the Lord called to Abraham a second time from heaven, and said, “By myself I have sworn, says the Lord: Because you have done this, and have not withheld your son, your only son, I will indeed bless you, and I will make your offspring as numerous as the stars of heaven and as the sand that is on the seashore. And your offspring shall possess the gate of their enemies, and by your offspring shall all the nations of the earth gain blessing for themselves, because you have obeyed my voice.” (Genesis 22:15–18; cf. John 8:33, 37, 39–40, 52–53, 56–58)
Jacob and the ladder
Jacob left Beer-sheba and went toward Haran. He came to a certain place and stayed there for the night, because the sun had set. Taking one of the stones of the place, he put it under his head and lay down in that place. And he dreamed that there was a ladder set up on the earth, the top of it reaching to heaven; and the angels of God were ascending and descending on it. (Genesis 28:10–12; cf. direct citation [John 4:5, 12]; allusion [2:51; 3:13])
Moses and the bronze serpent
And the Lord said to Moses, “Make a poisonous serpent, and set it on a pole; and everyone who is bitten shall look at it and live.” So Moses made a serpent of bronze, and put it upon a pole; and whenever a serpent bit someone, that person would look at the serpent of bronze and live. (Numbers 21:8–9; cf. John 1:17, 45; 3:14; 5:45–46; 6:32; 7:19, 22–23; 8:5; 9:28–29)
New Testament foreground
Chapter 3 (with Jesus at the centre of each panel) forms an important thematic bridge between John 1-2 and John 4 as follows:
Theme: rebirth (John the Baptist, Jesus’ own “baptism”), linked to the Samaritan Woman by Jn 4:1-3
Theme: water (baptism, Cana, Jacob’s well)
Theme: Holy Spirit (baptism, woman at the well)
Theme: Bridegroom (Cana, woman at the well)
Thus, John 3 is a highly significant transition, making sure we remember earlier material when we hear the story of the woman at the well. Jesus surpasses the Baptist, as Messiah / bridegroom of the Jewish people, he takes God’s marriage covenant to a new spiritual level. As a result, he offers new birth from above, through water and the Holy Spirit. All of this is based on the great events of salvation, heralded by other allusions in our reading.
Lifting up
So Jesus said, “When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will realise that I am he, and that I do nothing on my own, but I speak these things as the Father instructed me. (John 8:28)
“And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.” He said this to indicate the kind of death he was to die. The crowd answered him, “We have heard from the law that the Messiah remains forever. How can you say that the Son of Man must be lifted up? Who is this Son of Man?” (John 12:32–34)
Saved
You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. (John 4:22) They said to the woman, “It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is truly the Saviour of the world.” (John 4:42) I am the gate. Whoever enters by me will be saved, and will come in and go out and find pasture. (John 10:9) I do not judge anyone who hears my words and does not keep them, for I came not to judge the world, but to save the world. (John 12:47)
St Paul
Therefore, since we have been declared righteous by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in the hope of God’s glory. Not only this, but we also rejoice in sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance, character, and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us. (Romans 5:1–5 NET)
Brief commentary
Verse 13 The link is with Jacob’s ladder and portrays Jesus a mediator between God and humanity. Son of Man hints at the cross (John 1:51; 3:13–14; 5:27; 6:27, 53, 62; 8:28; 9:35; 12:23, 34; 13:31).
Verses 14-15 A clear link with Moses, portraying the death of Jesus as healing us from death itself. Thus a therapeutic model of salvation is used. And this is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. (John 17:3)
Verse 16 Unlike Isaac, the Son of God did actually die, not as a test or punishment but as a measure of God’s love and compassionate solidarity.
Verse 17 This gospel does speak of judgement but not on the basis of behaviour but on the basis of accepting or rejecting Jesus. This is salvation.
Pointers for prayer
1. In John’s Gospel the lifting up of Jesus on the cross is the climax of the revelation of God’s love for us. How has the cross spoken to you of the love we have been shown in Jesus?
2. Jesus says the purpose of his life is that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life. In what ways has faith given you life and vitality?
3. Jesus said that he was sent to save and not to condemn. Remember what has helped you to see God as one who is fundamentally on your side in life, a God to be trusted and relied on rather than feared..
4. In presenting the purpose of his life as salvation rather than condemnation, Jesus tells us something about the purpose of every human life. It is to be life-giving, rather than destructive of life. Recall times your life was enriched by the words or actions of another. Remember also when you were able to do the same for another person.
Prayer
Lifted up among us, O God, is Jesus the crucified: sign of your steadfast love and pledge of your will to save.
To those who look upon the cross with faith, grant healing of soul and life eternal.
We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God for ever and ever. Amen.