As we come to the middle of March, I am loving the smell and feel of spring in the air and the increasing sunlight with which we are gifted each passing day. But, I am so tired of this pandemic experience, and my entire being is hungry. This is not a hunger for food. It is a deep hunger within my very spirit. My entire being is increasingly hungry and yearning for life-giving, in-person relationships with people, with all of you, for in-person relationships with the community of the body of Christ. And, I am especially hungry for those in-person times I relish with our kids and grandkids. I know the time is coming closer when this will again happen, but the hunger for those special moments is just gnawing away within me.
The context for today’s gospel reading is the story of Nicodemus, a man who comes to Jesus under the cover of darkness, and he is hungry. He comes to Jesus during the night, and he has a deep spiritual hunger that is gnawing away at him. He has a hunger deep within, a hunger he cannot fully identify. Nicodemus is a Pharisee, so he comes during the night when he will not be seen. Yet, he comes wanting to find out more about this person called Jesus and what he is teaching.
Spiritually hungry Nicodemus does not understand the things Jesus tells him, so Jesus turns to a strange Old Testament story to make his point. By the way, this old story would have been very familiar to Nicodemus, good Pharisee that he was. Jesus reminds him of the Israelites who, during their forty-year wilderness wanderings, had sinned. You see, after wandering in the wilderness for so long, after they also had at times experienced hunger, their seemingly endless journey was leading to considerable dissension within the community. In fact, dissension began growing in the ranks and the “Let’s Go Back to Egypt Committee” got wound up yet once again. (You know, that is like the “But We Have Always Done It That Way Committee” you tend to find in most churches!) Anyway, the Israelites grumbled about Moses and grumbled about God, and they faced punishment. In part, the punishment was being bitten by deadly snakes. So, the Israelites then cried out to God for deliverance and God used the strangest thing to save them. Moses formed a bronze serpent, mounted it on a pole, and hoisted it upward. And, when the Israelites looked at it, they were healed; they were saved from death that was the result of poisonous snakebites. Strange as it seems to us, the Israelites were instructed to look upon this bizarre symbol of redemption to be relieved of the suffering they had brought upon themselves by their rebellion against God.
Anyway, as Jesus talks with Nicodemus, he connects this strange story to himself. He draws an analogy between the “lifting up” of the Son of Man and Moses “lifting up” the bronze serpent in the wilderness. Jesus says that, in like manner, the Son of Man must be “lifted up” so that “whoever believes in him may have eternal life.” And, as he attempts to feed the gnawing hunger within the heart of Nicodemus, Jesus speaks words that have become one of the best-known, best-loved verses in all of scripture – 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.”
“For God so loved the world….” For God so loved the world? When I think of the world, I see a small planet in the vastness of space. And, this insignificant, miniscule dot of a planet that is our world is so deeply, tragically broken. On this planet, millions of people have died and are dying from this pandemic. Racism plagues the fabric of our society and is present in every institutional structure. White supremacy groups, hate groups, and militias are growing and becoming more prevalent and destructive in our culture. The spread of domestic terrorism and the evil horrific acts these groups commit create increasing fear and reactivity in this country. In the developing world, more children are dying of diarrhea and infectious diseases than die of malaria and HIV/Aids combined. One in five children around the world do not have access to life saving vaccines and they consequently die. In sub-Saharan Africa, 7 out of 10 people lack access to electricity, the key factor that imprisons them in extreme poverty. Economic injustice is growing, here and abroad. And, what human beings have done to bring destruction to this planet we call home is mind boggling and sinful. Yes, the world is so very, very hungry! Yet, God so loved the world?
Yes. God so loves this world! And, in the gospel of John the word for “world” refers to the cosmos – to everything! God so loves everything – the entire cosmos, the entire creation, this little, insignificant, miniscule planet that is hardly a speck in the vastness of space, all the people, the land and the oceans, the animals, the bugs, the world’s goodness, and its evil. In the person of Jesus, God embraces it all and takes it into God’s very self, even the profound brokenness of this world. The gospel of John tells us God so loves the entire creation so much that the entire creation can find its home in God. Yes, God so loves the world with an immense, redeeming love. This is a love that disturbs us, gnaws at our hearts, creates within us a hunger for God, unsettles us, grasps us, and draws us into the very arms of God’s love where we become forever changed and transformed. And, once we have been grasped by this love, we find it is a love that will never ever let us go. When that happens, we discover that our true home, the home of all creation, is truly in God. Yes, God so loves the world, and it is in turning one’s face toward Jesus and looking to that cross where we finally find the love and grace that fills the gnawing hunger in our hearts. There we discover the beloved One whom God gave to the world out of love for the cosmos. There we begin to know the breadth and depth of God’s redeeming love for God’s people. There we find the One who takes into God’s very self not only all of the wonder, goodness and beauty of creation but also all of the brokenness and pain of this world. That is the way of Jesus, that is the message of the cross, and it is God’s redeeming love that changes us and causes us to then respond to the needs of the world. When God’s redeeming love fills our hungry souls, we are then compelled to work for peace, equity, reconciliation, and justice in this broken world.
In the early days of Jesus’ ministry, Nicodemus came by night and had a gnawing hunger within himself. He came to Jesus, seeking to fill a hunger he did not really understand. Nicodemus was invited into the way of Jesus, into eternal life which means life that truly matters lived in the present of our daily lives. He was invited into the love God has for the world, and he did not initially understand what Jesus was saying. However, it is likely he grew in understanding and was transformed because, when we get to the end of John’s gospel, we find out Nicodemus did not abandon Jesus. It was Nicodemus along with Joseph of Arimathea, who cared for Jesus’ body after the crucifixion. I have to think he was captured by the love God has for this world and he finally understood what Jesus had tried to tell him three years earlier.
As we gather online this morning, and as together we share the bread and wine, we receive the very life of God that will fill the gnawing hunger we feel within our hearts. In Jesus, the one who died on the cross, God has shown us the greatest love the world has ever seen. And, every time we gather and feast at God’s table, we are again nourished by the love God has for this entire world, a love that holds each and every one of us and will never ever let us go!
