3/19/2012 – 4th Sunday of Lent- Cycle B - John 3:14-21

      There was a man named Nicodemus who was a powerful Pharisee in Ancient Israel.  He heard about Jesus, about Jesus’ teaching and ministry.  Nicodemus was intrigued.  He wanted to meet Jesus, to talk to him, to learn from him, to question him about his faith.  Yet, Nicodemus chose to come to Jesus in the cover of night.  Perhaps he was afraid of this getting out, that he had a connection with Jesus, and thus come under suspicion by the high-ranking Jewish authorities. 

         Nicodemus gets into a theological discussion with Jesus about being born in the Spirit and receiving new life in faith.  We come at the very end of this discussion in today’s Gospel. Jesus gives Nicodemus this curious message, saying: “just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert, so must Jesus as the Son of Man be lifted up also, so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life."  We remember the journey that the people of Israel took with Moses in the desert to the promised land, how they became impatient and angry along that journey.  They complained to God and to Moses.  God sent serpents to the desert wilderness; they bit and killed many people.  The people saw the errors of their ways, asking God for mercy. They took responsibility for their rebellion against God.  So God told Moses to make the image of a serpent out of bronze, putting it on a pole.  Those who had been bitten by the snakes could look at the image of the serpent and live.  When the Jews heard Jesus refer to Moses lifting up the serpent in the desert, they remembered how the serpents first brought the people death and God’s judgment, but how the image of the bronze serpent that Moses lifted up brought life, mercy, and a new beginning.

From this passage in John, most people remember one particular verse.  John 3:16 has become one of the most well-known passages in the Bible and part of our popular culture.  People have referred to this passage as “the Gospel in a nutshell.”  Tim Tebow, the popular quarterback who is admired for his Christian faith, wore the citation John 3:16 on the black strips under his eyes in a championship football game while playing quarterback for the University of Florida.  We all remember this verse, that God loved the world so much, that he gave us his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Jesus might not perish, but might have everlasting life.  Biblical scholars say that this verse in its original Greek connotes more than just “believing in” Jesus, but rather “believing into” Jesus, which means handing ourselves entirely over to Jesus, handing our entire lives to him, rather than just believing in him and what he stands for.  This is more than an intellectual assent – it is more than believing and having faith.  It is a radical change in our lives.  This verse in John 3:16 is not about just believing in a way of life, it is not just believing in Christ’s crucifixion – it is rather about following him in his way in all that this entails. 

Today, the fourth Sunday in Lent, is referred to as Laetare Sunday, from the Latin word “rejoice.”  The introit, the entrance antiphon for today, starts out: “Rejoice O Jerusalem, and come together all you that love her; rejoice with joy, you that have been in sorrow.”  It is indeed sorrowful to join Jesus on his way to the cross during Lent, to travel through the desert, to look inside of our hearts, recognize our sins and the ways we need to repent.  Lent is not to be something to be taken likely.  I have actually heard some people who are not Catholic mock our Lenten season and our Lenten disciplines, saying “Well, I would give up breath mints for Lent, or I would give up broccoli, something I really dislike.”  Lent is an important part of our journey of faith.  If we take it seriously, it will have an affect on us, it will help us on our journey.  One of the prisoners recently told me – Lent has been awful for me, Father Lincoln.  I am not feeling any closeness to God at all this Lenten season.  In fact, I don’t feel close to anyone.  And our reality of life can be harsh like that sometimes.  We may be struggling, or we may be in poor health, or we may be going through a grieving process from a divorce or the death of a loved one.  But God meets us in that reality.  In one of the versions of the station of the cross that way pray, when Jesus falls for the third time, when he’s lying collapsed on the cobblestones, drained of all strength, we can identify with him.  We can feel like we have no strength at all when we fall on our journey, we can feel despair, guilt and self-reproach.  Yet, we realize that our falls and our sins are not beyond the love of Christ.  Our faith will not keep us from falling sometime, will not keep us from feeling weary, but our faith will help us endure and carry on.  In the midst of that suffering, we are called to recognize the joy that still exists in our hearts, even if its just a glimmer or a sliver of joy.  It is a joy we have in the salvation that Christ brings to us through his death and resurrection.  Through our joys and through our sorrows, we come to a greater understanding about the Lenten journey that we are undertaking.
         Often in our society, a saying or a slogan can be repeated so much that it loses its richness of meaning and becomes just another part of popular culture.  But today’s Gospel is what our faith is all about.  As we journey to the cross with Jesus, as we continue our Lenten disciplines and our journey through the desert wilderness, may we see the light of Christ shining in our world, shining in lives, even in the midst of the struggles and ups-and-downs that characterize our daily lives.  Let us never lose sight of that presence that is with us.