God's Love Set Jesus on the Road to Calvary
Daily Scripture
John 3:12-18
12 If I have told you about earthly things and you don’t believe, how will you believe if I tell you about heavenly things? 13 No one has gone up to heaven except the one who came down from heaven, the Human One [or Son of Man]. 14 Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so must the Human One be lifted up 15 so that everyone who believes in him will have eternal life. 16 God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him won’t perish but will have eternal life. 17 God didn’t send his Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through him. 18 Whoever believes in him isn’t judged; whoever doesn’t believe in him is already judged, because they don’t believe in the name of God’s only Son.
Daily Reflection & Prayer
Early in John’s record of Jesus’ life, we read that Nicodemus, a prominent Pharisee (named only in John’s gospel), came to Jesus “at night” (likely for secrecy) to ask about the power at work in Jesus’ ministry. Jesus told Nicodemus more than just the famous John 3:16 verse, but that verse was central to his understanding, from early stages, of the meaning of the cross. It was not a transaction but a message: “God so loved the world that he gave his only Son”—”in death on the cross (John 3:14).” *
- John said Nicodemus was a trained, leading religious “expert.” But Jesus told Nicodemus about God’s kingdom as the real “expert” who spoke from first-hand knowledge—he’d been there (verse 13). Jesus invited Nicodemus to trust his first-hand testimony about God’s realm. John implied that their talk changed Nicodemus (cf. John 7:45-52; John 19:38-42). Has God led you to trust in Jesus’ personal knowledge of God’s love as the foundation of the divine eternal kingdom?
- As noted, John 3:16 is the famous verse in this passage, but Jesus did not “drop the mike” after delivering it! He went right on to the following verses. How did verse 17 speak to a Pharisee who likely looked down judgmentally on “ordinary” people? How does it reshape your view of how God looks at you? How can verse 18 redefine the sometimes frightening pictures of what it takes to be confident in standing before God’s judgment?
Prayer
Lord Jesus, thank you for coming to what Madeleine L’Engle called our “shadowed planet” ** to tell us accurately, from your own knowledge, what God and God’s kingdom are like. Help me to live in the light you brought. Amen.
GPS Insights
Valerie Nagel
Valerie Nagel serves as a Connection and Care Pastor at Resurrection Leawood. A Californian by birth, her Master of Divinity degree is from Duke Divinity School. She served as an associate pastor in the Rio Texas Conference from 2011 in the Austin area and San Antonio. From congregational care and welcoming guests to leading in worship, Valerie loves the local church's ministry. She juggles ministry with being a mom to Caleb (born 2012) and Jacob (born 2015), friend, avid reader, lover of the outdoors, beginner in CrossFit, and foodie.
I grew up in a community that emphasized the second half of John 3:16, “everyone who believes in him won’t perish.” As a child and youth, the faith tradition that surrounded me was one that emphasized judgment and avoiding an afterlife in hell. That’s why I will never get tired of hearing about God’s love for us, for me “God so loved the world…” what a precious truth! Yesterday’s sermon was a beautiful reminder of how much God loves all of us. (If you didn’t hear it, you can click here.) The community I grew up in was like the religious communities Pastor Adam described who saw God as punitive, critical, and strict. My childhood community focused on the price to be paid for our sin rather than on God’s love for us. It felt like fear and shame were big, stormy clouds always ever present and around us. It felt like everyone was trying to avoid punishment rather than living out of love and joy.
While there are very real consequences for our mistakes, and we do need forgiveness and to repair whatever harm we’ve done in whatever ways are possible, God loves us. God isn’t distant waiting for us to mess up so God can zap us. God walks with us, listening when we cry out with sadness, tenderly showing us love when we realize our mistakes, offering us forgiveness rather than trying to shame us. Whether you have children in your life because you volunteer at one of our partner schools or with Resurrection Kids or they are your own children, I hope the love that Pastor Adam spoke about for his daughters and granddaughter is something you can understand. I don’t want to punish my kids when they get in a squabble with each other. I want to help my kids to love each other. I want to love them to the best of my ability. Love fills my heart and motivates me. It also helps me to face the healing I need to work on inside of me and in my ministry with others.
One of the biggest challenges we face is learning how to live our lives rooted in love. We need to find ways to receive God’s love and forgiveness every single day so that we can love ourselves and others well. Here’s the thing I have discovered as I left the harsh religion of my youth–walking the path of love is a whole lot harder and more meaningful than trying to follow a list of rules. Rules can be helpful, but they can also give me a false sense of superiority and the incorrect idea that I am earning my righteousness. When I seek to live like Jesus, to love others in a way that brings healing and hope, I not only find joy, I find the best kind of hard work. God’s love is so much better than human shame. It enables us to give sacrificially. When we open our hearts to God’s love, we can then learn how to love others well.
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Scripture quotations are taken from The Common English Bible ©2011. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
References
* J. Ramsey Michaels, study note on John 3:16 in The CEB Study Bible. Nashville: Abingdon Press, 2013, p. 177 NT.
** Madeleine L’Engle, A Wrinkle in Time (A Wrinkle in Time Quintet Book 1). Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR), p. 170. Kindle Edition.
