For God so loved the world

 "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.  For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.  He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.  And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.  For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed.  But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be clearly seen, that they have been done in God."

- John 3:16-21

Yesterday we read that when Jesus was in Jerusalem at the Passover, during the feast, many believed in His name when they saw the signs which He did.  But Jesus did not commit Himself to them, because He knew all men, and had no need that anyone should testify of man, for He knew what was in man.  There was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews.  This man came to Jesus by night and said to Him, "Rabbi, we know that You are a teacher come from God; for no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with him."  Jesus answered and said to him, "Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God."  Nicodemus said to Him, "How can a man be born when he is old?  Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born?"  Jesus answered, "Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.  That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.  Do not marvel that I said to you, 'You must be born again.'  The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes.  So is everyone born of the Spirit."  Nicodemus answered and said to Him, "How can these things be?"  Jesus answered and said to him, "Are you the teacher of Israel, and do not know these things?  Most assuredly, I say to you, We speak what We know and testify what We have seen, and you do not receive Our witness.  If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things?  No one has ascended to heaven but He who came down from heaven, that is, the Son of Man who is in heaven.  And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life."

"For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life."  Here we begin where Jesus was speaking to Nicodemus in yesterday's reading (above).  He was telling Nicodemus that He would be lifted up (on the Cross), just as Moses lifted up the serpent to save Israel from the deadly venom of serpents, so that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.  What is the reason for salvation in the form of the Cross?  Jesus declares the powerful reason that surpasses all others for our faith.  God's great love -- not only for Israel, but for the world.  My study bible calls this verse the expression of the whole of the message of John's Gospel -- and of all of salvation history.  We really have to consider what the term "the world" means here.  The word in Greek is κόσμος/cosmos, which doesn't just mean that salvation is for human beings or that God's love is just for human beings.  This word includes all of creation, the whole of the created universe.

"For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.  He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.  And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.  For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed.  But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be clearly seen, that they have been done in God."   My study bible notes that Christ has been sent into the world to save and not to condemn, but that human beings have free will.  Salvation comes not through compulsion and force or coercion, but through love.  Love cannot be given nor returned involuntarily.  Rejection of this gift results in condemnation, not because God condemns -- but simply through one's own rejection of the offer of life itself.

What is condemnation?  Do we dare think about it?  Condemnation is not active rejection by God, but rather based on our own rejection of God and Christ's salvific energies and message.  John makes it clear that to reject the light is not a passive kind of  response of, "No thanks."  It's not a question of simply passing up what is on offer, although this is in fact the effect of rejection.  But rather, to reject the light of Christ is to establish a preference for darkness, and darkness is chosen for a reason.  Before we enter into territory in which we are all on shaky ground, we should understand that acceptance and rejection of this light is something which occurs in the heart of each person, and that it is only Christ who is the true "heart-knower" (καρδιογνώστης - see the commentary on this word in yesterday's reading).   Our faith is not a nominal question of simply having been baptized, or a declaration of belief, an intellectual understanding, or a one-time acceptance of salvation in the name of Christ.  Our faith is a journey of the depth of the soul, and it includes even the depths of mystery within ourselves in the relationship of communion with God.   None of us is capable of the judgment that would declare who is saved and who is not; this is the work of the Heart-knower.  But the Gospel teaches us quite clearly how salvation works, and how important and essential it is that we be awake to the significance of our choices, and in particular our response -- even in day-to-day life -- to the places God asks us to go.  We may think that a simple decision in life is just that:  something simple and neutral, amounting only to a rational adding up of reasons for and against.  But, in fact, if we're not alert to the places God calls us to, we may miss the call of mercy in our lives, the grace that asks us to open up our hearts to what is truly good.  When Jesus speaks of salvation, in His teaching on the final Judgment (Matthew 25:31-46), He speaks about the times we're called upon for forms of the practice of mercy in our lives -- and our response or lack of response to that call.  John takes us even more deeply into the power of our deeds, whether they are good or evil, when he writes, "But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be clearly seen, that they have been done in God."   What does it mean that our deeds have been done in God?  There is a deeper reality of a communion which we either seek or we don't, an underlying love and loyalty that is either at work within us or rejected within us.  It is truly there where our salvation lies.  Let us understand that such choices bear an importance that has to do with much more than our own personal salvation.  Christ's salvific work in us is for the whole world, as God's love is for the world.  John repeatedly indicates not that salvation works for each, but for the world.  That is to say that when one accepts this mercy and love, there really is no telling how it is going to work in the world.  We become a part of a communion, something that is at work not only within human beings, but for the saving love of all of creation.  Therefore, we enter into a love we can't calculate -- and we also are capable of rejecting such incalculable love through refusal.  There is no limit to God's love of the world, the universe -- and so we may also choose to be a part of that unbounded, unlimited, and immeasurable love through our faith.  We don't know who and what it may touch -- but we may indeed know that love which in turn unlimits us.  And this is the offer and the gift.  How many pass it by?  How colossal therefore is the limitation of darkness and selfishness?  And how much do we all lose in a merciless world which knows no grace?  It perhaps behooves us to recall that the zealousness of ideology to change the world for the "better" has resulted in a modern history of vast humanitarian disaster and devastation, from both the far right and far left.  Christ calls us instead to a personal practice of compassion, entering into and sharing God's expansive and unlimiting love.  Let us hear that call.