Fourth Sunday of Lent

Gospel Reading: John 3:14-21

14 Jesus said to Nicodemus: "The Son of Man must be lifted up as Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert,

15 so that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him.

16 Yes, God loved the world so much that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not be lost but may have eternal life.

17 For God sent his Son into the world not to condemn the world, but so that through him the world might be saved.

18 No one who believes in him will be condemned; but whoever refuses to believe is condemned already, because he has refused to believe in the name of God's only Son.

19 On these grounds is sentence pronounced: that though the light has come into the world men have shown they prefer darkness to the light because their deeds were evil.

20 And indeed, everybody who does wrong hates the light and avoids it, for fear his actions should be exposed;

21 but the man who lives in the truth comes out into the light so that it may be plainly seen that what he does is done in God."

Gospel Meditation

You will notice certain themes running through the entire pas­ sage. Each of them is expressed in a different metaphor, each has its special emphasis. Some of the themes are well known to us; others are more new. John is like an arranger who works out variations of the basic tune of a well known piece of music.

We read the passage then we do it with this awareness at the b ack of our minds. We take each section very slowly, giving it o ur perfect attention.

Verses 13 to 15: The theme here is that the Son of Man who will eventually be crucified needs to be lifted up on high so that he can become a source of true life for all his followers. This must happen if he is to have this effect on us.

His 'being lifted up' on high makes him stand out from all who look on him. We realise then how much he has to offer his people, especially those of us who are in the desert as Moses and his followers were and as he himself was on the cross at Calvary .

St John adds a variation. He remembers that the serpent who had appeared to the Israelites in the desert in the time of Moses was originally a symbol of death. Our present source of life was originally an object that spoke of death and destruction . A sym bol of shame had now become for us a great source of life.

We think of times in our own lives when what was originally for us a mark of death now becomes a sign of life. We think of new life arising out of people who when we saw them first reminded us of death; the possibility of destruction in this present life which now becomes a source of new life; death existing together with the signs of new life. Death now becomes a source of new life. We stay with the metaphor until it becomes this reality for us.

The passage is also telling us something important about the people who watch the death of Jesus. What had seemed at first only of little consequence, with no special message for God's people, becomes an invitation to new life.

Verse 16a: God's love for us is expressed practically by his giving us what is most precious to him - his own son whom he loved very special­ly. He wanted to deliver him from all evil but ended up seeing him sacri­ficed on the cross. It was therefore a tremendous act of service to us from the great God.

Verse 16b: The motive for and indeed the actual fruit of God's love is expressed in two possible outcomes for people: 'being lost': we must make an effort to understand this con­ cept; being lost includes all the aspects that we know well -not found, left alone by ourselves, without any one that we can turn to; 'having eternal life', on the other hand, includes concepts like a gift that does not end with death in any form.

Verse 17 brings back the teaching of the previous verse through the metaphors of condemning and being saved. We need to spend some time with each of the consequences: condemning includes concepts like having no hope; being saved includes things like being looked after.

Verse 18 brings back the metaphor of being condemned and links it to another conclusion: the option of believing in love; not believing in God's only Son given for us. In verse 19 Jesus reflects on how people are condemned; the only valid condemnation is the one which comes from within oneself.

Prayer

Many people think that life conies out of celebration when actually cel­ebrations that ever mean anything come out of life itself.
Eugene Kennedy

Lord, we would like to be a source of life for others without cost to ourselves.

We thank you for true leaders we have met who knew the law of life as Jesus did, that we must make ourselves vulnerable, be open to failure and humiliation, allowing ourselves to be lifted up as Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert, if our followers are to find life in us.

Lord, there was a time when we were afraid of death, of failing, suffering, being rejected by others.

This fear was a bondage for us.

We thank you for lifting up a Son of Man before us and inviting us to look honestly at things that frightened us: we looked on that Son of Man and how we ourselves tend to live.

We realised then that his death was truly a source of new life for us.

Lord, we thank you for all those who love - parents, grandparents, spouses, community leaders - they love so much that they give what is most precious to them, their careers, their future security, their own friends, so that those whom they love might experience that they can trust and so not be lost but live.

Lord, we think today of those in our society who are lost: addicts to drugs or alcohol; those who are eaten up with bitterness and envy; those who cannot forgive.

We remember that your will is that they should not be lost; for them you gave up your only Son.

Forgive us for not mediating your love to them.

Lord, we pray for teachers in schools, church communities, families.

Remind them that you have sent them into their communities not to condemn, but so that through them their charges might be saved.

Lord, there is nothing more terrible in life than to feel condemned to live without purpose; to experience failure and rejection whatever happens; to know that you will never be admired by others; and the root of this is not believing that you are loved. Help us to be the presence of your only Son in the world, so that people might not go through life feeling condemned.

Lord, we pray for your church, that we may never give in to the tendency to condemn.

Help us to focus on being true to you so that others may come to us not out of fear of being condemned but out of the truth that is in themselves.

Lord, we thank you for the journey to grace that many of us are making during this Lent.

For many years you were calling us, inviting us to look honestly on our addictions, our vanity, our envy.

We hated the light, avoided it for fear that the truth about ourselves should be exposed.

During these days we were brought to look at ourselves and come out into the light, feeling inner peace because we knew that what we were doing we were doing in you.