Love and Mercy: SALT’s Commentary for Lent 4

Lent 4 (Year B): John 3:14-21 and Numbers 21:4-9

Check out SALT’s “Strange New World” podcast episode on these passages: “Understanding Easter - Part Four: The Great Reversal.”

Big Picture:

1) This week’s readings include one of the most famous verses in the New Testament, John 3:16, a citation frequently seen on placards at sporting events, in graffiti along roadsides, and so on. For all its familiarity, the verse is frequently misunderstood, partly because of a holdover from seventeenth-century English (see below), and partly because so much is packed into it and the surrounding passage. Martin Luther called John 3:16 “the gospel in miniature” — and like any summary, it pushes us to clarify how we understand God’s love and God’s justice to be related. If we distort this key relationship, we can render the verse not the Gospel but rather the anti-Gospel, a proclamation not of love and invitation but of contempt and exclusion. In other words, this verse presents us with an excellent opportunity to contemplate and crystallize what Christian “good news” is really all about.

2) As the Israelites wander in the wilderness, there are nearly a dozen stories in Exodus and Numbers describing the people complaining or rebelling along the way — and in this week’s passage from John, Jesus alludes to the very last of these stories. It’s arguably the most serious of them all, since the people speak “against God and against Moses,” a formulation unique to this story (Num 21:5). Hungry and impatient, the Israelites ungratefully describe the exodus from Egypt as “bringing us out into the wilderness to die,” and so God sends poisonous, deadly serpents to slither among them, wreaking havoc (Num 21:5-6). The people promptly confess (“we have sinned”) and plead for help, and God directs Moses to fashion a serpent of bronze and put it up on a pole, such that any bitten Israelite can “look at the serpent of bronze and live” (Num 21:7-9).

3) Both in Numbers and in John, there are indications that the negative consequences described in these stories are less divine punishments and more aspects of the self-destructive nature of sin. In Numbers, the Israelites’ complaints themselves are conspicuously “serpentine”: poisonous, bitter, and self-contradictory (given manna to eat daily, the people say both “There is no food!” and “We detest this miserable food!” (Num 21:5)). And in John, Jesus casts those who do not believe in him as afflicted by a self-sabotaging desire to stay in the shadows; in this sense, they condemn themselves by choosing to stay away from the light (John 3:18,21). In any case, the center of gravity in both stories — and the key link between them — is the saving action of God, as well as God’s intention to save not just a select few but rather “everyone” who looks upon the bronze serpent (Numbers), and indeed the entire world (John).

4) Jesus’ other allusion in this passage from John — by way of the phrase, “gave his only Son” — is to the harrowing story of Abraham and Isaac, in which God calls on Abraham to give his “only son” as a burnt offering (John 3:16; Gen 22:2,12,16). As it turns out, the instruction is a divine “test” to see whether Abraham’s fidelity and devotion to God are genuine or driven by self-interest (Gen 22:1). Abraham loves Isaac, of course, and in addition, since Isaac is Abraham’s only heir, his death would apparently invalidate God’s promise that Abraham’s descendents will be “a great nation” (Gen 12:2; 15:3-6). God is asking, in effect, Are you truly devoted to me — or merely to the promise of a great legacy? Thus the instruction to sacrifice Isaac “tests” the nature of Abraham’s devotion — and in the end, the ordeal demonstrates that his devotion is extravagant and true. By alluding to this story, Jesus is signaling that God’s devotion to humankind is likewise extravagant and true, and that Jesus’ mission — his life, death, and resurrection — should be understood accordingly. (Here’s SALT’s full commentary on the Abraham and Isaac story.)

Scripture:

1) Shortly after Jesus’ provocative disturbance-of-the-peace at the Jerusalem temple, Nicodemus, a Jewish religious leader, visits Jesus by night. Nicodemus has begun to suspect that Jesus has indeed “come from God” — though he’s not yet convinced. He has questions about what Jesus means by being “born anew” or “born from above” (the Greek phrase here can mean either), a phenomenon Jesus then calls being “born of the Spirit” (John 3:3,8). This is a late-night, clandestine conversation, and Jesus’ words are part of an attempt to persuasively explain his identity and mission to an interested, well-educated leader who has asked to hear more.  

2) To make his case, Jesus alludes to the Israelites in the wilderness (Numbers 21) and to Abraham and Isaac (“gave his only Son”; John 3:16; Genesis 22). Both references are well-tailored to Nicodemus, a Pharisee who would have known scripture exceedingly well — and they also serve as a compact, anticipatory portrait of Jesus’ coming crucifixion. Jesus puns on the phrase, “lifted up”: Moses lifted up the bronze serpent and Jesus will be lifted up on the cross, and at the same time the phrase also alludes to Jesus' resurrection and ascension (John 3:14). Above all, however, the reference to the story from Numbers highlights God’s character as the One who saves even and especially in the face of rebellion. The Israelites had self-destructively turned against God, but when they asked for deliverance from the consequences of their sin (and please note, their plea isn't out of any high-minded piety, but rather is driven by self-preservation!), God gracefully delivers them.

3) There’s a fascinating theology of the cross evoked here, distinct from both “penal substitution” theory (the idea that Jesus absorbs punishment on our behalf) and “Christus Victor” theory (the idea that Jesus conquers the powers of death). While God could have saved the Israelites by having them look upon any object at all, or in some other way entirely, the chosen remedy is to look upon a bronze serpent, a vivid reminder — even in the midst of healing and restoration — of two things: first, the deadly, self-destructive nature of sin; and second, God's gracious transformation of even our worst into part of our redemption. Likewise, the Christian cross can play this dual role, reminding us of the many ways we turn against each other in violence and betrayal, and at the same time, of God’s graceful, transformative forgiveness and deliverance.

4) Think of it this way: the bronze serpent takes what was for the wandering Israelites one of the very worst things in the world (a lethal snake) and remakes it into one of the very best (an instrument of healing). Accordingly, the Christian cross can be understood as an imperial weapon of torture and death divinely transformed into a sign of hope and new life, a sword remade into a ploughshare. Viewed this way, the cross epitomizes and proclaims the Great Reversal now underway: God is turning the world around, redeeming even the worst of the worst, swords into ploughshares, serpents into salves, crosses into trees of life — making all things new!

5) In seventeenth-century English, “so” frequently meant “in this way” — as in, “like so,” or “so help me God.” In the King James Version of the Bible, then, it made perfect sense to translate the Greek houtos (WHO-toes, “in this way”) with the English word “so” — and that's exactly what the KJV translators did in the famous sentence, “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son...” (John 3:16). But today, we more often use “so” to mean “very” or “to a large extent” — as in, “I’m so sad,” or “She’s so smart!” Thus John 3:16 is often misunderstood today as a statement about the extent or degree of God’s love — whereas actually it’s a statement about the way or pattern of God’s love, as in, “For God loved the world in this way…”

6) Remember, Jesus is talking to Nicodemus, a student of scripture, and in order to describe the character of God’s love, he makes two allusions to ancient scriptural archetypes: one underscoring God's desire to save sinners, as in the story of the bronze serpent in the wilderness; and the other underscoring God’s extravagant fidelity and devotion to humankind, as in the story of Abraham and Isaac (the link is the phrase, “gave his only Son”; in this sense, in Abraham’s extravagant devotion to God we can catch a glimpse of God’s extravagant devotion to humanity). In what way does God love the world? In this way (houtos): God graciously delivers us from the self-destruction of sin, and God faithfully, astonishingly gives God’s only Child for the sake of our deliverance.

7) For the sake of whose deliverance, exactly? The scope of salvation has long been a topic of debate among Christians, and this passage in John is a case study. On one hand, some emphasize the idea that “eternal life” is only granted to those who “believe,” as if the sentence were italicized like this: “For God loved the world in this way: he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.” On the other hand, others emphasize God’s intention to save all people, as if the sentence were italicized like this: “For God loved the world in this way…” — that is, everyone!

8) On balance, there are at least three reasons to lean toward the latter emphasis. First, throughout John’s Gospel, “the world” (Greek: kosmos) is a term typically used as shorthand for sin or estrangement from God — and this makes it all the more striking that Jesus says, “God loved the world” (kosmos) and not “God hated the world but loved the remnant of those who believe.” Second, in Numbers, when God provides the remedy of the bronze serpent, the strategy isn't to save a few well-deserving Israelites, but rather to save “everyone” who had turned against God and then (for arguably less-than-noble reasons) sought deliverance (Num 21:8). And third, as if to clarify this very question, in the next verse Jesus underlines that God sends the Son not “to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him” (John 3:17).

Takeaways:

1) As we move through Lent toward Holy Week, this passage provides another angle on how to think about Good Friday and Easter Sunday. The reference to the story in Numbers points to the cross and resurrection as divine acts of love and mercy for the sake of all — even and especially those who are caught up in sin’s self-destruction, not the best and brightest and most pious. And the reference to the story of Abraham and Isaac ("gave his only Son") points to the cross and resurrection as signs of God’s extravagant faithfulness and devotion to humanity. In short, God loves “in this way” (houtos): graciously, mercifully, faithfully, devotedly — and universally, for the sake of “the world” (kosmos).

2) For many people, this passage raises questions about the nature and scope of salvation. Does God love the world, but intends to save only a remnant, only those who “believe in him”? Though some Christians try to read this passage in those terms, at least four key factors point in the other direction: (1) the emphasis on unearned deliverance for “everyone” in the Numbers story of the bronze serpent; (2) the emphasis on extravagant devotion in the Genesis story of Abraham and Isaac; (3) the emphasis on love (and not condemnation) for the whole world (kosmos) in John 3:16-17; and (4) the foundational ideas in Christian theology that love and humility should govern our reading of scripture, and that we have no right to impose limits on God’s graceful, saving work. 

3) In the end, while offering assurance and encouraging fellow disciples and interested seekers to “believe in Jesus” is well and good, we dare not put boundaries around what counts — from God’s perspective — as “believing,” or indeed whether such belief can emerge after death, and so on. After all, salvation is God’s business, not ours. What we are charged to do is to proclaim again and again the good news of God’s extravagant love and mercy for “the world” — the kosmos, the whole creation! — without exception, indeed for “all the families of the earth” (John 3:16; Gen 12:3).

Check out SALT’s “Strange New World” podcast episode on these passages: “Understanding Easter - Part Four: The Great Reversal.”