Homily for 4th Sunday of Lent Year B 2018
2 Chronicles 36:14-16,19-23; Ephesians 2:4-10; John 3:14-21
Introduction
“For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life.” For many Christians, this verse from John 3:16 is perhaps the most famous. You will often see it displayed on billboards, on hand-made signs held up in stadiums and on pendants worn especially by evangelical Christians.
But how does God show his love? We human beings show love by words, saying, “I love you”; or by action for example, by cooking them a really nice meal; or by your presence, by for example spending time with someone, especially when they are sick or down in the dumps. Perhaps the closest analogy of God's way of showing love is the love of a parent for their child, a love that oscillates between doing nice things and tough love.
Scripture and Theology
In fact, this verse which we heard in our gospel today, is only the culmination of a long history of God showering love upon love on his people, but doing so in various ways, sometimes the carrot, sometimes the stick.
In the first reading we heard how the people of Israel sinned, adding infidelity upon infidelity. Think of any sin against the Lord and they did it. The most serious sin was that they practiced "all the abominations of the nations" and polluted "the LORD’s temple which he had consecrated in Jerusalem." In other words, they turned away from their God and began to trust other gods, even bringing them into the temple, God's holy house. What does the Lord do in this situation?
He acts like any good and loving parent, who has someone speak to their wayward child, perhaps the school counsellor or the priest or a relative, someone who can speak to them and help them see the right path. And so God showed his love for the people by sending them prophets: the major prophets like Isaiah, Jeremiah and Ezekiel and the twelve minor ones including Hosea, Joel and Amos. These prophets taught the people the way of righteousness.
But as we heard in the reading, the Jewish leaders rejected the prophets that God sent to help them, even killing some of them. In this way they compounded the situation, by not only sinning, but also by refusing the help of those who came to heal them of their sinfulness, like a patient who rejects the doctor's advice.
How did God react to this further provocation? He had had enough. He sent the people into exile. Back in the 8th century B.C., he had sent the people of the northern Kingdom of Israel into the Assyria. Our reading today describes the situation in the 6th century B.C., when God also sent the people of the southern Kingdom of Judah into exile, into Babylon.
But even this action of sending them into exile is not an act of giving up on the people, but rather an act of love. Yes, God punished them severely, by allowing them to be enslaved like their forefathers had been enslaved in Egypt. But the exile was a time for the people to learn from their pain and suffering, that being faithful to God was a good thing. Think of the punishment of detention that you give your children. As a parent or teacher I would hope that you do not punish your children out of hate or vengeance, but out of love for them, out of a desire to see them grow and become better people. And so, after God had used the carrot, now with the exile God had to use the stick part of that equation.
And so the punishment was not to last forever. After 70 years, God sent the exiles a saviour, a very unlikely saviour, the pagan Persian King Cyrus. He freed the Jewish people from captivity in Babylon to return Jerusalem, to rebuild their temple and their community. And that is exactly what they did.
And now when they had been back home for quite some time, God then showed his utmost love. If he sent King Cyrus to help the people return to their national homeland, in Jesus his Son, God sent them a Messiah to restore them to their heavenly homeland. That is why John's Gospel of today proclaims loud and clear: “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life.”
This is wonderful news; this is God showing his love once again for his people. For now in Jesus Christ, final salvation has come not only to the people of Israel but indeed to the whole world. Jesus is the new Moses telling, not Pharaoh this time, but the Evil one: "let my people go!" In another writing, St. John's First Letter describes God's love in another way saying: "See what love the Father has bestowed on us that we may be called the children of God. . . . Beloved, we are God’s children now; what we shall be has not yet been revealed. We do know that when it is revealed we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is" (1 Jn. 3:1-2). For those who know Jesus, fall in love with him, do his will, God has opened the gates of heaven.
Christian Life
But this love of God came at a cost. Jesus showed his love through pain and suffering, on the Cross. That is why the verse about God so loving the world that he sent his son is immediately preceded by Jesus saying: “Just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.” In other words, just like the Hebrew people were healed from the snake bites by looking to the serpent Moses lifted up for them, God's people will find healing by turning to Jesus who is lifted up on the cross. By his Cross we are saved! By his Cross we are loved.
I have probably shared this story from the movie Saving Private Ryan before. But I think it bears repeating to explain the extent of God's love on the Cross.
In this movie, a group of soldiers sent to save private James Ryan, who has already lost two of his brothers to the war. Many of these men die in the process of saving him, including their leader Captain Miller who just before he dies tells the now rescued Ryan, “James. Earn this . . . earn it.” Ryan seems to take these last words very seriously.
In one scene, Ryan as an old man has returned to Europe to the cemetery where Captain Miller is buried. Staring at the grave marker he mumbles to his dead commander that every day of his life he has thought of Miller’s dying words. He has tried to live a good life, at least he hopes he has. He hopes he has earned the sacrifice that Captain Miller and his men made in giving up their lives for his.
But he is not really sure. He wonders how any life, however well lived, could be worth the sacrifice of all those men. The old Ryan stands up, but does not feel released. Trembling and filled with anxiety he turns to his wife and pleads to her, “Tell me I’ve led a good life.” Confused by his request, she asks: “What?” He has to know the answer, so he asks her again: “Tell me I’m a good man.” Finally she responds to him and says: “Yes you are.”
Conclusion
Like Ryan, we should also ask ourselves if the way we live our lives is commensurate with the very costly love that God has shown us in his Son! Our response to such costly love must also be profound and serious.
Moreover, if God's love can take the form of God's own son undergoing suffering, then perhaps we too can bear the pain and suffering, some of which is part of the human condition and some of which is caused by our sins and the sins of others. Like the people of Israel were purified and sanctified through their painful experience of the exile, may we also be purified through our own redemptive suffering. "For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life."
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