As I start, I must just tell you: God is awesome. He gives us exactly what we need to fulfill his plan. Without his direction, we would likely overlook it – but he is there to point it out. Now back to the point of today’s reading…
I was sitting in the hotel lobby, checking facebook, my blog stats, and beginning to pull up minutes of planning meetings to figure out what to write. What would God want us to begin with as we look at how he has opened up a relationship with us? The attendant at the desk had just put up a sign notifying guests that after 11 PM, they would have to begin using their room key to enter the lobby. But it became quickly apparent that there was going to be a problem. Guests were still arriving, and they didn’t have room keys yet!
So they couldn’t get in. You could see a moment of frustration. What now? The attendant wasn’t really paying attention, so they stood there a moment and knocked on the glass. He finally noticed and remotely opened the lock. A sigh of relief. They entered, and all was well.
Now we are in a similar (but not exact) situation when it comes to our relationship with God. He has to initiate the relationship. Like the attendant pressing the magic button to unlock the door, so that the soon-to-be-guest can get in. Only, he isn’t waiting for guests to arrive at the door, annoyed or frustrated that they are locked out. He is out at the street, inviting people to come in at the top of his lungs – people who haven’t even realized their need yet.
For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. God did not send his Son into the world to condemn it, but to save it.
John 3:16-17John 3:16-17
English: Contemporary English Version (1999) - CEV
16 God loved the people of this world so much that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who has faith in him will have eternal life and never really die. 17 God did not send his Son into the world to condemn its people. He sent him to save them!
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You may read this verse and receive an instant emotional warmth from the familiarity, the reminder of God’s deep love. Or you may just have to groan, aware of how awesome this verse is but weary of its overuse. Regardless how this verse hits you emotionally, it tells us this same important truth about God and us. God has initiated a relationship. He has made the first step. It was costly in a way that is barely understandable. So, here we will start this week.
he loved
God loves us. It is a simple but profound truth. This is not a love based on our great looks and skills, or any particular trait we have to offer. It is a love that is offered to all, even those who sneer at the lover. But beyond this, it tells us something about God. God is not aloof. He loves us. He cares about us and longs to have a relationship with us. He is not just the great architect of the universe, setting the world in motion and then sitting back and watching it wind along. He is not just an arbitrary set of rules, or a “force”. He is a person, capable of interacting and responding to us. Or rather, we can interact and respond because he created us to do so.
he gave … so that
We learn very quickly that there was a cost to have this love. Love in most of man’s literature falls in two categories; anyone with a cursory awareness of Shakespeare can probably identify the forms of tragedy and comedy. We have come to either expect love to make a fool of us, or love to come at such a price that it is an unattainable goal. But God’s love is not just a tragedy. The story is not without tragedy, but it does not end that way.
This kind of love runs counter to our world’s way of thinking. Having rejected God, the world must ask itself, what good is sacrificial love? If God is not there, and has not provided himself as the example of love, then is love truly to be valued? Is it something worth fighting for? Love for the world has become something that is all about pleasure, about self-satisfaction, about our animal drive to survive. The world has no time for sacrifice, commitment or hard choices – unless these are made for its own benefit.
The world only gives in order to attain. God has given so that we might have life that is fuller, and at the same time different. It is eternal. God wants a lasting relationship with us, but he has not offered it in order to get something in return. We are the ones who benefit from this relationship – and may we never forget it.
not to condemn
Verse 17 speaks to the way God has chosen to approach us. He could have come with a completely different attitude. He could have judged without mercy, with eternal justice proving his holiness – his uniqueness and total “otherness”. While we could never measure up, he became like us in order to relate to us. His intention was not accusation. His intention was redemption, restoration.
As in the gospel of John, we are asked to respond. There is real consequence to our decision. Will we give our heart, soul and mind to God’s son? Will we let ourselves be “born again” to our heavenly father? And once we have received this new life, will we haughty and rebellious children or will we make our father happy by loving like he does?
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