RCL reading for Sunday, March 22, 2009:
Excerpt from The New Revised Standard Version
via Oremus (http://bible.oremus.org)
John 3:14-21
14 And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up,
15 that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.
16 For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.
17 Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.
18 Those who believe in him are not condemned; but those who do not believe are condemned already, because they have not believed in the name of the only Son of God.
19 And this is the judgment, that the light has come into the world, and people loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil.
20 For all who do evil hate the light and do not come to the light, so that their deeds may not be exposed.
21 But those who do what is true come to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that their deeds have been done in God.
QUESTIONS
To whom was Jesus speaking in the above passage?
Verse 16 may be the most-quoted verse in the Bible. Why do you think it has become so popular?
What other passages in the Bible play on the tension between dark and light?
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Nicodemus has faded back into the night from which he sprang. Their debate is over and Jesus is now speaking to you, the audience of John's drama. He is laying out the parameters of his mission. As the bronze serpent saved those who looked up to it for a little more life, so too he would give them eternal life when he was lifted up on the cross. He brought judgement but it was the do-it-youself kind. He would just be the light that people could stand in if they dared.
ReplyDeleteProbably Jesus was speaking to Nicodemus.
ReplyDeleteRe. verse 16:
The popularity is due to the marvelous way the verse sums up the Gospel and its easily memorized content. Many darkness and light passages are found in John beginning with the opening verses 1:3-8,Cf. also 8:12, 9:4-5.