Love from Above

John 3:1-17

What is love?  Who or what do you love?  I can say, “I love my mother.”  I can say, “I love pasta.”  I can also say, “God loves me.”  That being said, it is clear that the word, “love,” has many meanings.  As we become accustomed to using the word “love” we sometimes fail to appreciate what it means.  I do not love pasta the same way I love my mother.  On the other hand, God does not love me in the same manner that I love my mother.  God love me more than I can ever love anything.

Today we encounter the often overused and misused word “love” in a passage which includes the most well-known verse of the whole Bible.  The beginning of this familiar verse does not read, “God loved the world SO much,” it reads, “God so loved the world.”  It is not about how much God loved.  It is about the way in which God loved.  Today’s Gospel lesson from John is about the way God loves.

God’s love is really great.  While it is true that God’s love is pretty awesome, what I mean by the word great is that God’s love is big.  God is the greatest lover.  God loved to the greatest degree.  God loved the world, which is the greatest number.  God loved in a way that God gave, which is the greatest act.  God gave the greatest gift, God’s only son.  God gave this gift not to condemn, but to save, which is the greatest destiny.   This gives us a whole different meaning of the word love.  This love is God’s love. 

            In order to more fully understand this passage on God’s love, we first must encounter Nicodemus. Nicodemus was a Pharisee, a leader of the Jews.  And on one particular night, in order that his colleagues might not see him, he came to Jesus with a few questions.  Jesus tells him that “no one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above.”  This gets Nicodemus thinking.  Nicodemus misinterprets what Jesus means by being “born from above.”  Nicodemus thought he would literally need to be born again.  He thought he either needed to put his finger on the exact time, date, and place when he was born again or that he would need to literally be born a second time from his mother’s womb.  This is where Nicodemus made the wrong turn.  He misunderstood Jesus. 

Jesus was not talking about a literal rebirth.  He was not talking about a physical rebirth.  Jesus was talking about being born from above.  He was talking about a spiritual rebirth.  Being born from above is not about what individuals do.  It is not about what we can do or what Nicodemus could do.  Nicodemus could not give birth to himself.  Being born from above is about what God does.  God breathes life into us and gives birth to us from above through water and the Spirit.  That is exactly what happens in the sacrament of baptism.  We are born from above.  Through God’s action we are born into eternal life.  God’s action of birth through water and the Spirit is an action of love.  This birth from above is offered to us and in our text today it is also offered to Nicodemus.  Birth through water and the Spirit is offered to everyone.

God’s love is so great that God sent Jesus, God’s only son to show us that love.  As Christians, as people born from above, we are called to love others as God has first loved us.  Jesus gives that commandment right before his crucifixion – “Love one another as I have loved you.”  This way of loving can be difficult because of the way God loves the whole world.  I am sure we can each think of people in this world that we find difficult to love.  But, God does not just love you.  God does not just love me.  God even loves the people that we find difficult to love like strangers, criminals, and outcasts.  God loves the entire world.  God does not just love the people in the world, but the world in its entirety. 

The cross can be a model for this love.  I have often heard of the cross being divided into the vertical beam and horizontal beam.  The vertical beam is how God loves the world.  God’s love comes from God down to us.  The horizontal beam is how we are to love each other.  We love our neighbors with outstretched arms.  We are called to love others with God’s love.  We love because God first loved us. 

God loves in a way that God sent God’s ONLY Son into the world to live the life of a human and to die on a cross for OUR salvation.  “God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.”  Jesus died for YOUR salvation.  Jesus died for MY salvation.  Jesus died for the salvation of the WORLD.

So if Jesus died for our salvation, why did Jesus need to suffer through death on a cross?  In our Gospel text for today we hear “and just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.”  Moses lifts ups the bronze serpent to give life to God’s people in the wilderness.  In a similar way Jesus must be “lifted up.”  Jesus gave his life in place of ours.  He took on the death that we deserve.  In order for the world to be saved Jesus NEEDED to be “lifted up” on the cross, “lifted up” to resurrected life from the tomb, and “lifted up” at the ascension when Jesus returns to God. 

This was all done out of God’s love for the world.  God so loved the world.  In this manner God loved the world.  God loved the WHOLE world.  God loved in a way that God gave.  God did not give to condemn, but to save.  And ultimately, God’s love wins.  Throughout the Lenten journey much emphasis is often placed on the sinfulness of humanity and the need for repentance.  However, that is not the only reason we are on this journey.  We are journeying to the cross.  This journey is not just about what we have done or left undone, but about what God has done.  This message of love is not an if/then message.  It is not about how many good works we must do in order to inherit eternal life.  It is a because/therefore message.  Because of the love God has for us we love others in response.  It was out of love that Jesus came among us, stood beside us, died with us, for us, saved us, and gave us life through water and the Spirit.  It was out of love.  May we be bold enough to share that love with others.  Amen.