Hold Up a Sign - John 3:16

 

Some of you may recall the sight we used to have at some sporting events.  In the crowd behind home plate or at the 50-yard line, there was a fan holding up a sign, “John 3:16”.  I don’t recall seeing that too often any longer, and perhaps that says something where we are as people of God.  Perhaps we have lost that sense of the importance of the Scripture verse, “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 day I ask you this question, how important is John 3:16 to you?  I don’t mean you have to have a sign in your living room with that citation so you can see it while you are watching the Met game.  Although us Met fans can use all the Scripture we can get!  No, it’s not about memorizing a Scripture reading, but what do those words mean to you?

First, for God so love the world.  Those can just be simple words, or it can be the most important thing to know in our lives.   The creator is crazy in love with those whom he created.  No matter what the created does, the creator doesn’t give up on the created.  And yet, so often, we, the created, stand in shame and perhaps hide from the creator.  And yet the creator seeks out the created no matter where the created hides.  The creator never stops loving, for indeed the creator is love.  And yet, so often we feel unloved.  We look at our past sins, our past choices and decide we are not worth loving.  In doing so, we not only diminish who we are, we diminish who God is.  We don’t allow God to fully love that which he longs to love beyond measure.

And do we cherish those next set of words, “that he gave his only Son…?”  He gave his only Son.  Anyone who is a parent or who has received the love of a parent realizes that the love of a child is immeasurable.  Our children are our very fiber.  Remember those words in the creed that Jesus is, “consubstantial with the Father.”  They are of the same substance.  When the Father gave us his only Son, he gave us his very being.  He gave us himself.  What a gift!  Does that gift mean anything to you?  He would have given that gift to each of us even if we were the only person to every live. 

And finally, that striking phrase that cuts to the core of our very being.  We don’t want to die, and so we must hear those words, “so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life.”  We are saved!  We are saved from our sins.  We have the promise of eternal life.  All we have to do is believe in him and do everything we can to follow his will.  Perhaps we think we can save ourselves.  Perhaps we think we don’t need a savior.  Perhaps we think we will have eternal life all on our own.  Then John 3:16 is just simply a placard at a sporting event.

The world needs John 3:16 right now, but before we can bring it to the box seats behind home plate or to the 50-yard line, we have to see it in every moment of our lives.  We have to see it and we have to live it.  Where will we go without it?  Where will we be without it?

-          The Servant