For God So Loved The World
Numbers 21:4b-9; Philippians 2:6-11; John 3:13-17
The words we just heard in the gospel contain what is probably the most quoted line in all of Scripture. As a matter of fact, whenever you turn on a football game, you’re sure to see someone in the stands holding up a sign for all to see book chapter and verse: John: 3:16. And on this Sunday, that the Church celebrates the Feast of the Exultation of the Cross (and sports fans across our country celebrate the second Sunday of the football season!) John 3:16 is once again held up for all to see, to hear to take notice of, to never forget: “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.
But it’s funny, isn’t it, on a day that the Church focuses our attention on the cross that, other than a veiled reference to the Son of Man being “lifted up”, there is no specific reference to the cross in our gospel. No, it doesn't mention the cross. Not here. Not yet. Nothing about the cost. Nothing about the price of it all. Just the gift. Only that "God so loved the world, that he sent his only Son" so that we may have eternal life.
Being loved is always a surprise. The very fact that someone chooses to love us is exciting. It supports us in what we do. It gives us new insight into our value as a human. Even when we recognize our self worth, being loved is still a startling experience. "Are we worthy of such devotion?" we wonder. "Will it last?"
It is no wonder then, that being loved by God comes as a great surprise to us. "For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but have eternal life." That is amazing love! The ultimate example of love! It is the pattern and model of the kind of love that we, as Christians, are called to show in our lives. And it is offered to every one of us.
This amazing love of God is not something we have earned. It is not something we deserve. It is a love totally unmerited by us! It is grace, freely given. Yet love offered is not necessarily love accepted. The suitor can be spurned. We can say yes or no. And yes, free though it may be, it is not without cost. Loving always comes at a cost to self. And opening ourselves to the gift of God’s love means that we cannot avoid the experience of the cross. Opening ourselves to the gift of God’s love means opening ourselves to the possibility of suffering, as well as to the probability of great joy.
The cross, for a a Christian, is a sign of contradiction. What was once a sign of infamy and disgrace becomes a sign of vulnerability and love. But it was only through sacrifice, through the sufferings of Jesus, that this contradiction was made possible. And so, the ideal is set before us: that as followers of Jesus, as people with a personal relationship with the Lord who loves each of us, we have to be willing to sacrifice everything we have to fill the world with the Father's love. Our daily turmoil, our problems, our pains all take on an infinite value when we trust them to Jesus, when we unite our cross to his cross.
We need to look upon the cross today and recognize its power to save. We need to explore the depths of John 3:16 and not just simply flaunt it on a banner at a football stadium! The more firmly we embrace the cross, the more self-emptying we accomplish, and God is able to fill us to our depths with a love we never dreamed possible.
For the love so freely given to us and so underserved by us, calls us in turn, to come into relationship, not only with that loving God, but also to reach out in love to our neighbor. Not the neighbor I choose to love, mind you. Not the one whose culture and race match mine, but the one God calls me to serve. My neighbor is the addicted, the perverted, the selfish, the corrupted. My neighbor is the one of another faith. My neighbor is the one person in the parish that I just cannot stand. Our great God who gave us such amazing love, now calls us to extend that love to others. Friends. Enemies. Neighbors. Strangers. Old. Young. Men. Women. Gay. Straight. Democrat. Republican. Christian, Jewish, Muslim. American. Iraqi. No exceptions. “For God so loved the world” and as those who have been filled with that love, we are called to do the same.
And so, on this day on which we celebrate the Exultation of the Cross, we acknowledge that the realization that we are truly and freely and totally and undeservedly loved by God is difficult for us to grasp. Yet the signs of God's love are all around us. And the humanity of Christ is God's fullest sign of love for us. That Christ should live and die as one of us is truly an amazing sign. For we have a God who has reached out to embrace us with outstretched arms from a cross of wood. If we believe that, then the symbol of the cross should support, thrill, excite, and re-create us. For we are truly loved.
