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Ephesians 2:1-10 You were dead through the trespasses and sins 2 in which you once lived, following the course of this world, following the ruler of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work among those who are disobedient. 3 All of us once lived among them in the passions of our flesh, following the desires of flesh and senses, and we were by nature children of wrath, like everyone else. 4 But God, who is rich in mercy, out of the great love with which he loved us 5 even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ– by grace you have been saved– 6 and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7 so that in the ages to come he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. 8 For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God– 9 not the result of works, so that no one may boast. 10 For we are what he has made us, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand to be our way of life.
John 3:14-21 (Jesus is talking to Nicodemus and said)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.”
The Road to God’s Way of Love
In case you didn’t realize it, this is the last full week of winter. I think this must have been one of the mildest winters on record. Almost no snow at all. The weather will be absolutely gorgeous this week, we’ll be in the 70’s. This morning we sprang ahead for Daylight Savings Time. Now it will remain light longer! Don’t you love the longer days? I know I do! I have never liked the darkness in winter. I love it when it starts staying light longer and longer.
Throughout history, people have preferred the light to the darkness. Light is what causes plants to grow that give us food. Light is linked to life, growth and even safety. It’s harder to see in the dark and harder to get things done. Darkness can also be dangerous. We can’t see well in the dark and bad things can hide in the dark. Think of a dark alley. Whenever there’s a movie and the hero or heroine walks down a dark alley you just know there will be trouble.
True confessions time. I was afraid of the dark when I was a child. I slept with a nightlight until I left home after graduating high school. I just knew there were monsters under the bed, in the closet, outside the window, you name it, I saw monsters. There was evil in the darkness and I needed the safety of a nightlight to keep the darkness at bay.
Jesus is the light of the world that shines in the darkness of our world, showing the way to eternal life. John, the author of this gospel uses images of light and dark, light being good and dark being evil. Speaking of Jesus John says in the first chapter of John, “What has come into being 4 in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.” For John, Light overcoming darkness is the triumph of goodness over evil. A little later in the same chapter John says, “9The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world. 10 He was in the world, and the world came into being through him; yet the world did not know him. 11 He came to what was his own, and his own people did not accept him. 12 But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God, 13 who were born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God.” (pause)
You see, we are trapped in the darkness of sin. We exist in darkness, our world is filled with darkness. Into our darkness comes Jesus, in the words of the Nicene Creed, “the only-begotten Son of God, begotten of the Father before all worlds God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God.” God sent Jesus to show us how serious he is about our sin. We are lost, our world is lost. We have no ability to save ourselves, it is not possible. The hole we have dug is too deep and too wide for us to ever cross back to God. Only Jesus, fully human, fully divine, can bridge that gap. Only Jesus can reconcile us back to God. Only Jesus can lead us to our true home, our eternal home. God shows us how serious our sin is by the price he is willing to pay to demonstrate it. This, this is what your sin costs, says God. It costs the life of my one and only son and yet it is a price I am willing to pay to win you back. How deep the Father’s love for us that he would send his only Son to die for our sins.
Our verses this morning contain John 3:16, a verse that Martin Luther declared to be the gospel in miniature. I think this is probably the most memorized verse in the Bible. “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.” Today we are going to talk about God’s way of love. John gives us two illustrations in these verses. He compares Jesus to the serpent Moses lifted up in the wilderness, and says that Jesus is the light that overcomes the darkness of evil.
The first verse of our gospel reading is a little confusing. “And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up.” It refers to an incident in Numbers 21:4-9 during the time of Moses. The Israelite people were near the end of the forty years of wandering through the seemingly never-ending wilderness, with nothing to eat or drink except manna and they were thoroughly sick of that. The people speak against God and Moses. God responds by afflicting them with venomous snakes. The people say to Moses, “We have sinned by speaking against God and you” and they beg Moses to intercede. He does, and God, rather than removing the snakes, sends an unusual cure for snakebite. Moses is told to fashion a bronze serpent and hang it on a pole. The people will still get bitten; that danger doesn’t go away, but they will be healed if they lift up their eyes and look at the bronze snake. God did not remove the snakes but gave the Israelites a way to be saved from them. In the same way, God does not remove evil from our world. Jesus was lifted up on the cross and when we look at Jesus, when we believe in Jesus, we are saved. As God did for the Israelites God has provided a way out of our sin, a way to be reconciled to God. This is God’s way of love.
The road to God’s way of love is through the cross. Jesus has to go to the cross and we have to look at the cross, at Jesus, to be saved just as the Israelites had to look at the serpent to be saved. The title of the sermon this week is not the road to God’s love. We know that the road to God’s love is Jesus Christ. If we want to reach God, reach his love, we go through Jesus. The title of the sermon is the road to God’s way of love. God’s way of love is a particular kind of love that we don’t see very often in our world but it is a love that we can learn from and would do well to practice. God’s way of love is costly love, self-sacrificing love. Love that was willing to go to the cross, through death and hell to reconcile us back to God. 1 John tells us God is love, a love that breaks through our human conceptions of what love means and is; and expands to a height and depth no person can imagine. The prophet Isaiah tells us that God said (55:8-9 ) “8 For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways, says the LORD. 9 For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.” We cannot understand why Jesus had to die so we could be reconciled to God but this is not a situation in which to ask why, it is a time to fall to our knees in gratitude that God loved us, Jesus loved us this much that they were willing to pay this price.
Jesus did not come to condemn us despite the fact that we deserved condemnation. No, Jesus came to save us. He came so that those who believe may not perish but may have eternal life.
John 3:19-21 NRS 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.”
Jesus is the light that has come to our dark world. The road to God’s way of love goes through the cross. God’s love is a sacrificial love, a love that does not count the cost but gives abundantly. God’s love is a love that willingly goes through the pain of the cross.
Our Ephesians passage tells us we were dead in our sin, with no chance of salvation, we are called children of wrath. Paul tells us that God is rich in mercy and it is out of the great love with which he loved us that he has made us alive together with Christ, out of the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness. For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not the result of works so that no one may boast. Created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand. God has a purpose in sending Jesus to die for us and we have a purpose to live out when we are saved. God did not save us so we could live happily ever after. This is not a fairytale. The battle against evil is real and as Christians, each of us has our place in the frontlines of the battle. Evil is all around us and we each have a part to play in the struggle against it.
Lent is a season of repentance and renewal. It is a time to examine our faith and to remember and reflect upon God’s love and sacrifice demonstrated through the cross. In these verses Jesus gives us a simple choice. Look to the cross, believe in Jesus and receive eternal life or do not see the cross as the salvation of the world, do not believe and receive condemnation. Everyone who hears the gospel story must make this choice. This week spend some time contemplating this. Consider God’s promise given through Jesus, the gift of eternal life. Look up to the cross, see Jesus, arms outspread in love that held him there and give thanks to God for this love.