HOLY CROSS
Princess Bride – “Inconceivable!”
You keep using that word… I do not think it means what YOU think it means!
This seems fitting with today’s Gospel – John 3.16.
Because while it may be the MOST quoted; it may also be the least understood.
Ubiquitous: graffiti, sports “heroes”, shirts, cards, etc.
Yet how many who quote it could actively describe what we’re meant to DO with it?
Why is this one line – Martin Luther referred to it as “the heart of the Bible, the Gospel in miniature.” – why is it there – and how are our lives different because of it?
SO loved: not a quantity, but a context (how)
The world: not an area, a denomination, rather the timeless cosmos: all of creation.
(defeats the single-use “our guy endorsement” model)
GAVE the Son: again, without limitations of time or space or other things that divide. Offered – inviting to be received….. indicates relationship and all that entails
All who believe in him: meaning of that is actually a call to action – an inspiration to DO the work of God
Eternal Life: well – the concept of Heaven – the Kingdom of God – always a comfort and joy to contemplate.
However…
CONTEXT.
John’s entire Gospel – point is to convince people that Jesus is the Messiah. Itself a concept that was ‘inconceivable’ to many.
There’s some weirdness in the discourse that’s happening.
Firstly: Jesus is saying these things – about himself – before the crucifixion – to a Pharisee who is impressed by the miracles but confused about the teachings.
The chat with Nicodemus. A private, late-night chat. As Nic is doing all he can to make sense of what seems utterly … inconceivable.
Jesus speaks about the Kingdom of God – not as the future heaven, but as a changed way of life here and now.
New birth – water and the Spirit – change heart, mind, actions… find love HERE.
The discussion of eternal life and salvation – rooted right in the really weird story of the snakes – how the source of death becomes the agent of healing and survival.
And the cross – again the source of death – calls us to consider what in US is causing us harm… our closed hearts and minds, our divisive cultures, our violence against each other and the planet…
The cross holds these before us.
The instrument of death – entirely the same and entirely different from modern instruments of death (gun culture and debate this week)
The CROSS Challenges us to look on – and be changed – and to DO (enact) change.
To live differently – having named our ailments, in order to heal and seek wholeness.
Which takes us to John 3.17… that God is not here to condemn, but to promise salvation.
To us all.
Regardless of whatever we need healing from: Jesus assures us of that healing.
Salvation; through the power of God.
In relationship, in faith, in acts of love, in grace. Not passively, but actively engaging in our own journey towards the wholeness God promises.
In ways that are beyond what we could control or understand.
As we give glory to God – allowing ourselves to relinquish the need to control and understand;
Instead entering into the mystery of God’s will. With all the weirdness, the confusion, the “inconceivable” – for the message of the Cross truly is more than we can ask or imagine.
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