Fourth Sunday of Lent
Intention: For all who are standing up for justice, especially those who are being opposed or persecuted, that God will continue to strengthen them and that their courage may inspire greater integrity in all people.
Today’s Gospel | John 3:14-21
Jesus said to Nicodemus: “Just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.”
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. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him will not be condemned, but whoever does not believe has already been condemned, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. And this is the verdict, that the light came into the world, but people preferred darkness to light, because their works were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come toward the light, so that his works might not be exposed. But whoever lives the truth comes to the light, so that his works may be clearly seen as done in God.
A Lenten Reflection
Today’s Gospel contains perhaps the most well-known statement of the Paschal Mystery. Jesus describes how, through the gift of his own life, suffering, death, and resurrection, the power of sin and death over us is destroyed for all who accept this gift in faith and discipleship. It has always been a most extraordinary thing just to contemplate. In particular, it reveals the source and nature of the “love imperative” central to Jesus’ teachings. And, like much about Jesus’ teachings, it cuts directly to a hard reality. There is grace, but it is not easy.
What Jesus says to Nicodemus starts out gently enough. No, God is not determined to condemn us. He is determined to save us from condemnation. He entered the human condition in unconditional compassion and mercy. We are being offered the ultimate graciousness, that of eternal salvation. Then, the other shoe drops. To receive it, we must believe in this graciousness…but we also must become it. That is not a caveat. That is telling the truth about the nature of God’s redemption. I am not saved. We are saved. My release from the debilitation of sin comes through participating in God’s work to release all of us.
Our greatest weakness is that we try to justify remaining in our sin. We speak of being realists and of necessary evil. We dismiss hope as idealism and faith as naivete. To welcome God’s salvation, we first must take responsibility for our excuses as to why we have not. Then, we must participate in this salvation as its agents by being its presence and power with one another. This Lent, we are called to embrace our Christian faith not as a comforting way of thinking about a broken world but as life lived as a radical act of fierce hope for a healed and transformed world.
Prayer
Eternal Father, every day you call us to keep humble and generous hearts. At times, we fall prey to our own pride and stubbornness, and we begin to judge others. Teach us to look upon one another with open and unassuming eyes, and help us to always acknowledge our own brokenness and our constant need for your mercy and forgiveness. Fill us with compassion and love for all, that we might be your touch of mercy and welcome to one another. We ask this of you who lives and reigns with your Son and the Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever. Amen.