The Son He Sent

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. (John 3:16-17 ESV)

What is your favorite Bible verse? Ephesians 2:8? Romans 8:28? John 3:16? Psalm 23:6? This was the opening question of our Wednesday Night Bible Study. There were plenty of responses and more than enough for us to encourage one another who are going through all kinds of different trials and troubles, joys and sorrows.

This passage from John 3, and especially verse 16, is likely the best-known Bible verse in all of Scripture. Many of us know it by heart, maybe even in more than one language! But sometimes when something is so familiar, we miss the freshness and remarkable good news that it showers upon us. Here at International Lutheran Church, we are studying the Gospel of Mark as this is the gospel that we are reading through this year. So again, we are jumping into John’s gospel and to such a familiar place that we might miss the nuance of what both John and Mark and the entire Bible is telling us.

John chapter 3 begins with a midnight conversation between Nicodemus and Jesus. Nicodemus had come to Jesus at night and yet acknowledged that the signs He (Jesus) had been doing pointed to the truth that Jesus must be sent by God. For Nicodemus, God was truly with Jesus. Jesus responded to these accolades with the truth of every person needing to be “born again, born from above.” This invoked even more questions from this aged teacher about “How can this be?” Jesus tells him “how” the Spirit is the one who gives us life. And He points to “the Sign” that would be the sign for all time – the Son of Man lifted up. This is God’s love for the world.

Mark’s gospel does not tell us of this encounter between Jesus and Nicodemus. Yet, several key passages remind us of this same truth. In Mark 10, the rich young man asks Jesus what a person must do to “inherit eternal life.” Jesus looked at him with love with the call to follow Him alone (Mark 10:17-22). In debates with the religious leaders, Jesus shared a parable of the tenants who cast out the Owner’s servants and at last how they killed and cast out His beloved Son so that they would have the inheritance (Mark 12:1-12). God does love the world. We know this because He sent His Son.

However we say it, Jesus was not sent to condemn the world but to be condemned and become that very curse on the cross that we would be given life and not death! The testimony and sign of God’s Love is in the Son He Sent for you and me. We might have a few questions, too, about “how can this be?” He went to the cross for you and me that we would inherit all that is His. God is with us in the Son He Sent. And He now sends us to share this good news in the midst of all the ups and downs we face.

Pastor Carl