John 3:14-21
Lent 4 / Year B
This morning we
hear one of the best-known verses in all of Scripture – John 3:16: “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.”
Even before the fan with the wild rainbow wig showed up at every
sporting event imaginable waving a placard with the reference to this verse,
most of us knew it already as being the good news in a nutshell. As familiar as it is, the two verses leading
up to it allude to one of the more obscure references in the bible – John
3:14-15: “Just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the
Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.”
It refers to the
event described in today’s first lesson when God’s people complain about hunger
and wandering in the wilderness and God sends poisonous snakes to punish them. Many are bitten and die before the people
repent and cry out to Moses for mercy.
Moses, in turn, prayers for them and God directs him to make the image
of a snake and mount it on a pole. It comes
to be known as the Nehushtan and everyone who looks at it is healed. The Nehushtan becomes such a sacred object the
people of Israel place in the Holy of Holies of the Temple along with the ark
containing the 10 Commandments.
Either lost or
destroyed by his day, Jesus is still aware of the story of the Nehushtan and
sees in it a parallel to his own death.
He too will be lifted up on account of the sins of the world and all
those who look upon him will be saved from the curse of death.
Here is what I find
so interesting in these two accounts.
Each represents something horrible about the human condition. Embedded in each story are the elements of
judgment and death. The only path to
healing involves looking squarely at the things which embody our short-comings
– the image of a snake on a pole or the Crucified Jesus on the Cross. Why is it necessary to face our failures in
order to find forgiveness?
Almost every week a
public figure has to explain one misdeed or another. This past week it has been Andrew Cuomo, the
governor of New York. As accusations mount,
his claims of innocence become more suspect.
Like many before who have fallen, we wonder why people in his position
are so allegoric to the truth. We get admitting
to immoral conduct will have an impact on your career, your family, and your
life, but it is so dishonorable and so despicable to malign your victims as a
strategy to defend the indefensible. In most
cases it is more of an affront than the original offense.
Paul Krugman, the
economist and Nobel Award recipient, wrote in a 2017 column about what he calls
“an epidemic of infallibility” which requires people (and especially powerful
people) never, ever to admit to making a mistake. Some fear owning up to faults and failures
makes them appear small and weak. The
old adage “it takes a big person to admit when he you are wrong” seems to have
been replaced with “only losers fess up.”
Behind it all, contends Klugman, is a soul too fragile to admit to its shortcomings
and to engage in self-reflection honest enough to result in self-criticism.
The more insecure
or unchecked a person’s ego, the more likely he or she will approach failure
from a perspective of self-interest. How
bad will this make me look if I own up to it?
Will I come off as incompetent, dishonest, immoral, hypocritical, or
even monstrous? What will it cost me in
terms of power, money, friendships, family?
Wouldn’t it be easier to deny what I did or to blame others or to do both
than to take responsibility for my actions?
Such is the interior conversation during an epidemic of
infallibility.
We all know what
the first sin was… eating the apple. Do
you know what the initial human response to sin was? If you guessed shifting the blame, you are
close. Adam blaming Eve was the second
response. Even more telling though is what
happened before… hiddenness. Adam tries
to hide from God because he doesn’t want God to see him as he truly is. Not much has changed about the human
condition since then. Hiding and blaming
remain our basic strategies to insulate ourselves against the truth of our
actions and their consequences. And they
run counter to what Jesus says in today’s reading. Again, why is it necessary to face our
failures in order to find forgiveness?
At a human level, facing
your failures demonstrates you are humble enough to acknowledge your faults, it
demonstrates you value those you hurt through your actions, and it hints you are
willing to learn from your mistakes in order to amend your life. As the saying goes, “good judgment comes from
experience, and experience comes from bad judgment.” Mother Teresa noted, “some things come into
your life as blessings. Some come into
your life as lessons.” The question is
are you willing to learn. When we come
up short, facing your failures is the only pathway to personal growth. Denying them leads only to our downfall and
doom.
At another human
level, we are much more willing to accept the apology of a person who takes
responsibility for his or her actions.
We respect a person who attempts to make restitution and repair the
damage he or she has caused. We are
willing to listen to explanations as long as they don’t deflect ownership. We demand a person shows concern for those
they have wronged or hurt. All of this
can happen only after you look squarely at what you have done. Anything less is a desire for cheap grace.
Beyond these human
motivations, there is a spiritual reason to face your failures. It goes back to the desire to hide from what
we have done. We reason if we can hide
it from others and if we can hide it from God then we won’t have to face it
ourselves. This would be a prudent
strategy if God’s only desire is to punish wrongdoing. But John 3:16 does not begin with “God so abhorred
the world...” God demonstrates deep, unbreakable
love for the human family by transforming images of judgment and death into
instruments of life and symbols of love.
The Nehustan becomes the means of healing. The Cross, which represents humankind’s
deepest rejection of God, becomes the means of forgiveness and the doorway to
everlasting life and restored fellowship with the Holy One.
What is required of
us? A willingness to look at the consequences
of our actions in order to know God’s love is strong enough to embrace the
worst we are capable of doing.
Our Lenten journey
is more than a penitential exercise, although it is this to be sure. It is a time for us to take stock of the
good, the bad, and the ugly in our lives.
It is also a time to recognize how our worst elicits God’s best, how
walking the pathway through our failures to a more faithful life is possible
because we always walk in God’s unfailing love, and how God’s unfailing love
provides the means for us to come out of hiding and to own our actions rather
than blame others for what we have done.
