March 10, 2024 Fourth Sunday of Lent

Welcome Father Bernward Today’s Readings: 2 Chr 36:14-16, 19-23 | Eph 2:4-10 | Jn 3:14-21

In today’s Gospel John gives us the nocturnal conversation which Jesus had with a leading Jew, a man of wealth and position. This man whose name was Nicodemus had been impressed by the preaching and miracles of Jesus but was afraid of fellow Jews in whose circle he moved. He was a man of good will but as is often the case with the intellectuals he was not able to make up his mind. So he came to Jesus to speak to him at night. Nicodemus was told that to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven, a man must believe in Christ and be baptized. He has to be born anew of the spirit of baptism. Jesus also told him that that it is God’s will that he himself should be lifted up on the cross so that those who believe in him may have eternal life. We do not know how Nicodemus understood Jesus. Certainly he had great respect for him.

In the Gospel passage we have the words of Jesus telling Nicodemus, that 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. In this Biblical passage, Jesus was referring to an event that occurred in the days of the Old Testament. In the days of Moses, the people of God had lost their patience and spoke against God and Moses and constantly complained against them. They grumbled that there was no food or water, and they detested the miserable food namely the Mannah. To punish the ungrateful people for having spoken against him, God sent poisonous snakes. Many Israelites were bitten by the snakes and died. When the people repented and acknowledged that they had wrongly spoken again the Lord God and Moses, they asked Moses to pray to the Lord to take away the poisonous serpents. Following this, God instructed Moses to make a metal snake and to put it on a pole so that anyone who was bitten could look at it. Whoever would look at the figure of the serpent would not die from the snake bite.

Jesus used the story as a parable of himself. He told Nicodemus that for the salvation of the world he himself would be lifted up. He meant this in a twofold sense: lifted up on the cross and lifted up into glory by his resurrection and his ascension. The suffering and joy signified by these two images are essentially connected. If there is no cross then there is no crown of joy and if there is no pain and suffering then no entry into glory. Jesus tells us today as he told his visitor that if we look at Jesus and believe in him then he will give us eternal life. The eternal life that Jesus gives us is not the duration of life but the quality of life.

It is important to know that for John the crucifixion of Jesus is his exaltation. That is why the crucifixion is the high point of the Gospel. In fact for John crucifixion, resurrection and ascension are all one continuous act. There is also a parabolic reversal in all this: what appears to be the greatest humiliation of Jesus, his crucifixion, is in fact his greatest glory, his exaltation. The whole purpose of Jesus being lifted up on the cross is to demonstrate that those who believe in him might have eternal life. By the phrase eternal life John does not mean the endless endurance of human existence. Eternal life is life lived in the unending presence of God. One does not have to wait until some unknown future to have this desired life. It can begin in the here and now for those who have faith in Jesus..

In the next passage of the Gospel Jesus summarizes the saving action of God in the incarnation and the motivation for that action. Jesus says that God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. 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. The passage tells us what is known as the most profound summary of God’s love that God loved the world so much that he gave his only son for our sake that we may have life in him. It is personal and most profound gift because it is God’s Son who is given to the world.

During this time of Lent, let us review our hearts to determine where we stand. Are we walking in the Light of God or are we walking in the darkness? Are we walking partially in the Light and partially in the darkness? Our eternal life and salvation depends entirely on our living faith that calls us to look up to Jesus on the Holy Cross. Our salvation and eternal happiness require that we give ourselves entirely to Christ, having both feet in the Light. God has compassion on his people and does not want any of us to be lost. If we have not been completely faithful to the Light of Christ or if we have not properly moved along our spiritual journey, let us sincerely repent and look for forgiveness.

Source: Shortened from https://msjnov.wordpress.com/2024/03/06/fourth-sunday-of-lent-march-10-2024/ Image: Crijn Hendricksz Volmarijn: Christ talking with Nicodemus at night