Sunday reflection: John 3:14–21

“Sunday Reflection” is a regular feature, looking at the specific readings used in today’s Mass in Catholic parishes around the world. The reflection represents only my own point of view, intended to help prepare myself for the Lord’s day and perhaps spark a meaningful discussion. Previous Sunday Reflections from the main page can be found here.  For previous Green Room entries, click here.

This morning’s Gospel reading is 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.

Earlier this morning, Tod Worner tweeted out a quote from C. S. Lewis that speaks to today’s Gospel reading, and which generated a short but interesting conversation. Lewis wrote, “Christianity, if false, is of no importance, and if true, of infinite importance.The only thing it cannot be is moderately important.” This appears in the collection of essays titled God in the Dock, and expresses the choice that has to be made when considering Christianity in its true sense. (Full disclosure: I had to research the source of that quote.)

After I retweeted that quote, Tod and I were questioned about what it meant. “Is its truth or falseness binary,” and “is the gap between ‘we should do good’ and ‘Christian theology is 100% true’ of infinite importance?” I replied that it is at least of eternal importance — if salvation is the goal, to which the response was that doing good should be the goal and letting salvation more or less take care of itself.

It’s a great conversation, and it’s the ultimate in tests of Christianity. Does one need Christ for salvation?

Today’s Gospel speaks to that question directly. Jesus refers to the story told in Numbers 21, one of several rebellions against God from the nation of Israel that had started almost as soon as they’d left Egypt during the Exodus. In this case, the Israelites prayed to deliver the Canaanites into their hands after having been attacked by them, and the Lord delivered them. Afterward, though, they had no thankfulness in their hearts and bitterly complained about Moses and the food the Lord had provided for them. To rebuke them, “the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people,” who bit and killed many of the Israelites.

At that point, the Israelites recalled their sins and repented:

And the people came to Moses, and said, “We have sinned, for we have spoken against the LORD and against you; pray to the LORD, that he take away the serpents from us.” So Moses prayed for the people. And the LORD said to Moses, “Make a fiery serpent, and set it up as a sign; and every one who is bitten, when he sees it, shall live.” So Moses made a bronze serpent, and set it up as a sign; and if a serpent bit any man, he would look at the bronze serpent and live.

The Israelites were God’s chosen people to lead all of humanity to salvation, a nation of priests to demonstrate the power and love of the Lord — but they fell into sin again and again, right from the very beginning. In Numbers 21, we see the true nature of sin, which is not just a failure to be good to others, but a willful separation from God Himself. To reconcile the gulf created by sin, it takes not just repentance and atonement, but also an intercession from the Lord to bridge that gap and bring his sons and daughters back to their rightful place. In this case, the sinners had to choose to be healed by fixing their gaze on the staff with the bronze serpent.

What of other sinners at other times? The Israelites offered sacrifices in temple worship to reconcile themselves with the Lord, but by the time of Christ, temple worship had become corrupt, both politically and economically. John the Baptist proclaimed baptism as the preparation for a new form of reconciliation, a new kind of sacrifice. Jesus explains to Nicodemus in this passage that He will be the new staff of Moses — a sign on which all can look and see their own salvation, through repentance and atonement, and the forgiveness of sins. The seraph staff prefigures the cross, only this time Christ will heal all through its power by restoring the relationship between the Lord and His sons and daughters.

John gets to the crux of this truth — and this choice — in one of the most famous passages in the Bible:

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.

For those who seek salvation and complete communion with God, then the choice between ‘we should do good’ for the sake of good alone and ‘Christian theology is 100% true’ really is infinite importance, as the eternal is infinite. It’s entirely possible to do good in life without believing that Jesus Christ is the Son of God sacrificed for our sins and who rose on the third day in eternal triumph over death and sin. We see plenty of people who have no belief in Christ doing good in the world. There are no end to philosophies and belief systems that emphasize the Golden Rule in one form or another. It doesn’t take a belief in Christ to exercise those philosophies, and even to thrive in this world.

Salvation, however, depends on overcoming sin and coming back into communion with the Lord. Like Moses and the bronze seraph, there is only one path for that salvation, one way to neutralize the venom of sin whose sting we all feel from time to time. Christianity is that choice — to either look to the cross and embrace God’s immeasurable love through His Son’s sacrifice, freely given for us, or to reject it and salvation and keep our focus on the world around us.

This is what Lewis meant. If the basic tenets of Christianity are false, then it means nothing. The basic philosophy can and has been synthesized in other forms, all of which are easily accessible. The teachings of Jesus and his disciples — most of whom were gruesomely martyred rather than give up their faith in Christ — would be just the notes from either lunatics or con artists. There is no seraph staff, no healing from sin, and no reconciliation with God, only our own devices in a fallen world and a bleak destiny no matter what we do or believe. If, however, Jesus was the Son of God and offers us the perfect sacrifice for our sins throughout time, then Christianity means everything — eternally, infinitely, and in every other measure possible. And all we need do is embrace the cross to have it all.

The picture on the front page is a representation of Moses’ staff at Mount Nebo, Israel. From my personal collection. Also, there was no reflection last week as I was on a retreat all weekend. Final paragraph lightly edited and extended in an update at 11:50 am.