How often have you heard someone say, “it’s not fair for God to punish otherwise good people who don’t believe in Jesus?" It’s like saying, “It’s not fair that I can’t see the Statue of Liberty without going to New York.” That’s where it is! And yet God has not only given us maps and signposts and traveler's guides, he’s also given us free tickets. What’s not fair?
And yet there are still people who complain that God is unjust - or at least that Christians are narrow-minded and intolerant - to maintain that we can’t get to God without Jesus.
This passage in John explains the whole drama of salvation in six short verses. It shows us that far from being unjust, God has gone completely overboard to bring his people home. It also makes it completely clear that our ultimate fate is in our own hands.
The passage begins by correcting our misunderstandings about God.
Far from being unfair, or unkind, or a fierce angry God who is just waiting for us to mess up so that he can squash us like ants, "God so loved the world that he gave his only Son.” [v. 16] That’s probably the best known verse in the entire New Testament.
But, of course, it begs the question, not “why did he do it?” but “why did he have to do it?” Well, God has been giving his people the same choice from the beginning of the world. He gave Adam and Eve the choice between obedience and life, and disobedience and death. Guess which one they chose?
He gave the Israelites the choice between obedience and life, and disobedience and death, not once but many times. We just read one from Deuteronomy: "I call heaven and earth to witness against you today that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Choose life so that you and your descendants may live, loving YHWH your God, obeying him, and holding fast to him; for that means life to you and length of days." [Dt 30:19-20] That was just before they entered the Promised Land. Joshua gave the people the same choice before he died, after their wars of conquest,
"'...Choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served in the region beyond the River or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living; but as for me and my household, we will serve YHWH.' Then the people answered ... 'we also will serve YHWH, for he is our God.'” But Joshua said to the people, 'You cannot serve YHWH, for he is a holy God. He is a jealous God... If you forsake YHWH and serve foreign gods, then he will turn and... consume you....' And the people said to Joshua... 'No, but YHWH our God we will serve, and him we will obey.'” [Josh 24:15-24]
But did they keep their promises? No, they did not.
By the time Jesus arrived on the scene, the pattern of rebellion, repentance, forgiveness and restoration was beginning to look like a revolving door. Before the book of Judges - the one that comes right after Joshua - is half over, the Israelites had abandoned God five times, and been rescued five times, before God pulls the plug on them. Listen to round six:
“So the Israelites cried to YHWH saying, 'We have sinned against you, because we have abandoned our God and have worshiped the Baals.' And YHWH said to the Israelites, 'Did I not deliver you from the Egyptians and from the Amorites, from the Ammonites and from the Philistines? The Sidonians also, and the Amalekites, and the Maonites, oppressed you; and you cried to me, and I delivered you out of their hand. Yet you have abandoned me and worshiped other gods; therefore I will deliver you no more. Go and cry to the gods whom you have chosen; let them deliver you in the time of your distress.'” [Jud 10:14]
Well, they begged and pleaded and wept and promised and God saved them again - and again. And then when they begged to be like all the other nations, he gave them a king - warning them what that would mean in terms of taxation and conscription - and the kings, with a few exceptions, led their people into further disobedience.
Conquest and exile didn’t turn the trick, either. When the people came back to rebuild the temple, they fell into the same old patterns.
When Jesus came, they still wanted the same old same old: - they wanted God to save them from the Romans, and give them a king, and protect them from their enemies, and make them rich and prosperous and happy. But Jesus didn’t do it.
Instead, he opened their eyes to what their real problem was. The real problem wasn’t poverty, or enemies, or unjust social systems, or any of the other things people like to point to as a source of their discomforts. It was them.
What do people blame nowadays for what goes wrong in their lives? Is it the government? Is it the schools? Is it the entertainment industry? Is it their parents or their jobs or their peers? Have you ever caught yourself blaming other people for things that are really your own fault?
Jesus knows how easy it is for us to do that. That’s why he told us to judge ourselves before judging other people. "Why do you see the speck in your neighbor’s eye, but do not notice the log in your own eye? Or how can you say to your neighbor, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ while the log is in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your neighbor’s eye." [Mt 7:3-5]
As Pogo once said, “We have met the enemy, and he is us.”
And all the people who didn’t want to hear it stuck their fingers in their ears and screamed “Foul!”
Like all the people in our own day, even in our own denomination, who when they hear conservative Christians talk about sin and repentance start up with accusations of intolerance, of not being inclusive, even of indulging in hate speech.
I’m okay, you’re okay. Everybody’s just fine. It’s all someone else’s fault.
In a recent study of same-sex relationships, of the three hundred or so couples who had made what they called a life partnership, not one lasted more than five years. And the apologists for the not-so-gay lifestyle blame it on societal pressures, rather than on the inherently unhealthy nature of homosexuality.
My mind is made up, don’t confuse me with the facts.
If someone tries to shine a new light on an issue we’re committed to, we have a real strong tendency just to close our eyes even tighter. But we can’t do it forever. Reality will break in, sooner or later, like it or not.
As Bob Dylan sang in the classic “Blowin’ in the Wind,” “How many times can a man turn his head and pretend that he just doesn’t see?” And the answer is, more than he ought. More than we ought.
But Jesus brings light.
Jesus shines light into all of our dark corners. And it’s not comfortable, is it? As a matter of fact, sometimes it’s downright painful. But the point isn’t to make you uncomfortable, the point is to make you well. We expect to take our clothes off when we go see the doctor, don’t we? Well, it’s even more important to take our protective covering off when the Great Physician starts his examination. The whole point of the exercise is so that "everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life."
Now, I’m not going to name names, but I know for a fact that there are people in this congregation who don’t like to go to the doctor. They ignore their annual checkups and just hope that nothing goes wrong. Is that smart? What’s the motive? Is it that as long as you don’t know about it you won’t have to do anything? Or is it that you’re so afraid something is wrong you don’t dare find out?
Do you have the same reluctance to take a good look at your spiritual health?
If so, is it because there’s something in your life you’re not willing to let go of if Jesus asks it? Or is it that you really don’t believe Jesus can help you, forgive you, restore you?
Each of us, to one degree or another, fears to come completely into the light.
Each one of us has things inside us, in our pasts or in our hearts, that we don’t want spread all over the front pages of the newspaper. And that’s okay. Coming into the light doesn’t mean going on Oprah. But if we are hiding either from ourselves or from God, we are in very grave danger.
When I was a kid I lived in Brazil for a couple of years as my Dad was in the foreign service. We had lived in a really nice second floor apartment overlooking a park in Rio de Janeiro, six blocks from Copacabana Beach. It was an absolutely terrific life except for the cockroaches. Anybody who has ever lived in the tropics knows what I’m talking about. No matter what the servants did, we couldn’t get rid of them. So we learned to cope. Before putting your feet out of bed, you shook out your slippers, and you turned the bathroom light on before stepping across the threshold. You could see the little critters scurrying off into their little cracks and crevices. They couldn’t stand the light. They were creatures of darkness.
And that is what Jesus means when he says that “those who do not believe are condemned already.” [v 18b] The people who run away when the light of Christ is turned on have simply revealed their nature. Jesus doesn’t judge them. Jesus doesn’t do anything to them. He just stands there saying, “Free immunizations this way!”
Now, I’m not saying that non-Christians are cockroaches.
What I am saying is that all of us have at least an occasional tendency to flee the light. "People loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil. For all who do evil hate the light and do not come to the light, so that their deeds may not be exposed." [19-20]
This is a universal human reaction. We all dislike being shown to be wrong. I feel that way myself. I don’t even want to be corrected if I mispronounce a word. Actually, I especially don’t like being corrected if I mispronounce a word, because a lot of my self-esteem is still stuck in being articulate and educated. But none of us likes to be wrong, and we particularly dislike being proved wrong in public. This verse is simply pointing out a normal human reaction, which is part of being fallen creatures. That is why it is so hard to change; nobody wants to admit they’re wrong.
The Republicans try to convince the people that the Democrats are to blame for whatever has gone wrong over the previous two or four or eight years, but of course they won’t admit it. And the Democrats in their turn blame everything on the Republicans. And whichever side has messed up the worst shouts the loudest to divert people’s attention from their own shortcomings.
But all is not lost. Verse 21 gives us a contrast and a hope: "But those who do what is true come to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that their deeds have been done in God (that is to say produced by God)." What John is saying here is that if we are willing to turn toward truth, even though it means we have to admit we have been wrong, then we will find ourselves being drawn to Jesus, for he is the Light of Truth. And it works at every stage of our Christian life, not just in the early stages.
But there is a phenomenon unique to the first step: the choice we make that ultimately brings us to Christ starts with a deep internal conviction that we do not like the way we are. Something about the way we are living is wrong, is inadequate, is unsatisfying; we want to be different. And the remarkable thing is that if we just begin to pursue truth at whatever level we find it, we will find ourselves, like a magnet, being drawn to Jesus. Hebrews 11:6 says, whoever would approach God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him. That verse does not say a word about believing in Jesus or being born again. It’s even more basic, more preliminary than that.
God takes people right where we are in life. If, deep in our hearts, there is a hunger for something more, if we want to be different, those would like to be freed from the anguish or shame or hunger or despair that we are living in, and begin to pursue a way out, will be drawn like a magnet to Jesus. When they hear of him they will be open to receive him. In Chapter 6 of this same gospel Jesus himself puts it very plainly: "No one can come to me unless drawn by the Father who sent me." [Jn 6:44]. The desire within yourself to want to be set free is God drawing you to Christ.
God is more than fair. God is more than just. "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." And you get to choose.
As Dr. Seuss so eloquently puts it,
“You have brains in your head.
You have feet in your shoes.
You can steer yourself any direction you choose.
You’re on your own. And you know what you know.
And YOU are the guy who’ll decide where to go.”
