Tuesday, May 10, 2005
CHRIST IS RISEN!
The Holy Apostle Simon Zelotes
8th Vigil of Pascha: 3 Kings 17:8-24 Apostle: Acts 4:1-10 Gospel: St. John 3:16-24
St. John 3:16-21, especially vs. 16 : "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son,
that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life." Today's passage from St. John's Gospel is the
concluding portion of the Lord's conversation with Nicodemos. The first part of the conversation is read on the Thursday
of Bright Week (Jn. 3:1-15). The present passage begins with an often-quoted verse of Holy Scripture (Jn. 3:16), which
summarizes the message of the reading: God loves every one of His creatures, each of us, and He has affirmed this love in
Christ in a most tangible, direct manner. The verse declares that God, from the depth of His Being, is love. His love is not
limited to a single action, nor confined by any conditions, nor bound within any time-frame. God's love flows out from
Who He is essentially. As St. John declares elsewhere, "God is love" (1 Jn. 4:8). On one hand, the word of the Lord in
today's opening verse flavors the meaning of the rest of the reading, enhancing every word and verse. Conversely, the
reading itself serves as detailed exposition by the Lord Jesus Christ of the message stated in this key verse.
First, the Lord Jesus declares that God is concerned to "save," not to "condemn" (vs. 17). Why then does Christ our God
speak mostly of condemnation here (vss. 17-20)? The answer is quite simple: God looks upon a condemned race, a
creation of His own making that is perishing, sentenced to the oblivion of death. The loving Source of Life looks lovingly
upon His creation, filled with this death, and this entire creation affronts His nature. However, let us have the humility to
acknowledge: we have brought and we bring the condemnation upon ourselves. Condemnation hovers over us as the over-arching tragedy of our human life-experience.
Death negates all of human history and every single human being. How is it that we cause such a condemnation? We
stand apart from God's outstretched, loving, life-giving hand: "men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds
were evil" (vs. 19), but our loving Lord is Light. He comes to illumine the world, and still we love darkness rather than
light (vs. 19)! That is our self-defeating choice, and our practice of evil demonstrates our love of darkness (vs. 20). From
Adam to the present, we have loved darkness (compare Gen. 3:8 and Jn. 3:20).
As it was in the beginning, when God first gave us life and breath (Gen. 2:7), so it was with the coming of God in the flesh:
Christ our God strives lovingly to woo us away from death, that we might have everlasting life (Jn. 3:16). He only asks
that we believe in Him, trust Him, and commit to Him, so "that the world through Him might be saved" (vs. 17).
In Genesis, God reveals that we are made in His image (Gen. 1:27). We have the basis for love in our inmost essence.
When the Only-Begotten Son of God came into the world, He exposed our potential to love, and He did more than display
an ideal. In a supreme act of love, He directly attacked the evil and death that negate our capacity to love. Most assuredly
the Lord Jesus is all about love, for He Himself lovingly embraced even death to give us life in Himself.
In the Gift of the Only-Begotten Son, God acts to restore us to Himself, that we may live in Him and love Him in His
eternal Kingdom. He does not leave us in condemnation. Rather, He has made His grace and forgiveness tangible (1 Jn.
1:1), so that we who are dependent upon what is concrete may trust in Him. By becoming Incarnate and being one of us,
Christ our God has historically and physically given us a discernible basis to trust in Him (vs. 18), to do the truth (vs. 21),
to come to the light (vs. 21), and avoid condemnation. God loves His world. The Lord Jesus is palpable proof, so that
none need perish, so that all may have everlasting life in Him. Save us O Son of God, Who art risen from the dead, who
sing unto Thee, Alleluia.
