John 3:1-17
February 17, 2008
Sermon preached by Rev. Donald Ng at the First Chinese Baptist Church in San Francisco.
One of the most spectacular pictures that we have seen in our generation is the picture of our planet taken from the lunar module that makes it look like a blue marble hanging in space. Earth looks so at peace and we so badly wish that it was that calm.
What does God see when God looks at the world? We might think that God is somewhere out there in outer space watching over us. But the problem with this is that the Bible describes God as being intimately involved in the lives of humankind, and the blue marble perspective is just too distant.
Today with Google technology, some have ventured to say that we can now have a better “God’s-eye” view of the earth. It’s called “Google Earth.”
“Google Earth” is a free program that gives you a virtual globe of the earth. Its inventors have created a three-dimensional map of the earth by superimposing satellite images, aerial photographs and other geographic information onto maps to create full-color views such as you might see if you were hovering over locations of your choice in some sort of aircraft that allowed you to quickly zoom down toward the ground or up toward the sky to change your perspective.
Google Earth is fun because the first location many of us looked at is our home. If you type in your street address, city and state, Google Earth’s global map will “revolve” in front of your eyes and quickly focus down on your neighborhood and finally, your house—or your neighbor’s house. You might notice that your neighbor up the street just put on a new addition in the back of their house that you didn’t know about. You can tilt the program and wander up and down your street where you have physically taken many walks before.
Google Earth wasn’t invented to be a mere pastime for you to peek into your neighbor’s backyard. It also has serious applications for news reporting, hurricane rescue in New Orleans as well as rescuing refugees fleeing from war violence.
Now that you know all about Google Earth and can’t wait to go home to try it, I want to retract what I said earlier that Google Earth gives us a “God’s eye” view of the world. According to the Bible, even with Google Earth’s three-dimensional program, it does not allow us to see the world as God sees it. The way God sees the world, the Bible says, is through the lens of love.
God Loves the Kosmos
While we have been in the season of Lent, most of us took a little time off this week to celebrate Valentine’s Day. We exchanged greeting cards, gave candy and flowers and other lavish gifts to impress our romantic interest. When we love someone, we like to give something to that person to show our endearment. God’s love is like that but it’s much, much more. In fact, if it wasn’t for God showing us how to love, we may not know how to truly love after all.
John 3:16 is the most well-known verse from the whole Bible. It has been called the “gospel in miniature,” and indeed, it does convey the heart of the gospel message. “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son…” says John. God loved the world so much that he showed that love by the giving of his Son.
To unpack this verse, “God so loved the world,” the word, “world” here could mean “God so loved the people who inhabit the planet Earth.” And that seems fair, for one of the meanings of “world” is “the human race.” But if John meant only “the people who inhabit the planet Earth,” none of the other Bible translators have interpreted this verse that way. They all have simply said, the “world” means the Greek word, “kosmos.”
“Kosmos” means “orderly arrangement.” God created the universe to be orderly, as a harmonious whole, as opposed to being chaotic.
Now in John’s day, there was another word that can also mean “world” but specifically refers to the part of the earth that is inhabited. The word, oikoumene, which literally means “I inhabit,” but John didn’t use it in this verse.
There is no doubt that John chose kosmos instead of oikoumene because in those days, the people who inhabited the earth were mostly of the Roman world—people who viewed themselves to be civilized, excluding everyone else who they thought to be barbarians. John didn’t use “For God so loved the oikoumene that he gave is only Son…” because it would mean that God only loves the beautiful people, the cultured class, people with money.
John used kosmos instead of oikoumene because he wanted to be clear that no one anywhere was outside of the realm of God’s love—the marginalized, the stranger, the alien, the poor and the uneducated, the outsider, the immigrant, and the barbarians. They are all included in God’s so loved the world.
“For God so loved the kosmos… means that God wants harmony and order and not chaos among all the people. Remember that in the beginning, when God created the earth, the first thing he did was to impose order on the formless, dark void that was there (Gen. 1:2), which is one definition of chaos. And then at the end of time, the Bible in Revelations (21:4) speaks about the end of suffering, pain and death which are all marks of chaos.
The point is that order, the state where things work out as God wants them to, is the existence he also wants for all of us. God loves us so much that he sent his Son to save us from the chaos of sin, the chaos that ultimately causes us to perish. God sent his Son to restore the righteous, orderly arrangement of life for us, the way that leads to eternal life.
Cosmetic Changes
You probably didn’t know that the word, “cosmetics” is derived from the Greek word, kosmos. We often use that word today to mean something superficial, something that does not go beyond the surface as in “We made only cosmetic changes to the building.” But coming from kosmos, it originally meant to put things in beautiful order.
So when a woman is applying her makeup or a man is shaving the early-morning stubble off his chin, they’re both getting their disordered faces in some sort of more pleasing “orderly arrangement.” Maybe not such a stretch after all because these activities can remind us that the chaos of evil and wrong are not what God wants for us.
Before the John 3:16 verse, we meet Nicodemus. As a Sanhedrin religious leader, there was the chaos of questions and confusion in his life. He heard about Jesus and the many miraculous things that he had done but not wanting to be seen in public with his questions, he came at night. Upon hearing Jesus tell him that no one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above, Nicodemus became confused and wondered how can an old man like him enter into a mother’s womb for a second time.
Taking nothing away from the major challenges and tolls experienced by mothers who give birth to babies, Nicodemus was asking for a cosmetic change to see the kingdom of God. His confusion and chaos can all be cleared up if he can be born again from his mother’s womb. But Jesus spoke about being born again of water and the Spirit. This is being born from above–God’s kosmos. God’s Spirit, the wind blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes.
For God so loved the kosmos including Nicodemus that God eventually will bring order out of the chaos of questions Nicodemus was facing that at the end of Jesus’ life on earth, it was Nicodemus who helped to place Jesus in the tomb. He was no longer afraid to be associated with Jesus; perhaps Nicodemus has come to believe.
Loving One Another
Although we would like to think that Google Earth gives us an idea of how God sees the world, we cannot see the world as God sees it. For God so loves the kosmos that we who are human beings are just too limited to wrap our minds around the entire universe. Only God is capable of the wide field of love that allows him to embrace the whole world. The best that we can do is to love the people in our small corner of influence. We can love the neighbor whose backyard we googled in to see. We may even be able to love our enemies. Jesus said, “Indeed God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.” (John 3:17) God loves our enemies too.
While we believe and acknowledge that God can love the whole world as he pleases, God also loves us one by one. Jesus welcomed Nicodemus to visit him at night so that Nicodemus’ questions and confusion will be beautifully reordered for him to understand.
God loves you too. The best way to hear the gospel in John 3:16 is to substitute your name for the word, “world.” “For God so loved (your name) that he gave his only Son, so that (your name) believes in him, (your name) may not perish but may have eternal life.”
So many years ago during my high school years, I was asked by this Chinese couple to serve as a big brother for their son, Hang. He had severe cerebral palsy. The mother was of small frame and began to find it difficult to hold and play with Hang who was growing bigger and stronger. Hang’s father was doing graduate work by day and worked at night to support his family. My job was simply to play with Hang and to help him to form his words. There were times when I felt like Anne Sullivan working with Helen Keller. I can still remember Hang biting me with no other reason but to try conveying his feelings. Perhaps the saddest memory I have is the look on his mother’s face. “What can I possibly do with this child? Will we ever learn how to cope? What will become of Hang and our family?” These were all emotions of confusion and disorder.
I was not a pastor then and now I have lost track of Hang and his family. It was such a long time ago. But even if I were a pastor then, I would have found it hard to find the words to comfort Hang’s mother. I was confused and angry with God in making Hang be like this. Why would a loving God allow so much pain and suffering to happen?
But today, I realize the mystery of God’s love. God loves Hang’s parents even when they had tough questions about why Hang has cerebral palsy and what were they to do. God loves Hang with his special abilities as well as all the children and babies who have physical disabilities, who have retardation, who may be addicted, who may have a tendency toward violence, who may have terminal illnesses.
For God so loves the kosmos that is wider and beyond our human capacity to comprehend, then God loves ordinary old me, even or especially at my most doubting and confused times. God loves me and chooses me to love.
In other words, God loves us even when we are a mess, when we are guilty of disorderly conduct, when we are in emotional or spiritual disarray. God brings us back to the sense of order that God wants for us.
But today I think I would say to Hang’s mother that God in his plan that is often a mystery to us loves us and goes out of his way to love us. I think I would tell her that every child is special in God’s eyes and he loves Hang because he made him.
God Loves Us
God loves us and wants us to have the orderliness of righteousness that he himself enjoys. It’s possible for us to reject God’s love and then perish, because nothing can live forever without the love of God. But because God loves us, God doesn’t easily let us go.
That’s why God sent his Son, and that’s why God follows us through our unfaithfulness, our meanness to one another, our confusion and chaos, and our unholy messes.
God loves us
through our up-heavings and down-turnings,
through our in-fightings and out-castings,
through our high-handings and low-standings,
through our front-loadings and back-slidings,
through our foot-stompings and side-steppings.
And God gave us his Son to save us from all that.
God doesn’t just see the world on Google Earth when everything looks distant and so far away. God doesn’t just see the world the way it is right now. The way God sees the kosmos, the entire universe is the way he designed it—a beautiful harmony and orderly arrangement when all of his children are loved and what God calls us to be.
“For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that if you believe in him, you may not perish but may have eternal life. Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.” (John 3:16-17)
Let us pray.
Thank you, O God for the good news that you love the kosmos. We want to hear about Jesus your only Son. We want our faith to grow when we believe in him. And we want to receive the gift of eternal life as you promised when we follow Jesus. Thank you, O God for these words of new life as we open our lives to a dynamic relationship with you. Amen.