Although human beings are quite adept at choosing evil over good, wrong over right, shadow over light, God gives us every chance in Jesus of doing well.
Here’s a transcript:
I’m thinking about the third chapter of John’s Gospel (John 3:14-21), the conclusion of Jesus’ conversation with Nicodemus. This section includes one of the most famous verses of the New Testament: “For God so loved the world that he sent his only son, so that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” And I always think that that verse is incomplete if you do not include the verse that follows: “God did not send the son into the world to condemn the world but so that all the world might be saved through him.”
The thing is, is that what follows is Jesus’ commentary on the choices that people make when they are offered the chance to choose between what is good and what is bad, what is right and what is wrong, what is bright and what is shadow. People chose darkness rather than the light, Jesus told Nicodemus, because their deeds were evil.
It’s hard to argue that point in our contemporary world. it was hard to argue that point in the first century. Indeed, if Nicodemus tried to argue it (and he probably didn’t), John didn’t bother to record it. That closes John’s description of the encounter between those two significant teachers of the Law.
Isn’t it peculiar that human beings so often choose the evil over the good, that we choose the wrong over the right, that we choose the shadows, the night, rather than the light and the day?
So much of it arises from the simple selfishness. So much of it arises from self-aggrandizement. So much of it arises from greed. So much of it arises from privilege and power. Some arises from desperation, it must be said. Some arises from a constant sense of pain, and the desire to feel better. We choose the shadows rather than the places where there is light.
In Jesus, God made available to us the ability to make different choices, to stand in the sunlight rather than hide in the darkness, to choose the right and the good over the wrong and the evil. in Jesus, God offers us the ability to be forgiven for previous choices, and to follow someone who chose well at each opportunity.
It’s a peculiar thing that we should be given not just one chance but every chance to do well in our lives, with our lives, through our lives: to do well as Jesus did.
That’s what I’m thinking. I’m curious to hear what you’re thinking. Leave me your thoughts in the comment section below. I’d love to hear from you.
