The Book of Chronicles gives us a grand sweep of history, with the many times the people of God messed up, and in today’s reading ending with a restart coming from completely outside their control, driven by a foreign emperor. Following this Paul and John bring that same storyline closer to us as individuals – we do wrong but God finds a way to start over.
We can perhaps imagine Paul’s, rather fearsome, intensity as he says: God loves us so much that, even when we were so messed up we were dead for all practical purposes, he sent Jesus to bring us to life.
John is a bit cooler and maybe more philosophical. We heard last week how he describes the new start that comes with Jesus, the Temple is gone – the restart of that the Chronicler sees is overtaken by something else. In today’s reading we’ve skipped over the discussion with Nicodemus about rebirth and new life, and we hear John’s way of telling us the same thing as Paul – God loves everyone and sent Jesus to prove it.
But John also recognizes a problem. If a good, all-powerful God wants to save us then how come not everyone gets saved? Why doesn’t the power of God overwhelm everyone?
This question has haunted great theologians over the years, including Augustine, the reformers (particularly Luther and Calvin), through to modern liberation theologians. What was clear to John, Augustine, and others, was that despite God’s love and power he still leaves us to make choices. Yes Jesus came to save (not to condemn, as John emphasizes) but we still have to agree to be saved. And the reason we might not agree? – not that we are stupid, but because we are stuck in our bad habits – it’s easier to stay with the behavior we know than to start over and do things differently, to become something different.
Paul understands the challenge of this change as well as anyone – if anyone had to do a 180 on his previous beliefs and behavior it was Paul. That’s why he is so ferocious in his attempts to get people to understand the need to change, to see the opportunity that Jesus offers and to grab hold of it. And when we do, we have no reason to feel superior because of it – a drowning person doesn’t get a prize for grabbing hold of the lifebelt.
So in the middle of Lent we hear again the call to change, to walk away from whatever darkness we have in our lives. John and Paul and all the others know it’s not easy, but they also know it’s so worth it. Live in the truth and come to the light.