Last week we had commandments, this week condemnation (Jn 3:16). “Whoever believes in him will not be condemned, but whoever does not believe has already been condemned”.
Couple that with the angry God of the Book of Chronicles burning down Jerusalem (2 Chr 36:14-16, 19-23) and we have a pretty gloomy picture. No wonder we’d rather get Lent over and done with.
But is all what it seems (at first)?
Just before the line quoted above, John says: “For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world”. So what is going on with the condemnation then?
Well, those who believe are not condemned, so there’s no problem there. But the others – they are condemned, aren’t they? So who is condemning? God? The Son – who was sent as an act of love, not condemnation…? This doesn’t quite fit together.
John uses a rather strange turn of phrase: “whoever does not believe has already been condemned”. How already? When?
God isn’t condemning anyone. This is people condemning themselves. John’s further explanation spells it out. People do this to themselves. Because they are ashamed but cannot stop themselves, they hide away. Who has not felt that sensation – I don’t want to own up to that, I’ll pretend it didn’t happen, I’ll pretend I’m not here, I’ll hide in a darkness of my own making. If I choose darkness then I’ll be in the dark. But God wants us to come into the light – to accept our failures and inadequacies and get over them, literally step over them and put them behind us, and come into the light.
Even before the revelation of the full and unconditional nature of God’s love in Jesus, his people were beginning to understand that God didn’t turn away from them, however much they might have thought they deserved it, judged by human standards. And He would use extraordinary means to get them back in relationship with Him. Even to the extent of making some king of Persia, who knew nothing about Him, part of His plan for reconciliation with His people.
And we know He didn’t stop there. He sent His only Son, His own being, to die. So that we have the opportunity to see and believe in His love.