I'm not preaching today, but I've done a little thinking about the passage from John 3:14-21 nonetheless. This is the passage where Nicodemus comes to Jesus at night. (It's worth remembering the way that John uses dark and light as symbolic categories.) And in these verse we hear the familiar line "For God so loved the world..." These words are beloved by many, but I suspect that people often miss some of what is meant by these words.
The "world" in John is not a place but a realm. It is fallen creation. It is the realm that is opposed to God and God's will. God's love here is not a warm feeling toward a place, but a determination to redeem a system that seems hell bent on going its own way. And while that might not be what we generally think of when we first hear these words, those are pretty comforting words. I, for one, am glad to know that in Jesus, God is seeking to draw the very system that opposes God back into the divine arms.
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