John 3:14-21

And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.

“For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him 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. Those who believe in him are not condemned; but those who do not believe are condemned already, because they have not believed in the name of the only Son of God. And this is the judgment, that the light has come into the world, and people loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil. For all who do evil hate the light and do not come to the light, so that their deeds may not be exposed. But those who do what is true come to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that their deeds have been done in God.

Think of images that we lift up as images of victory and achievement – images that drive and influence our pursuit of excellence and inform our understanding of what success looks like.

First, if you are a professional football player, or merely a fan, what is the image of ultimate success?

The image we lift up is an image of someone literally ‘lifting up’ the Lombardi trophy following victory in the Super Bowl, while team-colors-specific confetti fill the atmosphere of the stadium.

Next question. If you are someone who likes to go fishing, what image motivates you? What does success look like?

An image of someone literally ‘lifting up’ a big fish.

How about if you are in the movie business, either as an actor or producer or director or sound engineer or costume designer; what image of success comes to mind?

‘Lifting up’ that Oscar, or Academy Award, as applause fills the theater and millions of people watching at home resolve to watch your movie.

Now think of students who work so hard day in and day out solving problems, reading, writing essays, and taking tests. What is the image of ultimate achievement?

It’s likely the image of wearing the cap and gown and ‘lifting up’ the diploma case (even though they’re always empty!).

If you’re a golfer, what is the image that motivates you?

An image of someone literally ‘lifting up’ a club above his or her head after hitting a hole-in-one or sinking the winning put.

Now think about your image of retirement – something that some of you are immersed in while others are still thinking, dreaming, planning, and saving for (or should be!).

How about this image! Sitting on a beach before a beautiful sunset, ‘lifting up’ your hand held by the spouse who has been with you for the wild ride of marriage, work, and kids.

Last one: As a disciple of Jesus, a child of the one true God, what image do we “lift up;” what image influences our pursuit of excellence and inform our understanding of what a ‘successful’ Christian life looks like.

The ‘lifted up’ broken and bloodied body of God on the cross.

So, to conclude this exercise, I ask you, which is these is not like the other?

There’s nothing wrong with…
rooting for your team to win the championship;
seeking that big fish;
wanting your creative work to be celebrated;
dreaming about finally getting that hole-in-one;
celebrating academic success;
or planning for and enjoying a relaxing retirement.

Where we get into trouble, however, is in mixing up these images of success with what it means to be followers of Christ.

The Christian life is not about winning trophies or awards; it’s not about earning achievements or recognition or success. Rather, it’s about self-sacrifice, generosity, adversity, love in the face of rejection, faith without assurance, and hope in the midst of despair. Christian disciples don’t worship the lifted up trophy of victory; we worship the lifted up broken and bloodied body of God on the cross.

The image of the broken and bloodied body of God lifted up on the cross reminds us that we do damage to God and God’s children with our efforts to earn salvation, compete for religious goods and services, and wrap our self-serving pursuit of power in holy language and holy war.

That’s actually good news; but it’s also the news we don’t really want to hear.

We prefer to think that our faith in Jesus Christ means that we have won and now we can relax, even if others are suffering.

We prefer to think that our faith in Jesus Christ gives us rights and privileges and power over and above those who do not believe.

We prefer to think that our faith in Jesus Christ will be rewarded with personal safety, wealth, and a life of ease.

As a church, we prefer to think that our faith in Jesus Christ will yield bigger sanctuaries, more parishioners, and balanced budgets.

But look at the Son of Man who has been “lifted up so that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.”

Look at him.

That’s what we worship.

True, divine, faithful victory looks anything but victorious.

The esteemed theologian Miroslav Volf writes, “Sometimes, by some strange alchemy, ‘Take up your cross and follow me’ morphs into ‘I’ll bring out the champion in you,’ or the cross itself becomes a symbol of destruction and violence rather than of creative love that overcomes enmity.”1

All-too-often we want to skip ahead to the resurrection, preferring to believe in the Jesus wrapped in brilliant white garments who ascends into heaven. We forget that believing in Jesus also means believing in the Jesus who suffered a criminal’s death on a cross because the truth he revealed unsettled the powerful, released the captives, and forgave the unworthy.

All-too-often we want to reap all the benefits of faith (such as: eternal life, a renewed creation, peace, love, and hope for the hopeless) without acknowledging just how much suffering we will experience in the process; and without realizing that the cross is a promise of love.

I was convicted by something I read this week: “To ‘believe that’ Jesus died and was raised to save us is easy to understand in the sense that it requires almost nothing of us. But…to “believe” this Good News in a way that brings salvation requires more than “‘believing that’ [it happened]; it requires “trusting in.” To “trust in” Jesus is not simply to believe something about what happened long ago, but also to let our own lives be transformed by the Jesus we encounter in this story.”2

The Christian life is not a pursuit of trophies; it is a process of transformation.

The Christian life is not about being the best; it is simply about being present for others.

The Christian life is not about consumption; it is about conservation.

The Christian life is not about rejection; it is about redemption.

This is the image of success and victory that the Christian faith lifts up. This is the truth that motivates our lives as followers of Christ.

The good news is that in the shadow of the cross we don’t have to keep working on being a better and better Christian in order to be loved by God. Christ’s love has won victory over death and sin, which frees us to live in a way that is humble, honorable, honest, and holy.

Amen.

1. Miroslav Volf, A Public Faith, Brazos Press, p12.
2. Lance Pape, “Commentary on John 3:14-21” http://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?commentary_id=2394

Now that I once again subscribe to cable-television, I’ve rediscovered the show Chopped on the Food Network. For those of you who are not familiar, the show brings in four chefs who compete against each other to create three meals based on ingredients in a mystery basket, which they do not open until the timer starts. After each round, the chef with the worst plate is eliminated (i.e., "chopped").

I’ve watched this show many times before but it had never provided any theological insights until an episode this week. With less than two minutes left in the entrée round, one of the chefs burnt one of his mystery ingredients (each of the mystery ingredients has to make it on the plate in order to continue to the next round). When he discovered the burning ingredient he said, “OK, now I’m in salvation mode.” So he went to work trying to fix his mistake and put something edible on his plate.

I’m sure what the chef meant to say was, “OK, now I'm in salvage mode” instead of “salvation mode;” but the lexical mix-up really stuck with me. The two words are similar and have the same Anglo-French root (salver - “to save”), but their usage brings to mind very different images.

So often we think of the concept of salvation as a neat, tidy, beautiful, perfect thing. We use words like victory, peace, and glory to describe salvation. We picture salvation as being lifted up out of the muck of daily existence, far removed from pain, sin, and the powers of death.

This concept of salvation is precisely what the Israelites had been waiting for from the very beginning of the Biblical narrative, upon Adam and Eve’s banishment from the Garden of Eden. After generation upon generations of suffering, oppression, mistakes, faithfulness, faithlessness, greed, victory, and defeat, the Hebrew people were expecting and praying for a Messiah who would usher in a tidy, beautiful perfect salvation leading to victory, peace, and glory, enabling them to be lifted up out of the muck of daily existence, far removed from pain, sin, and the powers of death.

However, the Messiah whom God revealed to the world in Jesus of Nazareth was radically different than the one the Hebrew people had expected. Consequently, the salvation that Jesus procured for the world was anything but neat and tidy. It looked less like salvation and more like a salvage effort – similar to a chef frantically running around trying to figure out some way of turning a burnt ingredient into something palatable.

The traditional way to think about the salvation through Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection is to recall Jesus’ suffering for the sole reason of explaining the greatness of his victory. The bad stuff makes us appreciate the good stuff all the more.

This is a basis for any captivating story. We love stories about a football team down by three touchdowns in the 4th quarter that comes back to win the game. We love stories about how an ignored and hopeless school in the inner city overcomes all the obstacles to learning and sends kids off to college, where they excel, graduate, and thrive in careers. We love stories about people who are down on their luck, but a twist of fate gives them a second chance to do something incredible.

But what of the football team that is down by three touchdowns in the 4th quarter, sticks together and continues to fight hard, but fails to win? What about the students and teachers of the school who reluctantly show up to school, each knowing there is little hope for academic success? What about people who are down on their luck, only to have more and more problems thrown on their shoulders?

Is salvation possible in these situations?

It is, if we realize salvation is less about a neat and tidy victory and more about salvaging a life and hope in the midst of pain and pressure.

The salvation we have in Jesus Christ is two-fold. One part is the certain promise of victory over death as evidenced by his resurrection. The second, and just as important part, is the extent to which God fully embraced our suffering, pain, disappointment, fear, and death in order to prove God is with us in our suffering, pain, disappointment, fear, and death.

Salvation is not just the victorious ascent; it is also the salvaging of hope in the midst of the descent.

At this point you could well be saying, “So what? What possible implication could such theological hair-splitting mean for our daily lives?”

Well, if you feel as though your life is heading in a downward direction, it should make all the difference in the world.

If life is spinning out of control; if you find yourself doubting your personal worth or your faith in a peace and hope that shines in the darkness; if you feel hopeless, alone, or consumed with hatred and intolerance; if you are sick, close to death, or absolutely terrified of the idea of death…God is there, salvaging life out of death, hope out of hopelessness, peace out of pain.

If you feel like life is heading in a downward direction, know that God at work and the work of salvation has begun. You don’t have to wait for your life to get back on track; you don’t have to wait until your problems are solved; you don’t have to wait until you are healed to experience the life, hope, and peace of God.

Picture the image of Jesus hanging bruised, beaten, and bloodied, on the cross. This was not a necessary and noble sacrifice to appease an angry God. Rather, this is an image of God working to salvage life, hope, and peace, out of a world that had rejected him. This was proof that God has experienced the depth of human suffering and pain.

Picture the empty tomb, with Jesus’ grave clothes tossed to the ground. This was God working to salvage life, hope, and peace out of a world that had rejected him.

The message that we, as people whom God has called together to bear witness to the world, have to share with all people who are suffering is this: “God is present in the suffering; and it is there that God is salvaging life, hope and peace.”

This is a message the world desperately needs to hear. This is a message the world desperately needs to see us enact.

May you be attentive to the parts of your life where God is salvaging life, hope, and peace out of pain, disappointment, and death. May you be attentive to the parts of the lives of others where God is salvaging life, hope, and peace out of pain, disappointment, and death. And may you be bold to declare that God is present in those places.

Thank you for bearing the good and necessary news to the world.

"Trophies or Transformation" – John 3:14-21

G2A #11: "Salvaging Salvation" – Matthew 26-28