The Rev. Dr. Leah D. Schade – (To view this resource in Spanish, click here.)
John 3:16, “For God so loved the world,” is the most beloved passage of Christian Scripture. But we often miss its significance for Creation.
Here are ideas for reading and preaching John 3:1-17, the story of Nicodemus coming to Jesus. This is part of the EcoPreacher 1-2-3 series to equip preachers and congregations for engaging the Bible through an ecological lens. This text is assigned as part of the Revised Common Lectionary for the second Sunday of Lent, Year A.
Eco-Exegesis
Eco-exegesis is a method of interpreting the biblical text through a green lens using the principles of ecological theology.
John 3:16
“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.”
John 3:16 is the most well-known and oft-quoted verse of the Christian scriptures. Jesus establishes God’s love as the reason for his existence and draws out implications of that love for the world. But we often overlook the significance of what this verse means for a theology of Creation. John 3:16 provides an important eco-hermeneutical key for supporting Creation-care. Notice that Jesus did not say, “For God so loved human beings.” No, he said that God so loved the world. In Greek, the word is cosmos. This means that the salvific significance of Jesus is not limited to human beings. Jesus’ redemption is meant for all of Creation.
John 3:16 counters the argument that Creation is not included in Jesus’s saving work. The created world is no mere stage upon which the drama of human salvation plays out or a set-piece that God will throw away when Jesus returns. Such an interpretation is highly problematic and has been used to rationalize all types of human desecration of the planet. In contrast, this scene of Jesus teaching Nicodemus about the mystery of faith is suffused with Creation’s life-giving power.
Creation is Jesus’s teaching partner in explaining to Nicodemus the wonders of God’s love. Verse 3:2 indicates that Nicodemus came to Jesus under the cover of night. It evokes other times when God’s revelation came to people of faith in the Hebrew Scriptures after the sun went down. During a night dream, Jacob saw the ladder connecting heaven and earth (Gen. 28:10-17). Under a midnight sky, God told Abram to count the stars to experience the scope of God’s promise of descendants (Gen. 15:5).
In other words, the time when most humans are asleep is when a completely different world awakens. Night creatures emerge. The beautiful stars and moon, not visible in the day, shine and twinkle in the velvety sky. Like a sheltering womb that envelopes the earth, nighttime is when dreams, secrets, and the unconscious come to life.
Nicodemus invokes the image of the womb when he tries to understand what it means to be “born from above” (vv. 3-4). Jesus responds with yet more Creation imagery – water and Spirit – the elements out of which Creation emerged in Genesis 1:1-2. The wind from God (ruah in Hebrew) swept over the waters like a mother’s breath ebbing and flowing over a life forming in her womb. Jesus uses the Greek word pneuma both for the Spirit and the wind in v. 8. It is the breath of life which provides air for every living thing on this planet.
When Nicodemus continues to express his confoundment at this teaching, Jesus turns to yet another nature-based image, the serpent. A biblically complicated creature, the serpent symbolizes a range of meanings. The serpent is a both a tempter and an usher toward knowledge in the Garden of Eden (Gen. Ch. 3). The serpent is both a cause of death and a source of healing for the Israelites in the wilderness (Num. Ch. 21). Jesus saying that he will be lifted up like a serpent evokes the paradoxes of this potent symbol. The serpent regularly sheds its skin, renewing itself. Also, snake venom can both kill and heal, depending upon its use and dosage. It’s no wonder the serpent is a symbol of wisdom, knowledge, healing, and rebirth. As threatening and mysterious as the serpent might be, it can also be the very creature that heals us.
Jesus uses all these aspects of nature – the night, water, wind/Spirit, the serpent – to create a kaleidoscope of divine revelation for Nicodemus, and for us. Consider the significance of God loving the cosmos so deeply that God would embody God’s self within that very cosmos. Made flesh within a woman’s womb. Brought into life through the birth waters, air rushing into his tiny lungs breathing the pneuma, the ruah. That same air and water forced from his body when the empire later executed him as a man who challenged their death-dealing systems.
But in the darkness of Good Friday’s tomb, revelation would emerge once again. Under the velvety cover of night, the breath of life would miraculously resurrect him. Like the shed skin of a snake, the death shroud would be left behind. On a mountain, he would call his disciples to baptize all nations in the water of new life.
For Christians, living into our baptismal vocation means doing everything within our power to love the cosmos just as God does. It means doing things like removing toxins, trash, and pollution from streams, rivers, and oceans. It means protecting the habitats of Earth’s creatures. And it calls us to minimize light pollution so that night creatures can orient themselves to the moon and stars. As God so loved the world, so must we.
The Eco-Idea is one succinct statement that tells us who God is and/or what God does in relation to Creation and how we should respond as people of faith.
Because God loves the entire cosmos, Jesus’s life, ministry, death, and resurrection is meant for all of Creation, including – but not limited to – human beings.
Eco-Questions are what we can ask to help a congregation draw out the implications of the Eco-Exegesis and Eco-Idea.
- Where do you experience God’s love within Creation? Is there a place such as a beach, forest, mountain, or garden that holds holy significance for you because you experience God’s presence there? Is there a time of day such as night or noon, dawn or dusk when you feel most “awake” to God’s revelation?
- How might your congregation love the world in their particular place of Creation? What local waterways might they clean up? What local nature preserves might they donate to or volunteer their time? What letters might they write to local legislators to support measures that reduce air pollution?
Eco-Actions are ways that a congregation might respond to the Eco-Idea and Eco-Questions. One of these possibilities may have salience for your ministry context.
- Plan a “Vigil for God’s Night Creatures” to coincide with Earth Hour, a time in March when the world is urged to turn off the lights for 60 minutes. Read scripture passages that recount God’s night-time revelations. Share images of animals that come awake during the night. Encourage people to reevaluate their consumption habits and become strong advocates for minimizing light pollution.
- Invite a herpetologist, an expert in snakes, to speak at your church about the types of local snakes in your area. Ask them to include information about the importance of protecting habitats for snakes as well as how to respect both poisonous and non-poisonous snakes.
- Plan an Earth Day event with the theme of “God So Loved the World.” Design a Creation-themed worship service, invite representatives from local nature preserves, and include activities for children, youth, and adults to learn about the natural world around them that God created and loves.
* Featured image source
