“Christmas Around the World” – John 3:16
I’ve never hidden my strong dislike of Santa Claus. I mean I’ve never met the bloke, so it’s nothing personal, but I don’t like what he stands for.
Perhaps, deep down, it’s because every year at school I get asked to dress up as Santa at Christmas. I’m not sure what they’re trying to say about me – I mean, I don’t have white hair!
Santa is known for his gift-giving. And, according to the songs at least, the way Santa decides the quantity and quality of the presents is whether you’ve been naughty or nice throughout the year.
But we all know it doesn’t work like that, don’t we? The good kids don’t get all the presents.
Instead, children seem to get presents based on where they come from and how much money their parents have.
So, if you hold to the naughty or nice principle then everyone in the African desert and rural China is incredibly bad, but all the kids who live in Vaucluse and Hunters Hill are practically angelic!
It’s just one of the reasons why I object to Santa Claus.
What Santa gets right, however, is that Christmas is about giving. This also creates other confusion, however.
There was a kid who really wanted a bike for Christmas. And in the weeks leading up to Christmas every day he would have go down to the Christmas tree to see if there was anything large and biked-shaped wrapped up there. But it was never there.
Now this kid was a bit confused between Santa and Jesus, so he prayed to Jesus for this new bike.
First, he prayed: “Jesus, I’ve been really good this year and I deserve a bike. Please give it to me.” He looks the next day, and no bike.
Next he realizes he needs to be a bit more honest. “Jesus, I know I haven’t been that good but can you please give me a bike anyway. I really need it.”
Still no bike.
So the next day he goes to the nativity scene his parents have put up on the mantle piece and takes the little figurine of Mary.
He goes up to his room, kneels down and prays, “Jesus, if you ever want to see your mum again you’ll get me that bike.”
He had a bit of a distorted view of God, but it’s no worse than the naughty/nice, rich/poor Santa system either.
God gives gifts to people, too. But fortunately for us, he doesn’t seem to discriminate like Santa. And nor is he open to extortion!
Perhaps the most famous verse in the Bible is John 3:16. It goes like this: “For God so loved the world, he gave his one and only Son that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”
Let’s look briefly at the context. We heard the whole first section of John 3 read for us earlier, and it contains this wonderful conversation between Jesus and Nicodemus. Now Nicodemus was an educated Jew, a religious leader, a member of the ruling council. He’s heard about Jesus and is interested the find out more about him. Unlike most of the Pharisees, he hasn’t just written Jesus off. He can tell that there is profound wisdom in Jesus words. Now whether it’s out of wisdom or lack of courage, Nicodemus goes to Jesus at night no doubt so he can’t been seen by his fellow Pharisees speaking to this enemy of the state.
Nicodemus approaches and, rather than asking a question, begins with a statement. "Rabbi, we know you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the miraculous signs you are doing if God were not with him."
In other words, Nicodemus says – you perform miracles so this proves you’re from God. Now that’s an interesting observation to make, especially given that in Matthew 12 the Pharisees accuse Jesus of performing miracles by the power of the devil. But for Nicodemus at least what he has seen Jesus do at least requires further investigation.
As he often does, though, Jesus responds by answering a question that hasn’t really been asked yet – “I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again.”
Now we don’t have time to unpack this all now but it’s in the context of this conversation with Nicodemus about how to enter the kingdom of God that Jesus utters the famous words in John 3:16: “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son….”
God loved the world! The whole world! People from everywhere – every nation, every language, every social class, every age group.
Even more than that he didn’t just love the world, he SO loved the world. John 3:16 paints a picture of a love that is extreme and that shows itself in extreme action.
What this means deserves some exploration because in one way Jesus is being incredibly radical here.
To the Jews at the time of Jesus it was clear whom God loved – THEM! The people of Israel were the people of God, and the Lord had called them and chosen them out of all the nations on the earth to be his special people, to bear his name, to enjoy his blessing and his protection and also his discipline.
But here Jesus says “For God so loved the world”. Now it’s true that there are a number of passages in the Old Testament where God’s desire to bring all nations to himself is underlined – Zechariah 2:11, for example. But there are more texts that talk about judging the nations, and there is little doubt that these were the ones that most Jews focused on – hence their attitude toward Gentiles and Samaritans.
They were God’s people – God loved them alone – or at least more than he loved any others.
Now it’s very easy for us to look at those sorts of views and think to ourselves, “well, we’re not like that!” But it’s a road many go down.
I don’t know how many times I’ve heard or seen this sort of exchange in one of my Christian Studies classes at school: A kid from an Arabic background says something or does something that an Anglo-Saxon student doesn’t like and they respond with, “what are you even doing in Christian Studies? Aren’t you Muslim or something? Go away!” Depending on how heated the situation, the language might get more colourful!
The attitude assumes that Jesus is for us, not for you. You go and do your religious thing somewhere else, preferably a long way away, and we’ll be Christians here.
A more developed version of this attitude is seen in the myriad of religious teachers out there that teach that Jesus came to save Christians, but that people from other places and other viewpoints are saved in different ways, and apparently by a different god or gods. God might love white people in the Bible belt of the southern USA or our Sydney equivalent on the other side of the Georges River, but he can’t possibly love Buddhists or Hindus or atheists because for them a personal God doesn’t exist!
The idea that God loves the whole world was a radical one back then, and is a radical one now.
But what exactly does it mean?
There are two main schools of thought on this.
The first one is much more popular, for reasons that should be obvious. This view says that when Jesus says God loves the whole world it means he equally loves every person from every nation, and he gave his Son Jesus to die for the sins of everyone. So we can go up to any person on the street and say “God loves you and Jesus died for you” and in doing so be supremely confident in the truth of those words. In theological terms, this position is called General Redemption or Unlimited Atonement.
It’s a view that we’re all brought up on and most of us would hold to dearly. And there’s substantial truth to it, that isn’t in dispute. God loves every individual in the sense that he blesses us all with life and sustenance and grants us his creation to enjoy.
The second school is a bit more nuanced. It claims that when Jesus says “God so loved the world” he means God loves people from all over the world. He isn’t restricted to one people group, God is calling citizens from every nation to himself. But it doesn’t necessarily mean that he loves each individual in exactly the same way.
Why would people think that? For a few reasons.
At times in Scripture we see references to the “world” or to “everyone” or “all men” when it cannot logically mean every single individual because that would contradict both common sense and other parts of the Bible.
For example, Titus 2:11 states that “the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men.” Now certainly by the time of Paul’s letter to Titus and even now we know that the message of the gospel, the message of Jesus has not been heard literally by every single person. Rather, the context demonstrates that Paul is using the phrase to mean all sorts of people. Not just Jews, not just males, not just the rich.
Or take 2 Corinthians 5:19, “that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men's sins against them”.
Does that mean that every single individual has been reconciled to God? Of course not! We know that Jesus taught that the road to salvation is narrow and few people find it. Rather it means that God was reconciling people from all across the world to himself and that he was bringing the creation itself back into right order.
That’s the first reason – that “the world” doesn’t always mean every individual.
The second reason is more troubling. It’s the idea that God doesn’t choose everyone to be brought into his kingdom. Malachi 1:2-3 has God demonstrating his love for Israel by showing how he didn’t love the nation of Edom – “I have loved Jacob, but Esau I have hated,” he says. And before you say that’s the Old Testament it was different then, Paul quotes that exact verse in Romans 9 to explain God’s love for his chosen people.
The Bible teaches that God has chosen some from before the beginning of time to be drawn into relationship with him. Not because they deserve it – no one deserves to be saved, not the nation of Edom, not any of us today. But because he loves us. The idea is that God chose people – he predestined people - from every nation and Jesus came to earth, was born and ultimately died for them. This position is called Limited Atonement or Particular Redemption.
So when Jesus says “God so loved the world”, I don’t think it necessarily means that he loves everyone in the same way. Absolutely he values all of his creation. Absolutely, he takes no joy in punishing sin and he desires that all would turn back to him and be saved. But not all will be and not all receive this salvation love from God.
Before Jesus, the view was that God had a special chosen people whom he loved above all the other nations. That’s a truth that’s taught throughout Scripture – in Deuteronomy 7, for example. Jesus’ point in John 3:16 is not so much that God no longer has a special chosen people, but that his special chosen people are no longer limited along racial or geographical lines. He is calling people from all over the world.
Now there are many arguments on both sides of this debate, and you can probably see that I hold a view more in line with Limited Atonement than General Redemption.
Some of criticised this view because it means that we can no longer offer the gospel freely to all people – for God may not love them in the same way, and Jesus may not have been sent for them. But we do not know who has been chosen, who has received this salvation-love from God so we can still make the offer of forgiveness to everyone without exception.
And that is what a verse like John 3:16 does. God loves the world – this sinful, broken, rebellious, wicked, decaying world – He loves people from all over it.
And because he loves, he gave: “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son…”
Though many of us have forgotten this, we give each other presents at Christmas because God first gave to us.
I don’t know about you, but I often give presents at Christmas for a variety of different reasons. Sometimes it’s out of duty – I know they’re going to get me something so I guess I’d better do so in return. But God gives simply because he loves us!
And what does God give? Nothing nicely gift-wrapped. Or that wonderfully impersonal but oh-so convenient wad of cash.
No, he gives us his Son. Born as a baby in very humble circumstances but immediately recognized by some as the Lord come to earth.
Lee Strobel tells this story of a family he came across before his was a Christian and when he was still working for the Chicago Tribune:
The Deldago family – a grandmother with crippling arthritis and her 11 and 13 year old granddaughters – Lydia and Jenny - lived in a tiny two room flat which was empty except for small kitchen table and a handful of rice. The girls had one short dress each and a thin gray jumper between them which they used to share as they made the cold walk to school each morning. Yet he grandmother, who’s name was Perfecta, still did not despair but trusted Jesus. Lee wrote a short article on their struggle and though he wasn’t a Christian he says he was troubled by their apparent joy in poverty.
Some days later, on Christmas Eve in fact, he went back to their house to check on them. The readers of the newspaper had responded to the article by showering them with gifts – white goods, furniture, Christmas hampers, clothes and cash. But when he arrived Perfecta and her granddaughters were preparing to give much of it away. “Ours neighbours are still in need,” she said. “This is what Jesus would want us to do.”
She looked at the largess and said, “This is wonderful. We did nothing to deserve it, it is a gift from God. But,” she added, “it is not the greatest gift. That we celebrate tomorrow. That is his Son Jesus.”
Just pause and think about that for a moment. Imagine someone gave you their son for Christmas! That would be a strange gift, probably an inappropriate gift that would require a quick call to the DOCS helpline!
God’s gifting of his Son is completely bizarre and inappropriate if we don’t accept the reason and purpose behind it. And that reason and purpose are made plain in the second half of John 3:16
“….he gave his one and only Son so that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”
God gave so that we might live.
Jesus came, was born, he died on a cross at Easter, he rose from the dead so that we won’t perish but be able to love forever.
No doubt you’ve heard of the “Jesus All About Life” advertising campaign. Whatever you think of the “Thank God for the parrot with pants” billboard, there can be no doubt that the main slogan is true – Jesus came, he was given to the world by God, to give us life everlasting.
That’s what Christmas is about. God giving his Son to us. Not out of duty. Not because we wanted it and nagged and begged until we got it. Not because we forced his hand and he just had no choice. But because he loved us and he wants us to have life.
As Paul says in 1Timothy, God sent his son into the world to save sinners.
Earlier I mentioned the two points of view: Limited and Unlimited Atonement. Whatever view you take, this is what the Atonement is about. Jesus being given to us so he could die in our place, taking the punishment for our sins so that we might live. At Christmas he is given to us, and at Easter he atones for our sin on the cross.
But there’s one last important caveat in John 3:16. This eternal life is not universal. Not everyone will receive it. Rather, only those who believe. Only those who accept the gift of the Son, trust him and follow him will be saved.
A wealthy man and his son loved to collect rare works of art. They had everything in their collection from Picasso to Monet to Von Gogh to Raphael. They often would sit together and admire their great collection of art. He was a widower and the art and his son gave his life meaning.
When the Vietnam War broke out, the son went to war. Day after day the old father waited for news. Eventually, in November, he received the dreaded telegram. The young man was very courageous and died in battle while rescuing other soldiers. Distraught and lonely, the old man faced the upcoming holiday with sorrow.
About a month later, on Christmas day in fact, there was a knock at the door. A young man stood there with a large package in his hands. He said, "Sir, you don't know me, but I am the soldier for whom your son gave his life. He saved many lives that day, and he was carrying me to safety when he was hit. We were close friends, and he often talked to me about you. He told me about your love for art. I know this isn't much. I'm not really a great artist, but I want you to have this painting."
The father opened the package. It was a portrait of his son, painted by the young man. The father was amazed at how this young soldier had captured his son's personality in the painting. It wasn’t a masterpiece, but to him it was the most precious piece of art he had ever seen. The father hung the painting over his mantle, pushing aside thousands of dollars worth of art so it could have pride of place.
A few months later the man grew ill and died. There was to be a great auction of his paintings. Many people gathered, excited over the possibility of purchasing one of the great works. The auctioneer first presented the painting of the man's son. "We will start the bidding with this portrait of his son. Who will bid for this picture?" There was silence. Then a voice of protest from the back of the room: “Let’s get on with the next piece!”
But the auctioneer would not bend. "Will anyone offer $100?"
Finally, the old man’s neighbour spoke up. "I'll give ten dollars for the painting. I knew the boy and I’d like to have it."
"We have ten dollars. Who will bid twenty?”
“Ten dollars is the bid. Won't someone bid twenty?" "Going once. . . twice. . . sold, for ten dollars."
There was a sigh of relief. Now they could get on with the real auction.
But the auctioneer laid down his gavel. "Sorry," he said, "the auction is over."
"What about the great paintings?" the crowd demanded.
"I'm sorry. I have my instructions. There was a secret stipulation in the will, which I was not allowed to reveal until this time. Only the painting of the son would be auctioned. Whoever bought that picture would inherit the entire estate, including all the artworks. Whoever takes the son gets everything!"
And that’s what we need to do, isn’t it? Believe in the Son, take hold of the Son because if we do that then we will have eternal life, we will inherit the whole kingdom of God if we take the Son.
John 3:16 is a profound verse. God’s love extends across the whole world. And unlike other gift-givers at Christmas time, simply because he loved, he gave. And he gave his one and only Son so that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
