{"id":2507,"date":"2023-04-06T07:26:04","date_gmt":"2023-04-06T11:26:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/js1cd06kre.onrocket.site\/?p=2507"},"modified":"2023-04-06T07:27:09","modified_gmt":"2023-04-06T11:27:09","slug":"john-316-part-one","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/2023\/04\/06\/john-316-part-one\/","title":{"rendered":"John 3:16, Part One"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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To listen to this reflection as a podcast, <\/em>click here<\/a>.

Every day during this season of Lent we\u2019re looking at one of the \u201c3:16\u201d verses of the Bible, spotlighting some of the significant theological statements that happen to fall on the 16th<\/sup> verse of the third chapter of a number of Old and New Testament books. <\/em>

\u201cFor God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16).
 
For a very long time, certain people have been trying to get Jesus off the cross. 
 
Specifically, they\u2019ve tried to make the case that Jesus was never on the cross in the first place.
 
During the first few centuries after the resurrection, as the early church spread around the Mediterranean world, advocates of Docetism declared that Jesus was just a phantasm.  Docetism \u2013 from the Greek verb dokeo<\/em>, which means \u201cto seem\u201d or \u201cto appear\u201d \u2013 taught that Jesus only seemed or appeared to be a human being.  According to this view, he was like one of the \u201cskinwalkers\u201d who populate the Navaho spiritual universe \u2013 a shape-shifter who could morph into any shape, human or animal, at will.  Whatever was hanging on the cross was not human.  It was an illusion.   
 
As N.T. Wright and Michael Bird point out in their massive volume The New Testament in Its World<\/em>, other ancient teachers opted for an \u201cescape\u201d scenario.
 
According to this view, the physical body of Jesus did indeed suffer crucifixion.  But just before the nails went through his hands and feet, his divine self, known as \u201cthe Christ,\u201d was snatched away to safety. 
 
People in the Roman world were already acquainted with this idea.  The poet Ovid had floated the notion that just before Julius Caesar was assassinated, the goddess Vesta seized his true inner self and \u201craised it to the heavens.\u201d  So who or what did Brutus, Cassius, and their fellow conspirators end up stabbing?  Ovid suggested it was merely Caesar\u2019s shadowy self.  The point seems to be that the Roman gods were so impressed with Caesar that they constructed an escape hatch for him at the last possible moment.
 
Is that what Jesus\u2019 Father did on Good Friday?
 
Then there\u2019s the \u201ctrading places\u201d theory.  A teacher named Basilides proposed that when Simon of Cyrene was compelled to carry the cross on the way to Golgotha, Jesus deftly pulled off a switcheroo.  He transfigured himself to look like Simon, and transformed Simon\u2019s appearance into his own.  So the innocent man from Cyrene died a horrific death, while Jesus \u201cstood by, laughing at them.\u201d  This picture did nothing to endear people to Jesus\u2019 sense of fair play. 
 
The same idea emerges in a third century document called The Apocalypse of Peter<\/em>, where the \u201creal Jesus,\u201d hiding in a cave with Peter, points to the poor, dumb sucker who looks a whole lot like him and is now dying in his place on the cross.
 
Islam, which has a high regard for Jesus, has long cherished Docetic views concerning his identity.  Jesus only appeared to die.  Allah would not allow him to actually suffer.  According to Sura 4:157-8 of the Qu\u2019ran, \u201cthey slew him not nor crucified him, but it appeared so unto them.\u201d 
 
Some imams have suggested that someone did indeed suffer and die on the cross.  It was Judas Iscariot, who was transfigured into Jesus\u2019 appearance, while \u201cthe real Jesus\u201d was already on his way to Allah\u2019s side in heaven. 
 
Why all these efforts to keep Jesus off the cross?
 
The answer is that teachers and preachers and theologians were trying to spare Jesus from shame<\/em>.   
 
The ancient world was largely a shame and honor culture.  Suffering pain was bad.  But suffering humiliation was far worse \u2013 a stain that might attach to one\u2019s reputation and family forever. 
 
It is impossible to overstate the shame associated with crucifixion.  It was so gruesome that Roman law forbade it as a punishment except for slaves and traitors.  You may have seen hundreds of depictions of Jesus on the cross, but no one really knows what crucifixion looked like.  That\u2019s because we know of no artistic renderings of Jesus\u2019 death until 300 years after it happened. 
 
For many thoughtful people in the ancient world, it was impossible to imagine that a divine figure could suffer pain and disgrace \u2013 a slave\u2019s death.  So it was crucial to get Jesus off the cross.
 
But that\u2019s exactly where the New Testament leaves him. 
 
Today we arrive at the verse that launched our entire Lenten series.  For followers of Jesus, John 3:16 is arguably the most beloved sentence in all of Scripture.  It seems to summarize the entire Gospel of John, half of which is devoted to just one week of Jesus\u2019 life \u2013 the seven days that include Palm Sunday, the Last Supper, Jesus\u2019 trial and crucifixion, and finally his resurrection. 
 
It\u2019s ironic that in most of the scenarios designed to rescue Jesus from shame and disgrace, someone else has to die in his place<\/em>. 
 
John 3:16 says just the opposite.  \u201cFor God so loved the world that he gave<\/u><\/em> his one and only Son\u2026\u201d
 
Jesus isn\u2019t beamed up to heaven at the last moment.  He isn\u2019t spared the worst kind of suffering the Romans could invent.
 
The very, very, very good news is that we can confidently approach the throne of grace because the Real Jesus really died.
 
For you and for me.   <\/em>

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To listen to this reflection as a podcast, click here. Every day during this season of Lent we\u2019re looking at one of the \u201c3:16\u201d verses of the Bible, spotlighting some of the significant theological statements that happen to fall on the 16th verse of the third chapter of a number of Old and New Testament books.  \u201cFor God so loved the world… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2508,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[571,583,344],"class_list":["post-2507","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-316-verses","tag-crucifixion","tag-john-316"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2507","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2507"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2507\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2510,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2507\/revisions\/2510"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2508"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2507"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2507"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2507"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}