Loving the Light

I have been a comic book fan since long before the movies made it popular. But even as a kid, I didn’t quite get one concept about comics: The bad guys were always easy to spot, because they named themselves that way. “The Injustice League” or the “Society of Evil Mutants,” for example. Why in the world would you name yourself something that was just begging Superman and the Justice League, or the X-Men to come and round you up and cart you off to supervillain jail? Besides, while they might have a certain attitude toward the law, villains seemed to believe that their way was the right way, the better way. Their way was more just – brutal and illegal perhaps, but more just.

John says that Jesus told Nicodemus that people – that’s most of us, you know – loved the darkness rather than the light because their (our) deeds were evil (John 3:19 NRSV). But what does that mean, to love the darkness rather than the light? Did we sign up for the Evil team? Did we consciously choose to oppose everything that Christ stood for and came to bring us? What is the accusation here?

First, we need to remember that John loved to use binaries throughout the gospel. Light and Dark was one of the favorites. We need to be careful in interpreting this language, lest we give the impression that light is good, and dark is bad. This leads to all sorts of misinterpretations and misuses of these terms. Light skin is good and dark skin is bad, for example. “Surely, we know better,” you might think. We can use these terms and not go down that path, right? Aren’t we just being overly sensitive?

No, we are paying attention to the things that matter. It is not overly sensitive to pay attention to language that lifts up and language that demeans. It is choosing, with Jesus, to lean into the goodness and the love of God. Our text begins with perhaps the most famous verse from the whole Bible, the verse that is scrawled across cardboard signs and held up in the endzones and street corners around the world. And at the heart of this verse is the idea that God so loved the world. Dwell on that for a moment. The motivation for everything we are called to do as the people of God is love. Not condemnation, not judgment, not defeating the enemy or the misguided or the ones who chose what seems opposite to the gospel of Jesus. It is about love. That’s what loving the light means. We choose that which heals, that which transforms, that which honors and respects and sees all the people. We don’t overlook anyone, because Jesus didn’t overlook anyone.

OK, but what about that line about being condemned already? Isn’t that permission to ignore or overlook those who are already lost? Aren’t these the ones we should stay away from? No doubt that even reading that, you knew it felt wrong. What this verse is doing is giving you permission to get out of the condemnation business. Jesus says that the Son came not to condemn but to save. And though many of us would gladly take on that responsibility, we love pointing fingers and calling folks out, we aren’t given that responsibility. Again and again in the gospel accounts, Jesus says judgment is his job and not ours. Our task is to love as he loved us. As much as we want to draw lines and build walls, it has never been our responsibility.

But then how will people know what it means to love the light? How will they learn to change their hearts and minds? How will they know that they need a savior at all? Simple, because they received mercy and grace and acceptance from us and will, therefore, want to know more. We are the radiance of Christ’s love that draws those who have been choosing the opposite. We are the sign that Christ is at work in the world and that there is hope for living, there are resources to be shared, there are opportunities for grace. How will the world know that they are loved by God? Because they are loved by us, the church, the body of Christ. When they begin to believe that, and experience that, then the recruitment for the Injustice League might begin to decrease.