Reading: John 3:14-21 This passage follows the conversation between Nicodemus and Jesus about the new birth. Nicodemus may have been an important Jewish leader but he was as thick as a brick about what Jesus is saying. This gives the writer of John`s gospel the opportunity to draw together statements about what new life in Jesus is all about. This passage has been described as a summary of the gospel. And so it is – but not in the way that most people quote John 3:16. Again and again we hear it quoted as a mantra for personal salvation, for pie in the sky when we die. To read it in this way is to miss the point completely.

Firstly, it is the world that God loves. We are loved in so far as we are part of the world. The Greek word translated as world is `Cosmos`. God so loved the cosmos that he gave us Jesus of Nazareth – whom I heard described recently as `The man from God`s tomorrow` which to me is a pretty good description. Through this man we are shown a new quality of life – and that is the meaning of the word `Eternal`. Eternal life is not something that begins after death. It is a quality of life beginning here and now and unaffected by death. Jesus brings to the world a new quality of life – which you can read about in 1 Corinthians 13.

And all of this brings us to a crisis, a point where we have to make a judgment to go along with it or not go along with it. As I somewhat tediously keep saying the word judgment in Greek is Krisis from which our word `crisis` comes. And the crisis, the judgment, is that the light has come into the world and the world prefers darkness to light

For God`s sake let`s stop thinking about judgment as some super human judge deciding whether we shall go to heaven or hell. Judgment is a present reality. What this passage asserts is that we in effect judge ourselves. This is the crisis, the judgment. We either walk in the light or in the darkness – and we accordingly create our own heaven or hell on earth. Judgment isn`t something that happens at the end of life. It is a crisis we face every day of our lives. The dictionary definition of crisis is fascinating. It points up three meanings:

• 1 A critical time, a turning point.
  
• 2 A point in a play or story at which hostile elements re most tensely opposed to each other
  
• 3 The point in the course of a disease at which a decisive change occurs leading either to recovery or death.
  

Take your pick. They all say much the same about the crises the world faces today.

And this, for the writer of John`s gospel, is the crisis: the light is in the world and people prefer the darkness to the light, and the consequences follow automatically.

I went to the Doctor the other day under this new scheme of preventative medicine. A waste of time as far as I was concerned except for one thing. The Doctor said to make sure that I didn`t walk around in the dark as this is a primary cause of the elderly falling and injuring themselves. Good advice – even better advice for the world at large!

Pity about Nicodemus not getting the message! A bit of a clot really! But then, aren`t we all?