Commentary on John 3:13-17

This passage, which is part of a larger conversation between Jesus and a religious leader named Nicodemus, contains the most famous explanation of the Gospel. That explanation, captured in the words of John 3:16, is the Bible verse that, in our contemporary context, is arguably the most misinterpreted verse in all of Scripture. John 3:16 is consistently and even systematically interpreted by being alienated or separated from its literary context. In other words, it illustrates perfectly how we Christians cherry-pick verses for our own purposes.

We see words of John 3:16 (or just the reference) in countless contexts in our world—scrawled in spray paint on the subway wall, painted on a sports fan’s sign at a football stadium, tattooed in faded ink on a biker’s bicep; heck, even on the bottom of an In-N-Out Burger cup. But almost never do we see John 3:16 bracketed by the verses that come right before and right after it in John 3. Without this literary context, it is almost inevitable that we miss the meaning of this beloved Bible verse.

So, let’s look at the context. The entire chapter is packed with metaphors about what it takes to see or enter the kingdom of God. The kingdom of God is itself a metaphor. While the Synoptic Gospels often use the imagery of the kingdom of God to describe the good news that Jesus preaches, John rarely does. Except here. In John 3:5–8, Jesus tells Nicodemus that seeing the kingdom requires a spiritual birth into a new family and is marked by a new quality of life. Eternal life, in John, is not focused on life after death or in heaven but instead refers to the new and abundant life that Jesus models and calls people into (John 10:10). How is that life made available to the world?

As 3:14–15 insists, eternal life comes to believers this way: “Just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up.” While the next verse, John 3:16, gives information about the why of salvation (because God loved the world), the who of salvation (the Son), and the result of salvation (eternal—abundant!—life), it is 3:14–15 that gives us the how. But the how is not so easy to decipher here. This is probably why we start our evangelistic messages with “For God so loved …” instead of with “As Moses lifted up the serpent …”

Despite our ignorance or exiling of 3:14–15, this reference to a bizarre story about a bronze snake may be one of the clearest expressions of what John thinks is happening on the cross. It is central to the context of John 3:16. So, let’s take a look at that Old Testament story. In Numbers 21, poisonous serpents (literally, fiery serpents) have been let loose in the camp of Israel as punishment for the people’s grumbling and unfaithfulness. The story tells us that the serpents bite the Israelites and many people die. Desperate, the people repent and ask Moses to talk to God on their behalf. Moses does so, and God commands Moses to raise up a bronze serpent for the people to look at. When they gaze upon the lifted serpent, the people who were poisoned live.

John seems to use the bronze-snake analogy to demonstrate how people will receive life (or gain salvation, or enter the kingdom, or participate in abundant life) from Jesus. When the Israelites looked at the bronze serpent, they saw a mirrored representation of the poisonous destruction they faced from the poisonous serpents. The source of their death became the agent of their healing and survival. So it is with the cross.

When people look at Jesus lifted up on the cross, they are looking at a mirrored representation of their own destruction—the evil of empire, the oppression they participate in, the violence that beats at the heart of society, the scapegoating tendencies of people who allow innocent people to suffer for sins that aren’t their own. When they truly see what Jesus’ death represents—humanity’s self-destructive nature that drives societies to fear and violence—that revelation, that recognition of the truth will be enough to help them start healing humanity. The cross is the symbol of misplaced blame and oppressive violence, and it is the means by which we repent of the cycle of blame and violence. We cannot be healed from a disease that remains hidden.¹

And after this explanation of salvation, we come to John 3:16. It is the next step into the kingdom of God, not the first one. After we see ourselves in the mirror of the cross, then we can come to understand and trust in God. The word we translate as “believe” (pistis or pisteuo) also means “to put faith in/to trust in.” When John uses the word, it carries the connotation of action (to follow); it is not merely an academic or mental exercise. Here is my translation of John 3:16, fueled by the interpretive insights the context gives us:

For God loved the world in this way, that God gave the one and only Son, so that everyone who trusts (and follows) Jesus will not perish but will have eternal (abundant) life.

Salvation comes to those who trust in who Jesus is and follow him, but only after the cross has shown them who they really are and how they participate in the violent, scapegoating ways of all human societies. God loved the world enough to show us the truth—that we cannot be healed until we recognize the disease that afflicts us. As John 3:17 says, “God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world but that the world might be saved through him.” That salvation comes not in belief (mere intellectual assent), but in looking on the cross, recognizing ourselves in it, and allowing the truth to heal us so that we might trust and follow the Crucified One.

Notes

1. This atonement motif, which is key to John’s Gospel, is explicated in the modern atonement theory called Scapegoat Theory, based on the work of René Girard. You can read more about this theory and the Gospels in my book, Scapegoats: The Gospel through the Eyes of Victims (Fortress Press, 2022) or get a brief synopsis of the theory in this interview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=usB79CgYL70.