Commentary

4th Sunday of Lent – B
John 3:14-21

God So Loves the World

God loves the world. God loves us. God loves me. That belief would be enough for us to live, to be happy, and to love as God intends for us.

And God wants us to know that God loves us.

The love of God is concrete. The author of the Gospel of John points out two major events that God reveals His love. The first event is the incarnation of the Word. In the prologue of this gospel, we read, “the Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us, and we saw his glory, the glory as of the Father's only Son, full of grace and truth” (1:14). The Son came into the world to reveal to us the Father and His love. Again, in the prologue, “No one has ever seen God. The only Son, God, who is at the Father's side, has revealed him” (1:18). God loves us, and He wants us to know that.

The second event is the “lifting up” of the Son of Man for the life of the world (3:14-15). The Greek verb used here means “both a physical lifting up (…) and an exultation.”[1] It is on the cross that the Son makes the ultimate sacrifice to give us life. At that moment, the revelation of God’s love reaches its climax. Now we know that “God so loves the world.”

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[1] Moloney, Francis J. The Gospel of John. Sacra Pagina Series. Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 1998; p. 95.