Conversation Points for John 3:14-21

Study Format:
1. Read passage aloud. What did you notice in the reading? What words or phrase caught your attention?
2. Read passage aloud a second time. What questions would you ask the text?
3. Read passage aloud a third time. What do you hear God calling you to do or be in response to this text?

Interesting Ideas to Consider:
• This passage is part of Jesus’ conversation with the Pharisee Nicodemus, who came to Jesus by night to seek out Jesus, an example of discipleship. Nicodemus appears two other times in John’s Gospel, once as a weak defender of Jesus to the other Pharisees, and then after his crucifixion to help bury him.
• The story referenced is the first reading for Sunday, in which Moses lifted up a bronze serpent on a pole that people could look to for healing if they were bitten by a snake (Numbers 21:4-9).
• There’s a double meaning in v. 14 as the Greek word hypsoo means both “lift up” and “exalt.” The Hebrew word nasa has a similar double meaning (Genesis 40:9-23, plays on the same double meaning. The baker and the cup bearer both tell the Pharaoh dreams. The interpretation of the cupbearer’s dream is that his head will be “lifted up,” meaning he will be exalted. The baker’s head will also be “lifted up,” but using the second sense of the word, his head will literally be lifted from his body, he will be decapitated). In v. 14, the double meaning of hypsoo means Jesus will be physically lifted up on a cross, and in that moment also lifted up in honor, or exalted. This overlap of crucifixion and exaltation is crucial to understanding salvation in the Gospel of John. It is in crucifixion that Jesus is most highly exalted.
• V. 15 makes clear how the crucifixion leads to salvation. “Eternal life” (zoen aionion) is one of the repeated frames of John’s Gospel. It refers to a life not defined by humanity, but by God. “Eternal” is not merely endless, like you’ll live forever, but rather it is life lived in the unending presence of God. It is not the promise of the believer’s future, but is part of the present.
• John 3:16 is the only place in the Gospel in which Jesus is described as having been “given” to the world by God. The verb “give” (didomi) shows up often in John’s Gospel in reference to God as the source of what Jesus offers. But Jesus is usually described as having been “sent” (pempo and apostello, used interchangeably, both mean “to send”). The use of “give” in v. 16 highlights that the incarnation comes from God’s love for the world.
• “World” (kosmos) in John’s Gospel mostly refers to humans who are at odds with Jesus and God. The use of the word here seems to indicate that Jesus came for the whole world, not just those who follow him.

Works Sourced:
O’ Day, Gail. “The Gospel of John.” The New Interpreter’s Bible Volume IX. Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press, 1995.