For God so loved the world…. (Jn 3.16)
The entire gospel….in six short words. When I was a child, they called this verse “the gospel in a nutshell.” It’s interesting to consider what these words DON’T say:
…God so loved God’s own chosen people.
…God so loved those who believed in God’s son.
…God so loved the USA
Or even….God so loved those who care for the poor and work to end injustice.
No, the writer of John’s gospel is quite clear: God loves the world—all of it. Everything God created—after all, didn’t God pronounce it all “good”?
In verse 17, the writer continues to rave about this all-inclusive love God has.
However, by verse 19, the writer is already losing faith, and qualifies these words: “This is the judgment, that the light has come into the world, and people loved darkness rather than light.” The writer finds it just TOO unbelievable, that God could love even the backslider, the bully, the thief, the embezzler, the murderer, and the oppressor. Sure, God loves the world, but we just cannot imagine that God could REALLY love the undeserving or the intentionally evil.
Those Palestinians lobbing rockets into the towns of southern Israel last week—God loves them too. And (harder for me to acknowledge), God loves the Israeli officials who ordered the drone attacks on people in Gaza; God even loves the people who launched the drone that killed the 12-year-old boy and the grandfather.
God loves the IDF soldier who shackled Palestinian prisoner Khader Adnan to the bed when he was on hunger strike protesting Israel’s practice of administrative detention. And the soldier who teased him about hiding food under his pillow.
God loves the IDF soldier who took Hana Shalabi’s blankets from her cell, to try to force her to give up her hunger strike. Administrative detention is the most violent form of detention, because the prisoner does not know what she is being charged with and therefore cannot defend herself, she does not know how long she will be imprisoned, or how soon she will be arrested after she is released. Total powerlessness is her punishment—probably for being an activist in the struggle for her human rights.
And God SO loves even these torturers.
These words are very hard to write, harder to believe.
But this means that God also loves US…. when we injure our neighbors, when we don’t pay attention to the suffering in the world … and even when we buy the drones that kill 12-year-old boys in Gaza.
Now THAT is good news!
Photo shows Israeli Defense Force (IDF-army) soldiers – from file photos, International Middle East Media Center
Read more about Hana Shalabi, her arrests and her hunger strike:
Take action with Amnesty International to end Israel’s practice of administrative detention.
God of amazing mercy and grace, help us in our struggle to do what is good and just. When we fall short, help us to remember your forgiveness so that we can forgive ourselves….and those whose actions we despise. Amen.
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