3/01/2026

My friends, grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.  Amen.

Have you ever gone on a pilgrimage?  Maybe it was a secular pilgrimage – like a visit to a famous battlefield or a sports stadium.  I know people who have taken pilgrimages to Graceland, where Elvis lived.  Or maybe the word brings to mind some sort of long, difficult journey that’s driven by our beliefs.  Think of a visit to the Holy Land, for example, to see the places where Jesus walked and taught.

Now, pilgrimages – especially those in the days before Google Maps, or even printed maps –have signs.  Signs that, among other things, help keep travelers on the right path.  Signs that point the pilgrim in the right direction.  Signs that give the traveler hope that they’ll eventually reach their destination.

In Lent, we’re are on a pilgrimage with the disciples.  A pilgrimage to the Cross.  And we, too, have signs – the signs we find in our yearly Lenten travel through John’s Gospel.  Because John’s Gospel is full of symbolism and imagery and poetic language – signs that point us toward Jerusalem and the Cross.

But within all that, John offers some unique theological takes that we don’t find in Matthew, Mark, or Luke.  And today, that uniqueness is on full display.  So I want to explore two things together today – what sin is in John’s Gospel, and what John thinks Jesus’ death on the Cross might be all about. 

We all have our own definition of “sin”.  My guess is that for most of us, it’s related to breaking a divine law or a moral failure.  We often, for instance, frame sin through the lens of the Ten Commandments.  We hurt others by lying, or stealing, or spreading gossip that isn’t true.  Or we hurt our relationship with God by making something like wealth or success or power into an idol that takes God’s place.

These are bad things that we shouldn’t do.

But the Christian community that wrote John’s Gospel had a very different definition of “sin”.  For them, “sin” is a much deeper thing than lying or stealing or worshipping idols.  For them, sin is fundamentally the failure to recognize and accept the truth that Jesus is the Messiah sent by God to save the world.  And as this primary sin of unfaith turns us away from God, it turns us away from others, too – and we end up committing all those wrongful actions that hurt others and ourselves.

Like I said, John’s Gospel has a very different definition of sin than you and I might have.

John’s Gospel also has a very different understanding of what Jesus’ death and resurrection is all about, and how it sets us right with God.

It may surprise you that the universal church doesn’t have a definitive teaching on this.  Several different explanations have been developed by theologians over 2,000 years.

But one explanation seems to have captured the imagination of the Western church over the last 500 years.  It goes something like this:  Jesus allowed himself to be punished on the cross in our place for our sins – the bad things we’ve done.  Because we can’t repay God for our sins, Jesus’ suffering satisfies God’s demand for justice and punishment.  Through Jesus’ sacrifice of himself, our sins are forgiven and our relationship with God to be restored.

Like each of these explanations, it has its uses.  But it also has its drawbacks.  Our stomachs might churn at the idea of a God who would subject an innocent person to such punishment.  We might wonder about why a just God acts in a way that looks so much like abuse.  And this explanation can create a sense of guilt and shame that prevents us from feeling grateful for God’s many gifts to us.  Especially the gifts of reconciliation and eternal life that God freely offers to everyone.

John’s Gospel offers a different model of reconciliation with God for us to consider.  If sin is the refusal to believe in Jesus that turns us away from God, then Jesus takes our sin away when he creates faith – that life-giving relationship with God – in the face of that unbelief.  And this happens when Jesus’ death becomes a sign to us not of our failures – but of God’s infinite love for humanity.

Today, Jesus asks his disciples to remember the time when God sent poisonous snakes to bite the Israelites while they wandered in the wilderness.  After they repented of their sins, God told Moses to make a bronze serpent and put it on top of a pole as a sign, so that all who saw it would be healed. 

In the same way, Jesus says, he will be lifted up on the cross.  But Jesus doesn’t go to the cross to take our punishment or as some sort of “payback” to satisfy God’s demand for justice.  Jesus goes to the cross to be a sign of God’s life-giving purposes.  To be a sign that God loves the world so much – and wants to badly to deliver the world from death into life – that God will give us a supreme demonstration of that love.  Of how far God will go to love us.

John’s Gospel proclaims that when we experience the love of God through the death of Jesus – when we see that sign of God’s infinite love for us – our hearts respond in kind.  Through that sign, the Holy Spirit kindles faith in our hearts that overcomes the sin of unbelief.  When we experience the unlimited breadth and death of love that God has for us, we are moved to love God in return, and our lives are changed as we’re transformed from sinners to saints.

So, my friends, as we move through our Lenten pilgrimage toward Jerusalem, keep your eyes on the cross.  But do not let it be a sign of guilt and shame.  Keep your eyes on the cross as a hope-giving sign of God’s Love.  Know, when you see Jesus lifted up, that that Father sent the Son into the world to save it, and not to condemn it.  And when the love that the crucified Christ is a sign of brings forth the faith in you that inspires you to really, truly, fully love God and love your neighbor, rest assured that you are on the right path.  Rest assured that God says “now I am satisfied”.  Amen.