Wednesday - Second Week of Easter 

Gospel – John 3:16-21

In Pursuit!

Boat Chapel, Magdala

If you’ve ever seen a protest march or a parade, a football game, a political rally or a peace/justice march, you have seen these numbers:  John 3:16!  That’s it, just one simple verse, no long story or parable, no extended narrative or collection of wise sayings.  John 3:16!  And if you never understood it, you probably went to a Bible to look it up.  Perfect advertising to get you to open up a Bible. One single sentence, simple and direct!

“God so loved the world that he gave his only-begotten Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life.”

Too often, I think we picture this life as a journey, trying to stay on the right path to get to God as if God is sitting still. It’s as if God is stuck on a mountain and it’s our task to find our way to Him.  All the action depends on us and God is just sitting there waiting for us.  This verse shows us something completely the opposite.  God doesn’t just wait around for us; God pursues us; He doesn’t wait for us to look for Him; He comes to us!

And His motivation?  Love, pure and simple!  He loves us so much that He wants to be with us; He wants us to be with Him forever.  So He doesn’t wait; He came to us as His Son, Jesus.  He took on human form to be with us, to lead us, to suffer and die for us.  And all of this, out of love!  I know it’s been said before: the cross is not just a sign of suffering and death; it is a sign of love, so much love that God has for us.  So much that He is willing to do anything for us so that we can share in His divine life, so that we might not perish but have eternal life.

God pursues us every day!  He is not 3000 miles away on the top of a mountain.  He is right here in the neighbor who needs groceries, in the child who needs help with homework, in the friend who needs to talk and unburden.  All we need to do is turn around, see Him and respond with the same love that He has for us.

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