This last Sunday, a family of missionaries visiting home stationed in southern Asia spoke at our church. One woman shared a personal witness: after their offices opened up after months of strict restrictions, she was having a friendly conversation with a cleaning lady as she scrubbed the floor. Within sentences, this woman broke down, telling through tears of how her mother passed away recently, she was taking care of her daughter alone without help, and barely wanted to be alive anymore, only hanging on for her daughter. In the face of this display of desperate hopelessness, the missionary told this lady about Jesus, and the hope she had found in Him. She describes the resulting change in this woman as miraculous: as she put it, “she had been changed. This woman’s situation was still the same, but now she had hope in Jesus.”
That tale of a transformative hope has been in my mind as I’ve considered this passage this week, and John 3:16 especially, in its popular evangelical context. To millions of people who haven’t heard the Gospel, learning the truth of God’s gift of salvation is entirely life-changing. What was once darkness and despair becomes light and joy. For us who’ve been believers and surrounded in this truth for many years, it can be dangerously easy to grow too comfortable in this knowledge. But there’s a reason that passage has been shared time and time again: it summarizes the greatest act of mercy and gifting of the most everlasting gift we didn’t deserve but received nonetheless; a love and deliverance from evil that could only come from the Most High God. A hope, not in the shifting and temporary distractions of this world, but a hope in something eternal, constant, and genuinely worthwhile. Hope not in the works of our own hands which is sure to fade away, but the work God has accomplished through His faithfulness. For people who haven’t heard the Gospel yet, John 3:16 changes life itself. When I hear & experience others experiencing that discovery for the first time, I am thankful for the reminder of how indispensable to a joyous, meaningful life He truly is
Romans 15 describes what the gift of Jesus should do for us: “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.” Paul goes on to describe his ambition to preach the word to others, quoting Isaiah 52:15: “For that which has not been told them they see, and that which they have not heard they understand.” The hope we abound in is not to be kept to ourselves: It is through the joy of Christ in us that we share His name and His work with all the people of the world who haven’t heard, both near and far. All that they may see, understand, and know this hope as we do. Today I say a prayer of thanks for an indispensable hope in Jesus Christ as my Lord and savior, and would pray this for you all as well; that we may help those who have not seen God’s light or heard His word make that discovery today, by joyfully sharing the hope found in Christ with those who need it.