Reader’s Guide: “The Word for Today” Tuesday, January 28, 2014 Read John 3:17-21 We usually stop reading or stop listening after verse 16. John has more to say. John probes into the deep mystery of why some believe and others do not. The issue rests with human beings. John tells us that Jesus has not come to judge – to somehow separate the good from the bad on the basis some standard of belief or action. Rather, John proclaims to us that Jesus is the light that shines for all to see. Unfortunately it is because some love darkness rather that light that the will not come to the light. They will not come to the light because the light will expose their evil deeds. It is not so much that God judges anyone but that we pass judgment upon ourselves by refusing to come to the light of Jesus. The sermon has now ended for a time. John will preach to us again. But to sum up we have now experienced a pattern that will repeat itself. An action or a story is followed by and flows into a sermon by John. The story of Nicodemus moves from the story into the interpretation in a seamless way. There are some who have wondered if these longer stories might be the proclamation of the eyewitness who stands behind John’s gospel. If that is the case what we have is the preaching of this one who was an eyewitness and his preaching is meant to call us to faith much as he called his first hearers to faith.