This Sunday, the lectionary invites us to ponder John 3:1-17. The English Standard Version supplies verses 1-16 with the title “You must be born again,” and to verses 16-21, the title “For God so Loved the World”.
What’s the best-known Bible verse in the world?
In 2016, in the runup to the Presidential elections in the USA, Mr Donald Trump was asked “what’s your favourite Bible verse?” He answered:
“Well, I think many. I mean, when we get into the Bible, I think many, so many. And some people, look, an eye for an eye, you can almost say that … That’s not a particularly nice thing. But you know, if you look at what’s happening to our country, I mean, when you see what’s going on with our country, how people are taking advantage of us, and how they scoff at us and laugh at us. And they laugh at our face, and they’re taking our jobs, they’re taking our money, they’re taking the health of our country. And we have to be very firm and have to be very strong. And we can learn a lot from the Bible, that I can tell you.”
As CBS news also pointed out:
“Trump did not mention that the Old Testament’s “Eye for an eye” is later renounced in the New Testament in favor of “turn the other cheek,” in Matthew 5:38: “You have heard that it was said, ‘Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.’ But I tell you, do not resist an evil person. If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other cheek also.””[1]
What’s the background to Trump’s posturing as a Christian?
John Fea teaches history in an American Christian college. In 2018, he published a book titled “Believe me: The Evangelical Road to Donald Trump.” He put the words “believe me” in the title because these words were frequently used by Mr Trump.
Fea begins his book by pointing out that early in the campaign, Mr Trump saw that to be elected President, he needed the support of Evangelicals.
Who is an Evangelical Christian? Many have written books to answer this question. All have concluded that Evangelical Christians are as varied as those who are described as Catholics.
But survey data has made one thing clear: in 2024, 72% of those who identified as White and Evangelical voted for Mr Trump.[2]
What do you think is the favourite Bible verse of Evangelicals?
I think their favourite verse will be the same as that of most Malaysian Evangelicals: John 3:16, which features in today’s lectionary passage:
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”
John 3:16 was the favourite verse of Billy Graham, America’s most famous Evangelical. He is remembered as the one who explained most clearly why Jesus spoke to Nicodemus, “the teacher of Israel,” about salvation, eternal life, and the need to be “born again.”[3]
Nicodemus was a prominent man. A member of the party of the Pharisees. A biblical scholar. A religious and social leader. He observed what Jesus was doing and how people responded to him. He went to Jesus “by night,” to tell Jesus that he respected him, and considered him a person approved by God. John, in verse 2, tells us what he said:
“Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him.”
Jesus bluntly told Nicodemus that recognizing the miracles he performed as signs that God had commissioned him, was not enough. Told him that if he really believed he was a “teacher come from God,” he would change his party affiliation from “Pharisee” to “Christ follower.”
Then Jesus added that Nicodemus couldn’t do it by himself. He had to be “born again;” had to see with the fresh eyes of an infant; had to give up the ways of life he had learned from others, as a person “born of the flesh;” had to learn the way of the “kingdom of God”[4] as a person “born of the Spirit.” This makes us recall what John wrote in 1:13,
“born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.”
God’s initiative is critical, because of the astonishing claim we make, a claim Jesus refers to cryptically in today’s passage, in verses 14-16:
“as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.”
The lifting up refers to Jesus being nailed to the cross and lifted up, to choke and bleed and die, while people laughed at him and scoffed at him.[5] We claim, with Jesus, that his crucifixion was no accident. It was according to the plan of God.
What is your favourite verse in the Bible? What should be the response of Christians to those whose favourite verse is “an eye for an eye”? Are they Christians?
Peace be with you.
[1] https://www.cbsnews.com/news/donald-trump-names-his-favorite-bible-verse/.
[2] The same survey found that the corresponding figure for white Catholics is 51%. https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2025/04/28/white-evangelicals-continue-to-stand-out-in-their-support-for-trump/.
[3] Nicodemus was one of the wisest men in Jerusalem. On another occasion, described in chapter 7 of the gospel according to John, he stood up against members of his party who condemned Jesus without first giving him a hearing. In 7:50, John tells us what Nicodemus said: “Does our law judge a man without first giving him a hearing and learning what he does?” After Jesus died, Nicodemus contributed a huge and expensive bag of spices with which to wrap his body for burial. As John tells us in 19:39, “Nicodemus also, who earlier had come to Jesus by night, came bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about seventy-five pounds in weight.”
[4] John uses the term “kingdom of God” only twice – both times in this chapter. John stresses “eternal life,” one of the features of members of the kingdom. John writes “eternal life” 18 times, compared to a total of 9 usages across the other three gospels.
[5] I’m using the words Mr Trump used to describe the way he claimed “some people” were treating Evangelicals, the party which he implied he belonged to.
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