Decolonizing John 3:16

An ancient, precolonial interpretation of this deeply misunderstood text

Welcome to Masala Chai Theology with Fr. Joash P. Thomas! A space where we spice up our spiritual journeys with ancient, Empire-resisting, liberative, and precolonial Christian ways of understanding God and neighbour. This space builds on Fr. Joash’s widely read newly released book, The Justice of Jesus, which you can buy here or wherever you get your books. To dive deeper into conversation with Fr. Joash’s work, you can also register for Fr. Joash’s summer course at St. Stephen’s University, titled ‘Jesus, Justice & Empire’ here.

This week, I’d love to share with you an excerpt from my sermon on the Gospel readings this Sunday (John 3:1-17 & Matthew 17:1-9). As will be the norm from here on out, the full sermon manuscript will only be accessible to Paid Subscribers. Paid Subscribers directly partner with my ministry by helping cover living costs and future PhD costs. Hope this excerpt on John 3:16 blesses you and gives you a teaser for the full sermon manuscript (titled ‘Transfiguration in a world disfigured by Empire’:

John 3:16 is perhaps the most famous verse among western Christians. I mean, this is the thing that evangelical college football players wear as face paint. So almost any evangelical or western Christian will know this verse verbatim:

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

Most of us who grew up in church would have heard John 3:16 interpreted as a verse about believing the right things so that we don’t go to hell.

But here’s where I’m going to challenge us a bit by poking some holes in our neatly packed western evangelical theological frameworks – like the ones I learned at a top evangelical seminary myself.

What if John 3:16 isn’t what we made it out to be in the western church or the evangelical tradition? And what if we have gotten this wrong because we read John 3:16 as a standalone verse without its proper context (John chapter 3)?

To begin with, what if John 3:16 has nothing to do with hell? Nowhere is the word ‘hell’ mentioned in John chapter 3. Now yes, Jesus does teach about hell in other places that need to be interpreted in its proper context, but John 3:16 in itself has nothing to do with hell.

In my book, The Justice of Jesus, I talk about the colonizer’s gospel or the slaveholder’s gospel – which is basically what Christians who supported colonization told people they colonized or enslaved – “Jesus didn’t die to set you free physically; he died to set you free spiritually. So don’t worry about your current suffering and your current chains. Just believe the right things and you’ll be fine.”

But Jesus says to the religious leaders more concerned about the future afterlife than the present disfiguration of the world in John 3:12: “If I have told you about earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you about heavenly things?”

Keep in mind that Jesus says this to Nicodemus right before he drops John 3:16 on him!

Here’s the other reason why John 3:16 needs to be read in context – who is Jesus saying John 3:16 to? Is he saying it to a big audience of everyday people like the Beatitudes in Matthew 5?

No! Jesus is saying this to one of THE most Empire-privileged people of his day: Nicodemus – THE Billy Graham of his day. THE teacher of Israel. One of THE most powerful religious leaders with privileged status in the Roman Empire!

In fact, Nicodemus was a member of the Sanhedrin – the top ruling council of Jewish religious leaders that had its own police force! The same police force that arrested Jesus on the night that he was betrayed. Those were Nicodemus’ boys!

And Jesus says John 3:16 to Nicodemus right after he basically tells him, “If you want to see the kingdom of God (on earth as it is in heaven), you must be born from above. You must be transfigured by love – in Spirit and in the waters of baptism.”

Because to Jesus, “being born from above” isn’t being “born again” (which is what Nicodemus is more concerned with); to Jesus, “being born from above” is being so transfigured by God that you do what Jesus does – you lay down your life, your rights, and your privileges for the sake of justice and inclusion and the healing of creation.

Because this is the transfiguration and the belief that Jesus wants for us – Theosis (an ancient, eastern Orthodox and Catholic doctrine): looking like Jesus, smelling like Jesus, tasting like Jesus, and sounding like Jesus by laying aside our rights and privileges and power – for the healing of this divided world.

And this is what Jesus means when he tells Nicodemus John 3:16 – “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him (by becoming like him and by being transfigured like him) may not perish (to the ways of Empire) but may have eternal life.”

And not the way we understand “eternal life” in the 21^st century as “immortality” (which actually isn’t the word used here in the original Greek); but as early church leaders interpreted “eternal life” (the Greek word ‘Aiona’ meaning “in the age to come'“) - sharing in the life of the world being ushered in by God’s kingdom. Not dying in your sleep and going to evangelical heaven; but getting to participate with God in the restoring of life when Jesus returns to make everything right. Getting to participate with God in the restoration of creation – that’s the eternal life or the life in the age to come that Jesus invites us into!

It’s sad that we’ve reduced and weaponized John 3:16 to “Just believe these propositions about God, escape from the suffering of this world and go to evangelical or Catholic heaven when you die” when it’s really a teaching to the rich and the powerful of, “Be born from above. Be transfigured from above like Jesus by giving up your rights for the healing of this world.”

But let’s also read John 3:16 in context of the verse after - John 3:17. You see, so many western Christians are terrified of John 3:16 but totally forget the God who is revealed to us through Jesus in John 3:17:

“Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world but in order that the world might be saved through him.”

Read that again – God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world. Jesus doesn’t condemn the world by sending it to hell; he saves the world by reconciling us with God, with ourselves, with each other, and with creation. Because you see, empires divide to conquer; but the Gospel of Christ unites to heal. And this is what Jesus does for the world.

So today is actually my first day in a new job - at St. Stephen’s University where I’ll be joining their leadership team and working under one of my favourite Canadian theologians, Bradley Jersak. And I’ll be teaching a course there this summer called ‘Jesus, Justice & Empire’. It’s an online summer school course that’s open to anyone!

But in that course, I’ll have a module where we’re going to be learning from ancient Christians like Celtic Christians or like my ancestors, St. Thomas Indian Christians. My family has been worshiping Jesus for 2000 years now thanks to the apostle Thomas who introduced my Indian ancestors to Jesus. In fact, we were worshiping Jesus for 1500 years before the first colonial powers showed up – the Portuguese Catholics, trying to convert us into their narrow, divisive ways of understanding God and neighbour.

I write about this and cite my sources in my book (The Justice of Jesus): In 1599, the Portuguese held a historic synod – the Synod of Diamper, where they basically burned all of our ancient church documents and declared one of our ancient doctrines (among others) as heresy – this doctrine called ‘The Law of St. Thomas’. Here’s what the Law of St. Thomas basically taught: In the last days, when Jesus returns, everyone will ultimately be saved by whatever means of divine revelation is made available to them – through Jesus Christ!

This is why my ancestors didn’t feel the need to convert their Hindu, Muslim, Buddhist, and Jewish neighbours. Why? Because to them, Jesus’ instruction in Matthew 28 (or “the great commission”, as it was dubbed by missionaries of our colonizing empires centuries later) was fulfilled when St. Thomas came to the ends of the earth and introduced us to Jesus. And because of John 3:17 – because Jesus did not come to condemn the world; but to save the world through him.

Now you don’t have to agree with their interpretations of Scripture. But sit in the tension that there are Christians in the Global Church who held to the Nicene Creed and Apostles Creed while having vastly different understandings of Jesus, heaven, and hell than our western ones.

And sit in the tension of the fact that their colonizing empires were threatened by their wide understanding of God’s mercy. Because again, empires divide to conquer; but the Gospel of Christ unites to heal.

Full Sermon Manuscript (for Paid Subscribers) below:

Transfiguration in a world disfigured by Empire