We need fresh eyes for our faith’s basic teachings, no matter how long we’ve studied the Bible.
In this Close Reading series, biblical scholars reflect on a passage in their area of expertise that has been formational in their own discipleship and continues to speak to them today.
One warm April night, my high school baseball team was celebrating a big win. Then one of our coaches gathered us together. In a serious tone, he told us that Merri Kathryn Prater, a good friend and classmate, had passed away a few days after her tragic road accident. My teammates and I immediately erupted with loud cries of lament. One classmate in the stands told a few of us that the sudden sound of our grief was like an explosion of shotguns as it echoed around the mountains surrounding our Eastern Kentucky baseball field.
When we calmed down, many of my teammates and I headed to Merri Kathryn’s church. There, her pastor, Mike Caudill (known to his parishioners as Brother Mike), and members of the church were gathering to help local teenagers process the news of her death.
I remember sitting down in a pew in the pristine sanctuary of Hindman First Baptist Church with my teammates. One of them, a Christian like Merri Kathryn, turned the pages of a pew Bible to John 3:16, and he slowly began to read the verse to me.
“Jarvis, this is what life is all about,” he said. That was the first time I remember hearing John 3:16. At that moment, while stricken with grief and shock, I had no clue what the verse would mean to me throughout my life. My teammate’s exposition both shook me and left me silent.
In subsequent days, I considered the reality of my own mortality and my need to give my life to Jesus Christ in light of Merri Kathryn’s faith, her death, and the truth of John 3:16. Members of Merri Kathryn’s church …
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