John 3:16, As Offensive Today as Then?

 This Sunday, congregations following the Revised Common Lectionary will her the words of John 3:14-21 (ACNA churches read John 6:1-15 about the feeding of the five thousand). Just imagine how you might feel if you were a devout first century Jew or polytheist as you listened to these words,

And just 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.

 ‘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.

‘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. Those who believe in him are not condemned; but those who do not believe are condemned already, because they have not believed in the name of the only Son of God. And this is the judgement, that the light has come into the world, and people loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil. For all who do evil hate the light and do not come to the light, so that their deeds may not be exposed. But those who do what is true come to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that their deeds have been done in God.’

 We hear Jesus with our post resurrection ears. We are not offended at all. In fact, we are uplifted, but there are billions of Muslims who take offence at Jesus' statement. There are millions of Jews who, while not offended, might scoff at these verses. There are many who call themselves Christian that believe that Jesus is "a way" and not "the way", and this includes priests and bishops of certain denominations. I have even heard (from the pulpit) that Jesus did not mean eternal life as we commonly interpret it  to mean. Instead, this one priest claimed, Jesus meant that we were to have a fuller Earthly life, which of course we will have, but I maintain that eternal life goes along with that, something that priest would deny. 

I believe that these words of Jesus are so offensive to today's "woke" culture that he would be banned from speaking on college campuses, ridiculed and shunned by the media, labelled a spreader of hate speech, taken to jail in some countries, and put to death in others.

Have we really changed in the past 2000 years?