As you have sat in your easy chair munching on snack food during any NFL game, you have seen this sight innumerable times. The camera zeroes in on one of the end zones and just beyond the uprights, you see a person carrying a huge placard sporting the name John, followed by the numbers, 3:16. This text is one of the most famous in the Bible and it is the darling of those Christians given to cutesy evangelism. I suspect that in their view it is not cutesy -- but gutsy -- evangelism they are about. Be all that as it may, they are trying to lift up the winsome figure of Jesus and draw people to his message. While we may fault their methodology, they are to be applauded for their commitment and exertion. 

Some of you learned this text when you were little people. A church school teacher asked…