Text:
John 3:1-17
I
remember many years ago having a discussion with my mentor about this passage
we heard this morning from the Gospel of John.
I was interested in Nicodemus and what I
quickly realized as we talked that there wasn’t much love for this Pharisee…largely
because Nicodemus didn’t “get” what Jesus was talking about.
Come to find out…there are a lot of
Christians who look down their noses at Nicodemus...for any number of reasons.
But chiefly…it seems…they don’t like his
questions of Jesus and his failure to understand the importance of being “born
from above”…which is where we get the idea of being “born again.”
For some…that phrase “born again” raises
the spirit.
For others…it raises eyebrows.
And for too many…it is the only thing
they see in this exchange with Nicodemus…and since he doesn’t “get it”…he’s not
a true believer and therefore “boo hiss” on him.
But I think if we rush to such quick
judgment…we’re not “getting” it either.
And I think it’s a way for us to avoid
the truth about ourselves when it comes to what it means to journey with Jesus.
Because…if we were honest…we’d
acknowledge that we are a lot more like Nicodemus than we’d like to think.
So let’s think through what’s happening
here and the way John uses Nicodemus to illustrate what the journey of faith…and
possible conversion looks like...and why Nicodemus is an important player in
this story.
First…we need context for this scene…which
means we need to know what happens right before this exchange Jesus has with
Nicodemus…and I’m also going to get to the rest of Jesus’s words to him because
those matter too.
In the chapter before our reading from
this morning…two big things happen.
One: Jesus has performed his first
miracle of turning water into wine at the wedding in Cana.
And then two: He then heads to
Jerusalem…goes to the Temple…where he makes a whip of cords and flips over the
tables of the moneychangers.
Mark…Matthew and Luke have that incident
happening later. But in John’s Gospel…we meet the provocative Jesus here. The chapter
ends with Jesus in Jerusalem at the time of Passover…with many people believing
in him because of the signs he was doing.
But…even though they were interested in
him…and were wowed by that water turned into wine…Jesus knew better than to get
caught up in their excitement.
John tells us that Jesus didn’t “trust
himself to them…because he knew human nature too well.”(see the CEB translation).
Yeah…their impressed with him…but are
they prepared to do what it takes to follow him?
Did they understand that despite that
disruption in the Temple…Jesus is a Prince of Peace?
So that’s the set up for today’s Gospel
reading where we meet Nicodemus…a Pharisee…a respected member of the
Sanhedrin…the Jewish Council…who comes out to see Jesus at night.
In the dark.
Undercover as it were.
This makes sense…given that scene in the
Temple right before a major Jewish festival.
The Pharisees wouldn’t have been too
keen on all of that.
There was all that buzz about the
wedding at Cana.
So who is this guy?
Nicodemus…a learned man of the
law…decides he wants to find out.
But he doesn’t want others to know that
he’s going to talk to this troublemaker.
So he goes at night.
This is also significant because John
uses the imagery of darkness and light as an analogy for moving from unbelief
to belief.
And if we read all the way through the
Gospel of John…we will see Nicodemus making that journey from darkness to light.
He’ll show up again in the middle of the
Gospel…seeming to raise a defense to the Jewish Council to hear Jesus out…rather
than arrest him for his teachings and talking in his “I am” statements.
And then he appears at the end…with
Joseph of Arimathea…to help bury Jesus.
Did he come to believe in Jesus as the
Son of God?
That’s not clear.
But he’s willing to take the risk of
being seen as caring for the one killed by Rome who had become a problem for
those religious authorities who were happy to keep the status quo.
And it all began with his desire to talk
with Jesus one night in Jerusalem.
We might imagine what it was like for
him to engage with Jesus…thinking he was going to have a typical rabbi-to-rabbi
exchange…and then Jesus hits him with talk of being “born from above.”
“Born from above?
But how is this possible if I’m already
here in the flesh?”
Now I know they didn’t have things like
the Myers-Briggs test back in the days of Jesus…but if they did…my guess is
that Nicodemus would have been one of those very logical…rational types…the
ISTJ or ESTJ…that knows how to keep the hours and follow the rules.
And while one might read Jesus as
scolding Nicodemus for not understanding him…we can also make room to think of
this as Jesus teasing him in a humorous way,
“Aw c’mon man…you’re a teacher of
Israel!”
We might see Jesus smiling wryly, as he
pushes his conversation partner.
“Think of this like the wind. You’ve heard the
things I have done and you’ve come out here looking for me.
Now I’m challenging you to get out of
your head…your intellect…and realize that I’m about changing hearts.
I’m here to help you and the people see that
you can free yourself from the rules of
the oppressor by tapping into the deep well of the One who sent me here.
Listen to what I’m saying and live in
Love.
I’m not here to condemn the world but I
am here to save it from its own condemnation.”
Now…unfortunately…the diviners of our
lectionary decided not to let you hear the conclusion of this
conversation.
I don’t know why they chose to stop
here…because Jesus had some more to say. The next few verses…were important for
Nicodemus to take in as he wrestled to understand and journey with
Jesus.
They are also vital to our own
need to ponder what it means to follow Jesus in our time of conflict and war.
So here is the rest of this section from
John’s Gospel.
Jesus has said he’s not condemning the
world…but he is passing judgment. Hear what he says:
“…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.” (John 3:19-21).
That had to be hard for Nicodemus to
hear…given that he chose to approach Jesus in the dark.
I am not saying he approached Jesus at
night because he was evil.
But because of the culture and
circumstances…a corrupt Roman Empire…he had to wait until it was dark to seek
out the light.
And in this darkness…he was given some food
for thought as he left that conversation.
And his journey toward enlightenment
could now begin…as he contemplated the words of Jesus against the backdrop of his
world.
We too are now given these sobering
words of truth to consider in our own circumstances.
We live in a world where there are so
many things that get swept under the proverbial rug…hidden from the public by
our leaders and a corporate media that no longer serves as the watchdogs of
democracy.
Lawmakers in state legislatures keep passing
bills to stop children from learning the hard and sometimes ugly truths about
our past…which only compounds the anger and divisions in our present and
jeopardizes our future.
We have secret police grabbing people at
work sites and in court houses…and disappearing them into a maze of private
for-profit prisons.
There are decades old crimes against
girls and boys buried to protect the wealthy perpetrators of such evils as sex
slavery and human trafficking.
And we start wars based on half-truths
or falsehoods…putting both civilian and military lives at risk.
These are the dark things in human
nature that made Jesus leery of trusting those who claimed to be interested in
his miracles and ministry.
The people who speak a good game about God…yet
their actions don’t follow a path of mercy…justice…and walking humbly with God.
We have an opportunity at Lent to
recognize our own tendencies to run back into the dark…hiding our true selves…seeking
power over others.
This is our time to consider how we prefer
comfort and acceptance instead of realizing that to follow Christ means to not
stay silent while others suffer…but to speak up for the vulnerable at the risk
of not being popular.
Now is the time to follow the lead of a Nicodemus…and
do that work of transformation…chiseling away at those stony parts of our
hearts…so that the light of Christ might shine through us in bigger and
brighter ways.
In the name of our One Holy and
Undivided Trinity.
