Preaching on the passage we had read out today feels like
handling a much valued family heirloom… It contains one of the most well known
and loved verses in the New Testament… John 3:16. Even Non-Christians may no
longer know what it says or that it’s a bible verse but they know John 3:16…
it’s made its way into popular culture….even onto the Simpsons.
It also contains that troublesome phrase ‘born again’ which
has become a bit of a clique and a very loaded term in Christianity and culture
today: so much so that we can lose the amazing truth of God’s love and grace
that it encapsulates. And I want to do it justice today because it is as enigmatic
and challenging and life giving for us as it was for Nicodemus. .
This year leading into Easter we are working our way through
a series called Sitting under the Fig Tree… looking at encounters with Jesus in
John’s Gospel and today. The passage we are looking at from John chapter 3
lends itself very well to this. In verse 1-15 we have the narrative of
Nicodemus coming to see Jesus at Night and then in verse 16-21 we have the
reflection on that encounter by John, applying it to the wider context, to the
world and so to us.
Ok having said that let’s have a look at Nicodemus’
encounter with Jesus.
Nicodemus is a Pharisee.
The Pharisees were a group within Judaism. Their relationship with God
was based on their birth right as the people of Israel, and they believed that
identity needed to be lived out in meticulous obedience to the Law of Moses in
all facets of life. The only chance they saw of getting rid of the Romans,
becoming an independent nation and being blessed by God was by that observation
of the Jewish law. Nicodemus was also a member of the ruling Jewish council the
Sanhedrin, he is a political and religious leader, and Jesus is right to call
him Israel’s teacher.
Nicodemus comes at night. It could have been he was anxious
as an official rabbi coming and seeking out this unofficial Rabbi, this rabble
rabbi from the sticks. Or as he has seen enough of what Jesus had been doing to
see the hand of God in it, like with the disciples of John the Baptist, that we
looked at last week, he comes to see and the only quality time he can get with
Jesus is at night, away from the demands of the day.
One of the things that John emphasises in his gospel is how
Jesus knows what is on people’s hearts and Jesus here cuts straight to the
quick. ‘Very truly, I tell you, no one can see the Kingdom of God unless they
are born again’. Paul Metzger says that Jesus saw that Nicodemus had been
playing the religious game for so long and that he had a flawed faith based on
the traditions and testimonies of the old boys club rather than true faith
based in God’s word and spirit’ and Jesus moves to stripe this away
What Jesus says can be translated both born again and born
from above. And the focus here is that the Kingdom of God is not about the
effort of humans but the divine action of God. Nicodemus does not understand
this he can only think in terms of physical things. How can an old man be born again, it’s
impossible. In that Nicodemus has captured half of what Jesus is saying that
yes it is humanly impossible. But we need to remember from Mary’s encounter
with the Angel, with God all things are possible. Jesus coming is God’s answer, is God’s grace,
is God making a way.
Jesus goes on to elaborate for Nicodemus. He says ‘you
cannot enter the kingdom of God unless you are born of the water and the
spirit.’ Now that has been interpreted
in different ways. Some see it as a reference to Christian water baptism, with
its emphasis on purification and repentance, and the Spirit, receiving God’s
Spirit. That fits but in the context I wonder if it does not push the emphasis
here a little bit back towards what we do not what God does, not focusing on
God’s grace. The other way people understand it that Jesus may simply here be
saying you need to have a natural birth, water, and commentators point to a lot
of water metaphors in Jewish writing to do with birth, and also a spiritual
birth. That our lives are regenerated, made new by the spirit through Christ.
Remember John’s gospel starts ‘in the beginning’ it starts
with creation, the emphasis in the gospel can be seen as ‘new creation’ the
resurrection narrative starts in the garden on the first day and Jesus is
talking of that new creation, that new life coming into our lives from above.
In the prologue to John’s gospel it is phrased in terms of being born into the
family of God. Not by natural means or a father’s will, but by God’s grace,
given as a gift to those who received Jesus, the word made flesh.
Jesus says that
Nicodemus should not be surprised by what Jesus had said. In the passage we
used as a call to worship today in Ezekiel 36 (24-27) there is that promise
that God would renew the hearts of his people, that God would bring
transformation, regeneration. That it would be a divine action that would
enable them to keep the law, not simply by human effort, but out of a new life.
But Jesus then goes on to use an Old Testament illustration
to help Nicodemus understand that, the story of the bronze snake in Numbers 21.
In response to the people of Israel rebelling against God a plague broke out,
that threatened to wipe out everyone. In response to Moses prayers for mercy,
God saws grace and tell Moses to fashion a snake of bronze and everyone who
looked to it would be saved and healed. It was by divine action and grace, not
that they were suffering from a lack of seeing bronze snakes. So it is says Jesus with the son of man, when
he is lifted up, which refers to Jesus crucifixion, which in John’s gospel is
associated with Jesus being glorified he
will bring all people to know life in himself.
We don’t know how Nicodemus responded to this encounter with
Jesus. He is only mentioned twice more in the New Testament. Both times being positive about Jesus… In
John 7 as the Sanhedrin discuss what to do about Jesus he suggests they should
go and see for themselves. In John 19 he
is with Joseph of Arimathea as they seek permission from Pilate to bury Jesus
and helps prepare Jesus body for death. Maybe he became a follower of Jesus at
the least he is prepared to be identified publicly with Jesus.
How does this encounter with Nicodemus relate to us today?
The good thing is that John does not leave us wondering
about that. He moves from a narrative of Jesus and Nicodemus, to tell us what
it means for the world and us. He tells us that salvation and life are gifts
from God in Christ. God loved the world, the word world gets repeated four
times in the space of two verses to emphasise that, and gave his only begotten
Son so that all who would believe in him, should not perish but have
everlasting life. The truth for all of us is that Christ came so that you and I
may know the new life the new birth that Jesus is talking about to Nicodemus.
It’s for us. We must be born again, and we can be because of God’s love shown
in Jesus Christ. God aim is not that people perish and are condemned but that
we may find new beginnings and new life in him.
In fact says John, the sad truth is that despite in Christ
the light coming into the world, people prefer the darkness. Because once you
step into the light all that we do is exposed and we are aware of our need for
transformation and change.
If we were to bring it even more down to us today, I think the
call is the same as it was to Nicodemus. Oh and if you’ve been wondering what
that is a picture of.. It’s Auckland city at night from space. I've seen so many images of the earth from space associated with John 3:16 and haven't really related to them, they are usually northern hemisphere orientated, but this one is not, in fact I can point out where the church is and probably where I live. For me it symbolises that this passage
connects here and now with us.
You see we We must be born again. Some of things that have
stopped this being life giving to people in the past have been that it is
connected to an experience in life. It is tied into responding to an altar call
or making a commitment or praying a particular prayer. It can start at those
particular times. But as we look at peoples encounters with Jesus in John’s
gospel it manifests itself in people’s lives in different ways. But the truth
is that Christian life is from divine activity, divine grace rather than from
what Christ has done for us, from the love of God rather than human effort.
WE must be born again, the fact that it is based on God’s
love and God’s grace and god’s reaction does not mean that we do not have a
part to play. It’s not automatic, it’s not universal, John’s reflection is that
many will prefer to remain in the dark, we do need to respond, to believe to
put our trust in Jesus and his grace.
We must be born again. One of the things that has put people
off this is the idea is that for some it is seen as a destination, that people
equate being born again as having made it. Having an insurance for an afterlife
with Christ, ‘pie in the sky when you die,’ but in John’s gospel the idea of
life is about quality not just quantity. Westcott expresses it like this “it is
not an endless duration of being in time, but being of which time does not
measure.” It is eternal because it is life lives in relationship with Christ,
the eternal one, life in Christ.
We must be born again. The idea of being born again also
does not indicate a destination but a beginning, a new start, a new life where
we grow into maturity in Christ; it’s a journey through this world in the light
and love of the one who gave his life for it.
We must be born again. It is God’s gracious gift to find new
life in Christ.
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