John 3.1-17 (NRSV)
Nicodemus Visits Jesus
3Now there was a Pharisee named Nicodemus, a leader of
the Jews.2He came to Jesus by
night and said to him, ‘Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from
God; for no one can do these signs that you do apart from the presence of God.’ 3Jesus answered
him, ‘Very truly, I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God without being
born from above.’ 4Nicodemus
said to him, ‘How can anyone be born after having grown old? Can one enter a
second time into the mother’s womb and be born?’ 5Jesus
answered, ‘Very truly, I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without
being born of water and Spirit. 6What
is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the Spirit is spirit. 7Do not be
astonished that I said to you, “You must
be born from above.” 8The
wind blows where it chooses, and
you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it
goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.’ 9Nicodemus said
to him, ‘How can these things be?’ 10Jesus
answered him, ‘Are you a teacher of Israel, and yet you do not understand these
things?
11 ‘Very truly, I tell you, we speak of what we know
and testify to what we have seen; yet you do
not receive our testimony. 12If
I have told you about earthly things and you do not believe, how can you
believe if I tell you about heavenly things? 13No
one has ascended into heaven except the one who descended from heaven, the Son
of Man. 14And
just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man
be lifted up, 15that
whoever believes in him may have eternal life.
16 ‘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.
17 ‘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.
Some thoughts based on William Barclay.
Nicodemus came to Jesus
because he was impressed by the signs and wonders. Jesus needs to make it clear
to him that this is not what was most important; what really matters is a
change in a person’s inner life that follows from a new birth. Nicodemus had
difficulty with this – because he took what Jesus was saying literally. Barclay
explains that the Greek word ‘anothen’
has three possible meanings:
(i) ‘From the beginning,
completely and radically’;
(ii) ‘Again’ – i.e. for a
second time;
(iii) ‘From above’
implying ‘from God’
Once again, we find the
richness of the Greek difficult to translate into English, but what it is
saying is that one needs to ‘… undergo such a radical change that it is like a
new birth; it is to have something happen to the soul which can only be
described as being born all over again; and the whole process is not a human
achievement, because it comes from the grace and power of God.’
Nicodemus seems to have
only thought of what Jesus was saying in the second sense – ‘again’ and so with
a crude literalism. But Barclay also sees in his reply a ‘… great unsatisfied
longing …’ because, deep down, he knew that there was more to life, but the ‘more’
seemed impossible to achieve.
By today’s standards,
Nicodemus had it all – but he realized that, in fact, he had nothing. He was a
wealthy man, a great intellect, one of the rulers of the day and probably from
one of the distinguished Jewish families of the day, but he had come to realize
this was not what life was all about. This is of course echoed in those words
that echo so true from St Augustine which
speaks about the origin and the goal of human nature.
‘… You
have made us for yourself, O Lord,
and our hearts are restless until they find their rest in you …’
Our current world is restless – and needs to be
born again, radically, of God. People think they have it all and have found
their ‘all’ to be lacking and severely wanting. I believe that the message of
Christ is on the cusp of a great revival as restless souls seek peace.
Barclay reminds us that
the image of being born again, born anew or rebirth is integral to the whole of
the New Testament, and cites examples:
- Peter speaks of being born anew by God’s great
mercy (1 Peter 1:3);
- Peter speaks of being born anew not of perishable
seed, but of imperishable (1 Peter 1:22-23);
- James speaks of God bringing us forth by the word
of truth (James 1:18);
- The letter to Titus speaks of the washing of
regeneration (Titus 3:5)
- There are times when the image of death and
resurrection is used – or a re-creation, e.g. Paul speaks of the Christian
as dying with Christ and then rising to new life (Romans 6:1-11);
- Paul speaks of new Christians as ‘babes in
Christ’ (1 Corinthians 3:1-2);
- Those who are in Christ being a new creation (2
Corinthians 5:17 and Galatians 6:15);
- The author of the letter to the Hebrews speaks of
the new Christians as being like a child (Hebrews 5:12-14).
This was nothing new for
Jews who used the same imagery in speaking of the proselyte who converted to
the Jewish faith, and who, after sacrifice and baptism were considered to have
been born again. So radical was the change, that it was believed that sins had
been forgiven and that they were different people with a fresh start.
The Greek community also
held similar beliefs as part of their mystery religions, including dying and
rising, including sacrifices for sins, washing in blood and a God who suffered
in our place. Barclay therefore concludes that:
“When Christianity came to the world with a message of
rebirth, it came with precisely that for which all the world was seeking.”
This is one of the most
precious gifts of the Christian message, the fact that people can be forgiven
and given a second (and third, and fourth etc.) chance in life.
To begin with Nicodemus does not understand. Why?
Barclay contends that there are two kinds of misunderstanding: (i) those who
have not yet reached the stage of knowledge and experience where they – as it
were – they do not have the equipment to help them to understand. This is what
we have committed out lives to doing – educating young people so that they ‘do’
have the skills needed; and (ii) those who are ‘unwilling’ to understand
because they ‘refuse’ to see. Nicodemus was in the second category. He was a
Pharisee, steeped in the Scriptures and so would have known the prophetic
utterances of Ezekiel who spoke of the need for a new heart and a new spirit
(Ezekiel 18:31, 36:26) Barclay continues:
“If a man
does not wish to be reborn, he will deliberately misunderstand what rebirth
means. If a man does not wish to be changed, he will shut his eyes and his mind
and his heart to the power which can change him.”
Still today, there are many who refuse the offer
of our Lord to change us and to re-create us. It is as if people today are
saying: “No thanks: I am quite satisfied with who I am, and I do not want to be
changed!”
Jesus then uses the image of the wind blowing to
explain the work of the Spirit. Barclay points out that the word for spirit
used here is ‘pneuma’ which is used for both wind and spirit. The same is true
of the Hebrew word ‘ruach’. This means that Jesus is saying to Nicodemus: ‘Just
as you do not understand how the wind works, you can see what it does – its
effect is plain for all to see … It is the same with the Spirit – you might not
understand how it works, but you will be able to see its impact in changed
humans lives.’
Barclay gives a lovely illustration of a workman
who had been a drunken reprobate and was converted. His workmates did their
best to make him feel a fool, saying: “Surely you cannot believe in miracles
and things like that? Surely you cannot believe that Jesus turned water into
wine?” The workman replied: “I don’t know, but I do know that in my own house
and home Jesus has turned beer into furniture.”
“The
unanswerable argument for Christianity is the Christian life. No man can
disregard a faith which is able to make bad men good.”
Has the mainstream church today not lost some of
this? Have we not over-intellectualised things, or focused too much on ceremony
and beautiful music – all wonderful and good – at the expense of offering
changed lives? Christianity is not just something to be discussed, but
something to be experienced.
Just as we do not need to be able to understand
the workings of electricity to enjoy it, or how medicine works to take it and
be healed. Barclay states:
“At its
heart there is a mystery, but it is not the mystery of intellectual
appreciation; it is the mystery of redemption.”
The reference to Moses and the brazen serpent
recalling the incident in the desert during the Exodus is of interest and
significance. (When I taught Reformation Theology, I referred, on one occasion,
to Luther’s reference to this in the formation of his understanding of
Justification by Faith. One of my students had never heard of Moses! I was –
and remain amazed).
Jesus’ referral to this incident is most
important, because it revolutionised the people’s understanding of the nature
of God. The Jews had been complaining in the desert and were regretting leaving
Egypt, so God sent a plague of serpents to punish the people. When they
repented and cried for mercy, Moses was instructed to make a brazen serpent,
and when he lifted it up, and the people looked on it, they were saved.
Eventually, in the history of the people of Israel, this had become an idol and
so during the reforms of Hezekiah, it had to be destroyed (2 Kings 18.4)
because the point needed to be made that the healing power lay in God and not
in the image.
John uses this as a parable for Jesus, so when
Jesus is lifted up, and people turn their thoughts to him, and believe in him,
they too will find eternal life. Barclay is brilliant in his use of Greek. He
explains that the word used here for lifted up is ‘hupsoun’ and that it is
applied to Jesus in two ways: (i) when he was lifted up on the Cross and (ii)
when he was lifted up to glory in the Ascension and that the two are connected
because the Cross was the way to glory. This can be applied to our own lives.
Barclay writes:
“We can,
if we like, choose the easy way; we can, if we like, refuse the Cross that
every Christian is called to bear; but if we do, we lose the glory … There is
an unalterable law of life that if there is no Cross, there is no crown …”
God is not a God that demands who just imposes
laws on us and who punishes those who break them. God is not just a judge and
people criminals. For us to enter God’s presence no price needs to be paid by
us. Jesus revealed a God as is a Father who longs for nothing so much as to
have his people return home to; a God who loves us, who cares for us and who
wants to forgive us. It cost the life and death of Jesus to tell us this.
But the reality of life is this: There will be
crosses to bear – not given to us by God – but because we live in a world where
the ways of God have become distorted by the free choices of people. But we are
given the Spirit of Jesus – which is the Spirit of God – to fill us with the
strength we need to face and overcome – even more – to know God’s glory.
For God so loved the world …
The incident that John refers to here is the time
in the desert when there was a plague of snakes and people were dying and Moses
was instructed to make a brazen image of a snake and when he lifted it up and
the people gazed upon it, they were saved.
This is recorded in Numbers 21:4-9 and is a remote story only really
known in Christian circles because John makes the link with Jesus.
The people began worshipping the image as an idol
and, finally, in the days of Hezekiah, it had to be destroyed because of this
(2 Kings18.4). The healing power lay not in the brazen serpent; it was only a
symbol to turn their thoughts to God. When they did this, they were healed.
Jesus was lifted up on the Cross and when we look
on the cross, sign ourselves with the sign of the cross or offer the Blessing –
Jesus is lifted up - our thoughts are turned to God and we are touched by God’s
peace.
We are reminded that Jesus did not take the easy
way and so must we avoid taking the easy way. Jesus did not refuse the Cross,
neither must we; because the Cross was the way to glory for Jesus and it will
be for us too (as has been part of our earlier reflections).
This passage ends with the words: “…whoever believes in him …” These are important because it
includes “…may have eternal life …”
What does it mean to “… believe …?”
Barclay points out that it means
believing that God loves us, cares for us and wants nothing more than to
forgive us. This would not have been easy for a Jew of those days to accept,
because they looked on God as law-giver, a judge and one who demands sacrifices
and offerings. To get into God’s presence one had to pay a price. Now Jesus
reveals that God is a Father, “… who longed for nothing so much as to have his
erring children come back home.”
God had tried to make this clear
through His intervention into the life of the people of Israel and Judah and
through the prophets, but they could not see it, so it cost the life and death of
Jesus to make this clear.
How can we be sure of this? Because
John begins his Gospel by explaining that Jesus is the Word of God – the same
as God – one of the great mysteries of faith and so whatever Jesus says about
God is true. It also means accepting Jesus’ message and obeying his commands.
In Sum: Belief that God is a loving
Father, that Jesus is the Word of God and following him in obedience are all
vital ingredients in what it means to “believe in him”!
What does it mean to have “eternal
life”?
Barclay suggests that this life is
the “very life of God Himself”. If we possess eternal life, what do we have?
Peace with God – having God as a
loving and forgiving Father; peace with others whom we are ready to forgive
because we are so freely forgiven; peace with life – even though we do not
understand it any better and are perplexed by it - but we will not resent it anymore
and peace with ourselves. Barclay comments on what this means for us as
individuals:
“He knows his own weakness; he knows the force of his own
temptations; he knows his own tasks and the demands of his own life. But now he
knows that he is facing it all with God. It is not he who lives, but Christ who
lives in him. There is a peace founded on strength in his life.”
And this peace is only a shadow of
the peace which is to come. It is good to be reminded that we have the peace of
God which passes all understanding – the words I often use when introducing the
Blessing after having begun an act of worship with the words: “The peace of the
Lord be with you …”
Linked with your thoughts here again we see that
it is God who takes the initiative and is motivated by His love for all that he
was willing to make it possible for people to have eternal life which is to
share life with God.
God does not need to be pacified; He is not a
wrathful God, and Jesus is not the lightning conductor that deflects God’s
wrath and satisfies it at the moment when he cries out “My God, My God, why
have you forsaken me!” Yes, in my heady days as an undergraduate, I preferred
the AV translation of ‘hilasterion’ in Romans 3:24 as ‘propitiation’ because
all this is encapsulated in this word. But over the years, as I have walked
with our Lord, I have come to the understanding that ‘expiation’ is far more
appropriate (and equally valid translation of this word) – and refers rather to
“atonement for sin” and ‘atonement’ is the word most translators prefer. God is
not angry and Jesus not the gentle one ready to forgive; it is the mystery of
both incarnation and atonement that I do not need to understand; it is
something I know because it is part of my being, or as Paul puts it in Romans 5
because “I have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” This is
something more profound than just cognitive, mental understanding, it is part
of one’s very existence – God’s Spirit testifying with my Spirit that I am one
of his children – unearned and undeserved – a gift!
Wow!
It all started with God, who sent his Son,
because he loved the people of the world.
Indeed, this is central to John’s understanding
of God and this is beautifully represented in his Epistle where he simply
states: “God is love!” Barclay puts it this way:
“God
acting not for his own sake, but for ours, not to satisfy his desire for power,
not to bring a universe to heel, but to satisfy his love … God is the Father
who cannot be happy until his wondering children have come home. God does not
smash people into submission; he yearns over them and woos them into love …”
Augustine puts it even better:
“God
loves each one of us as if there was only one of us to love.”
I will never even get close to the example of
people like Mother Teresa – but God will still love me as much as he loves
Mother Teresa – all because of Jesus and his grace.
I do not need to write anything more, do I?
Here we encounter the paradox of love and
judgment. Barclay explains how the experience of love can turn out to be an
experience of judgment. He tells of a music lover, who finds that he is closest
to God when listening to a great piece of music. He wants to share this with a
friend. He has no aim other than to share both the majesty of the music and his
experience of God’s presence – but the other person just does not get it –
because he has a “blind spot on his soul”. I did not find this illustration
convincing until I read further where he goes on to illustrate his point from
an example from an art gallery where there are some of the world’s great
masterpieces and one of the visitors comes to the end of the tour as states:
“Well, I
don’t think much of your old pictures.” The attendant answers quietly: “Sir, I
would remind you that these pictures are no longer on trial, but those that
look on them are.” All that the man’s reaction has done was reveal his own
blindness.
This now makes more sense to me. When people are
confronted with Jesus, their souls ought to be attracted to him – “But if, when
he is confronted with Jesus, he sees nothing lovely, he stands condemned.”
God sent Jesus in love, so that man might be
saved, but it can become a condemnation when man condemns himself. This is because, in our natural state, we
love darkness rather than light.
I believe this is why our churches are emptying.
People in the west are increasingly attracted to the darkness. When they come
into the light they become acutely embarrassed because, deep down, they know of
their guilt. The experience of Christians ought to be different; when we
compare ourselves with our Lord we see ourselves as we really are, but the
difference is that we want to be like Jesus and so we invite him into our
lives, we repent and seek God’s grace and His Spirit so that we can become more
like our Lord. Barclay puts it brilliantly:
“The man
who is engaged on an evil task does not want a flood of light shed on him; but
the man engaged on an honourable task does not fear the light.”
When preaching is faithful, it will show people
what they really are. For those who place themselves under judgment and
condemnation, this is the last thing they will want to see. They prefer being
able to hide in the darkness. If a person loves Jesus, they will want the light
to reveal where they fall short so that they might be transformed by the love
of their Lord.
To put it starkly: If anyone was to have
challenged Mother Teresa and pointed out her weaknesses and shortcomings – she
would have wholeheartedly have agreed with them and prayed for forgiveness.
Suggest to anyone who is not a Christian that they are not a good person and
they will be outraged and will defend themselves most vehemently. And in so doing
they reveal that Jesus, who was sent in love, becomes to them, judgment. This
is beautifully illustrated in Zechariah’s prophecy:
“Then he showed me the high priest Joshua standing before the
angel of the Lord, and Satan*
standing at his right hand to accuse him. 2And the Lord said to Satan,* ‘The Lord rebuke you, O Satan!*
The Lord who has chosen Jerusalem rebuke you! Is not this
man a brand plucked from the fire?’ 3Now Joshua was
dressed in filthy clothes as he stood before the angel. 4The
angel said to those who were standing before him, ‘Take off his filthy
clothes.’ And to him he said, ‘See, I have taken your guilt away from you, and
I will clothe you in festal apparel.’ 5And I said,
‘Let them put a clean turban on his head.’ So they put a clean turban on his
head and clothed him in the apparel; and the angel of the Lord
was standing by. 6 Then the angel of the Lord
assured Joshua, saying 7‘Thus says the Lord of hosts: If
you will walk in my ways and keep my requirements, then you shall rule my house
and have charge of my courts, and I will give you the right of access among
those who are standing here.” (Zechariah 3:1-7,
NRSV)
Coming into God’s presence is like coming into a
great light – and reveals that our garments of righteousness are like filthy
rags. But he clothes us “… in righteousness divine …” and gives us the command
to “… walk in his ways and keep his requirements …”
We are justified by grace through faith and this
is not our own doing – it is a gift of God – so that no one can boast. And so we love coming into the light, because
we know we are not condemned. We also want to become what we have been declared
to be and so we want to light to reveal our shortcomings.
Amen.
