John 3:1-17
1 Now there was a Pharisee named
Nicodemus, a leader of the Jews. 2 He 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." 3 Jesus answered
him, "Very truly, I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God without
being born from above." 4 Nicodemus 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?" 5 Jesus answered, "Very truly, I tell you, no one can
enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit. 6 What is born
of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the Spirit is spirit. 7 Do not be
astonished that I said to you, "You must be born from above.' 8 The 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." 9 Nicodemus said to him, "How can these things be?" 10
Jesus 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. 12
If I have told you about earthly things and you do not believe, how can you
believe if I tell you about heavenly things? 13 No one has ascended into heaven
except the one who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. 14 And just as Moses
lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, 15
that 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.
My college roommate used to have
this irritating…let’s call it a habit. He would hear a song, say on the radio,
or on a television show, or in a movie, and he would instantly think it was the
best song in the world. So, he would download the song or even buy the CD which
contained the song and proceed to play it on a non-stop loop…for days…so many
days. It wouldn’t just be the song he played in his car; it wasn’t just the
song he played on his iPod while he studied; it wasn’t just the song that he
used as his morning alarm. He would play that one, single song constantly, even
set it as his ring tone so that it would play every time he got a phone call!
This would go on for weeks until he would hear another song that he thought was
the greatest song ever, and then the cycle would start all over. As his
roommate, he could ruin a song for me if he decided he liked it. The sad thing
is there were some of those songs I liked in the beginning, but by the time I
had heard it a thousand times in a week, it was worn-out for me.
I’ve found that’s the way a lot of
things go in our lives. Things that begin as favorites, as things we cherish
and deem valuable, eventually become worn-out. Our favorite blue jeans, jeans
we used to wear all the time, one day become so worn out they find their way to
that part of our closet, that drawer for clothes we only wear when we’re
working in the yard or around the house. When I was in the second grade, I had
a favorite pair of shoes (they were shoes with the cartoon character
Beetlejuice on them, and they had glow-in-the-dark beetles and skulls on
them—they were pretty cool), and I had worn those shoes so much that the soles
started to separate from the shoe (they weren’t very expensive shoes). Well, I
eventually had to wrap duct tape around them just to keep them together they
were so worn-out, but they were my favorite shoes. Some of you remember
cassette tapes and how, after playing them over and over for so long, the tape
inside the cassette would stretch and the songs would start to drag a little
bit; of course, that only happened on with your favorite cassettes.
After a while, our favorite things
become worn-out because they’re our “go-to” things, the items with which we’re
most comfortable, the things are easiest to use, the things with which we’re
the most at-home. When these things get worn-out, however, we just don’t use
them as much as we used to, or we don’t pay near as much attention to them. I’m
afraid the same is true when it comes to those parts of Holy Scripture that
were once so fresh, familiar, and wonderful to us, yet over time have become
cliché, threadbare, and worn-out. We can hear them so often, over and over
again, that after a while they become like those favorite pair of jeans or that
favorite cassette tape—worn-out, and we just don’t hear them the same way
anymore.
This passage of Scripture before us
this morning may be the most worn-out passage of Scripture of the last century.
John 3:16 may be the most recognized, memorized, recited, and reprinted verse
in all of Scripture. It’s been around since the author of the fourth gospel put
pen to parchment, but this verse’s popularity in recent decades can likely be
traced to one man in rainbow wig, with facial hair and glasses that would make
any post-modern hipster jealous. That man’s name is Rollen Stewart, better
known as “Rockin’ Rollen” or “The Rainbow Man.” In the late seventies and
eighties Rollen could be seen on television at major sporting events with his
rainbow wig and large posters with Bible citations printed on them. His
favorite: John 3:16. Rollen is currently serving three consecutive life
sentences in prison on kidnapping charges related to an 1992 incident when he
believed the rapture was going to take place in six days, so he held a maid
hostage in a hotel room and plastered the walls and windows with signs, and on
those signs…”John 3:16.”[1]
Of course, there have been others in
more recent years who have shined the popular spotlight on this single verse
from the Bible. In the late 1990s, it was a professional wrestler named “Stone
Cold” Steve Austin, who often wore vests with “Austin 3:16” bedazzled on the
back (to be fair, this isn’t exactly the same thing, but it did bring attention
to the source material). And then there is Tim Tebow, who often sported Bible
verse citation on his eye-black patches during football games. One of his
favorites: John 3:16. This verse of Scripture has become so visible, so cited,
that it’s become a bit worn out; it has been pulled from its context in the
gospel narrative and been used as a summation of the whole story of God. I
think we need to pull this worn-out verse from that part of our faith that that
is comfortable, that part of our faith marked “understood,” and really hear
this verse in its entire context, so that we can have a refreshed sense of what
it actually means to be “born again, anew, or from above.”
Many of you in here could probably
recite this story from memory: Nicodemus (not to be confused with the wee
little man Zacchaeus) was a Pharisee and a member of the Jewish high council
called the Sanhedrin, who came to Jesus “by night” in order to learn from the
Rabbi. Nicodemus begins the conversation in verse 2: "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." He already has some
understanding of who Jesus is. Clearly, to Nicodemus, Jesus has God’s blessing,
God’s power to do these great signs. Nicodemus doesn’t have the chance to ask a
question, to pose a problem before Jesus responds in verse 3: "Very truly, I tell
you, no one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above."
And that is where this conversation, covered by the darkness of night, begins
to take on a different tone…or does it?
You see, for at least the last
hundred years, certain Christians have read this story and Jesus’ words about
being “born again” (a word that can actually mean “again,” “anew,” or “from
above”) and understood them to be about some single event of conversion, some
instantaneous change that occurs when one prays a particular prayer. If we
really listen to Jesus’ words here and look more closely at Nicodemus himself,
however, we may come away with a refreshed understanding of what Jesus is
actually saying here to the nocturnal Nicodemus and to us.
You see, one of the important themes
in John’s gospel is light, light and darkness. Throughout this gospel, Jesus is
calling people to come out of the darkness—the darkness of selfishness, the
darkness of sin, the darkness that separates one from God. Jesus is calling
people to come of the darkness and into the light—the light of truth, the light
of love, the light of a life lived in close communion with God. It’s no
incidental placement of plot for Nicodemus to come to Jesus by night (in fact,
the last time we hear about Nicodemus in chapter 19 of John’s gospel, he is
still referred to as the one who came to Jesus by night). Night is the
abode of darkness; it’s the time when those who have something to hide,
something to fear, go out, so when Nicodemus comes to Jesus at night it isn’t
because that’s when his calendar was clear—it’s because Nicodemus is still in
the dark, groping for understanding, trying to find the light.
There, in the dark of night, Jesus
tells Nicodemus that one cannot truly see, or hope to understand, the kingdom
of God unless they are born from above—born again, but from a different womb, a
different source of life. Naturally, Nicodemus is confused, so he asks Jesus
how a person can be born a second time, especially a full-grown man. Jesus
answers as only Jesus can in verses 5-8:
"Very truly, I tell you, no one can
enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit. What is born
of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not be astonished
that I said to you, ‘You must be born from above.' The 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."
Do you get it now? Well, neither did Nicodemus. In fact, the last thing
we hear from Nicodemus in this conversation in the darkness is in verse 9: "How can these things be?" He’s still in the
darkness; things have not been quite brought to light for him yet. Jesus sort
of rebukes him in verse 10, but then
in verses 11-15 Jesus explains
himself, but in doing so transitions his conversation from Nicodemus to those
of us hearing his words as he moves from speaking in the second person singular
(“you”) to the second person plural (“y’all”): "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. If I have told you[pl] about earthly things and you[pl] do not
believe, how can you believe if I tell you about heavenly things? No one has
ascended into heaven except the one who descended from heaven, the Son of Man.
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.”
Nicodemus is silent, and that’s the end of Jesus’ words to him. What follows in
verses 16 and 17 are likely the
words of the gospel writer (there’s no punctuation in Greek to indicate who is
speaking here).
Jesus is calling Nicodemus to come out of the darkness and embrace the
light of life in the fullness of who Jesus is. When Jesus speaks of birth from
above to Nicodemus, what he is talking about is not some singular instance of
conversion—no! Birth isn’t an end to itself; it is a beginning! Nicodemus was
quick to confess that God was with
Jesus in the signs he was able to perform, but that was as far as Nicodemus was
willing to go. To claim much more would be to risk everything—his
respectability, his place on the Sanhedrin, even his life as a co-conspirator! Jesus
was calling Nicodemus out of the darkness where he could hide his faith, hide
his longing to do and be more. Jesus was calling Nicodemus to be born again,
from the top, from above, to begin a new life out of the darkness and into the
light.
Jesus is calling us all to do the same. Jesus is calling us out of the
darkness where we can calmly, quietly, safely practice as much of our faith as
we’re comfortable with. Too many of us stay on the darkened edge of our faith,
hoping to skate by with a simple confession or certificate that proves we were
once dunked or sprinkled. Jesus is calling us out of that! Too many of us are
afraid to step into the full light of the good news of God’s kingdom, too
afraid to begin a new life, reborn from the above, because to step out into the
light means others will see us, others will judge us as crazy, as
bleeding-hearts, as gullible, as soft. Jesus calls Nicodemus to be reborn from
above, into the light so that he may see more of what God has for him, more of
who God is. And Jesus is calling us too, to be reborn into the light, out of
the darkness, to experience more of what God has for us, more of who God is,
and more of what God’s kingdom looks like here and now.
The final verses of our passage this morning—words so familiar to us—have
a deeper meaning in the light: “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.” Where
in the past these verses may have been used as a sort of litmus test to divide
those who were bound for glory from those damned to hell, we read them today
knowing that the life God promises to those who believe is a life that begins
here and now, in the full light of God’s love. May we who believe in God and
his sent Son Jesus, step out of the dark, out of the shrouded shadows that keep
us from living our faith out loud, in the daylight for all the world to see.
May those of you who have not believed, who have simply set on the dark edges
of belief waiting for God to show God’s self to you, be reborn this day so that
you may begin a new life in the light of God’s love, a new life lived in God’s
kingdom. May we all hear Christ’s words to Nicodemus as an invitation to step
out of the darkness and into the bold, loving light of faith.
Let us pray…
