The
Gospel of John, Chapter 3
Under the cover of darkness
at night a Pharisee named Nicodemus came to ask Jesus who he was. His question was a statement: “Rabbi, we know
that you are a teacher who has come from God; for no one can do these signs
apart from the presence of God.”
According to John, Jesus doesn't
ask Nicodemus to clarify his question.
He knows that Nicodemus wants Jesus to confirm the statement he just
made. And he may hope Jesus will reveal
even more about himself. What Jesus
says, however, engages Nicodemus in a theological reflection about the longed
for “kingdom of God.”
Jesus’ teaching about the
kingdom extends from verse 3 of chapter 3 all the way to verse 21, the end of
the chapter. From these words modern
Christians have taken the phrase “born again,” defined it to serve their
purposes, and used it to whack other Christians up the side of the head to
prove their worthiness and discount all other Christians. Occasionally, maybe even often, Episcopalians
have been on the receiving end of the whacking.
The other words we
Christians have extracted from Jesus’ teaching are the very familiar statement:
“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.” John 3:16.
Although this statement beautifully sums up why we follow Jesus, it too
has been used by some Christians to decide who will be saved and who will be
condemned for eternity.
A United Church of Christ
pastor, J. Bennett Guess, preaching on our Gospel lesson this morning, said, “Ironically,
these very words that Jesus was speaking to a rigid and legalistic Pharisee,
trying to help him see salvation more expansively, have become the very symbol
of conditional, exclusive Christianity: ‘Accept Jesus Christ as your Lord and
Savior, or go to hell for all eternity.’ That's basically what it boils down
to.”
Some pastors stop reading
this passage at the end of verse 17, because they worry that verse 18b (“. . . but
those who do not believe [in the Son of Man] are condemned already.”) will lead
to intolerant thoughts and behavior.
I never like to stop struggling
in interpreting a passage that presents difficulties. In particular, are Jesus’ words in this
conversation with Nicodemus supposed to exclude folks like Nicodemus? Or perhaps
are they supposed to open Nicodemus’s heart to a new thing God might be doing,
which will include him? And, in
addition, what can they teach us today about Jesus and about our faith? Perhaps we should try to understand why Jesus
approached Nicodemus the way he did by imagining that we are Nicodemus. In that way we can enter this event in a
deeper way.
“I
am Nicodemus. I’m well-educated and a member of the party of the Pharisees. We’re
progressive—much more than the Sadducees—but we do believe the Law of Moses is
important to protect.
Yes,
I know the buzz that this Nazarene teacher Jesus is creating. And he does amazing deeds of power as
well. My colleagues and I are concerned
about how influential he has become with the common folk. After all we are
leaders by our inheritance from our forefathers who preserved our worship
traditions. He could upset things, maybe
even start a riot, and then the Romans will come down on us hard.
And
yet—and yet—what if he is a prophet from God?
What if he is the one who will restore us and, through the power of God,
kick out our oppressors, the Romans. I
have wondered about this and am burning to confront him myself. If he could convince me—maybe he could change
his tactics a bit—no more overturning tables of the merchants at the Temple,
for example—then he could convince my colleagues, too.
What should I do? Certainly not let anyone know what I’m doing!
So I’ll wait until it’s dark, and when I
approach him—I’ll flatter him a bit before I throw a direct question at him.
Well, Jesus didn’t let me get that far—he confronted me with his idea that a
person must be born again or perhaps born anew or even born from above—in order
to be prepared for God’s coming kingdom.
What could he possibly mean with
that crazy idea. People are only born
once! So I challenged him about how one can be born after having grown
old. Well, he just kept going on—he said
being born from above means being born of the Spirit.
When I could no longer contain my
consternation, in exasperation I asked, “How can these things be?” Then Jesus really went after me. He asked, “Are you a teacher of Israel, and
yet you do not understand these things?”
Although he said it quietly, his point could not have been clearer. He had called into question my understanding
of God and God’s work in the world—even though I was more educated than he—AND
I had the respect of my colleagues!
But I could not turn away—his quiet
authority, authority without pretension, compelled me to hear him out. He spoke about the Son of Man healing the
whole world. God’s love was so great that
no one need perish, but anyone who understood what God was doing—and responded
in faith—could partake in God’s kingdom eternally. Jesus compared God’s love to light, which
will reveal those whose deeds are done in God.
I felt my heart melt within me as recognized
how much I was loved. Yes, I will
continue to keep the Law, but with a new spirit of openness to how God may be
acting in this moment to draw ALL people to God’s kingdom.”
So what Jesus sought in his challenging Nicodemus and in his
teaching about God’s love was to broaden Nicodemus’ outlook about God. God was known through scripture and the
traditions of the Jewish people. That
would not change—but now God was continuing to reveal God’s self, so all people
might be drawn into the life of Love Incarnate, Jesus.
If anytime, we are tempted to use Jesus’s words into John 3
to exclude or separate someone from the circle of God’s love—to decide that
they could never come accept the faith that we have accepted—then we should
stop ourselves and remember what Nicodemus learned from his interaction with
Jesus.
How do we know Nicodemus was changed after his night visit
to Jesus? At the end of the 7th
chapter of John, Nicodemus told his fellow Pharisees that they should give
Jesus a fair hearing, before deciding he was wrong about God. Then in the 19th
chapter, John reported that Nicodemus accompanied Joseph of Arimethea in
preparing Jesus’ body for burial with myrrh and aloes.
May God’s love call to us, as it called to Nicodemus that
night. When we find ourselves challenged
by people who may come to God in other ways than we have, remember
Nicodemus. God’s love is so deep and so
broad that all people can be embraced in God’s love now and eternally!
Dr. Guess’ quote came
from his Day 1 sermon for March 15, 2015.
No comments:
Post a Comment