Born Again, Baseball & Nicodemus: Any Questions? ~ John 3:1-17

3 Now there was a Pharisee, a man named Nicodemus who was a member of the Jewish ruling council. ² He came to Jesus at night and said, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the signs you are doing if God were not with him.” ³ Jesus replied, “Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born from above.”

          1.      My first encouragement to you from John’s Gospel is to “ask a question.”

Nicodemus was a rabbi, a teacher of some fame. In vs. 10, Jesus affirms him as “the” teacher [not a teacher] of Israel.” He was distinguished in the community. But he comes to Jesus at night – maybe he’s worried about his reputation, concerned about the view of temple authorities who might consider him a collaborator. Now “night” in John’s Gospel is more than a time but also a deep theological symbol that expresses Nicodemus’ relationship to the truth. “Darkness” reflects the realm of untruth and unbelief. The only other person who appears at night, in John, is Judas Iscariot, who departs into the night to betray Jesus (13:30).

Yet, despite the darkness, Nicodemus has made a serious choice, a courageous choice, a profound choice: he has stepped out of the darkness and into the light to ask a few questions. This interests John who seems very fascinated by how Jesus treats those with questions. We’re going to see that the darkness of misunderstanding and the shadows of questions don’t frighten Jesus - he welcomes those who stumble about in it and speaks to them. In fact, our story reveals a deep patience on the part of Jesus, for the questioner. Hey, do you have questions? No worries. Bring them out into the open to Jesus – let Nicodemus be your patron saint.

Nicodemus’ first question, albeit implicit, is a straight-forward one. Who are you? What are your credentials and what is your vision? How do you hope to bring about God’s kingdom?

Jesus’ response is unexpected. Instead of answering Nicodemus by authenticating himself he forces the rabbi to move to another level of inquiry, a new vision of what God is doing, a better question.

“No one can see this kingdom, he says, unless that one is born “anothen.”  The problem is that in Greek anothen can mean either “above” or “again.” This reminds me of the scene from Monty Python’s Life of Brian where a person listening way on the outskirts of the crowd to Jesus’ sermon on the mount, asks “Did he just say, ‘Blessed are the cheesemakers?’” Illus. I had a unchurched friend who was asked on his first visit to church, “Have you been washed in the blood?” “When do they do that to you?,” my friend replied. Maybe you’ve had either of those experiences – you’ve heard something crazy: birth, blood – it doesn’t make sense. Maybe you’ve misheard (Jesus’ statement “Blessed are the peacemakers), maybe you misunderstood (washed in the blood, Rev. 7), but don’t give up by walking away. Ask more questions – it’s the only way to learn about something so important. Illus. The former chaplain at Duke University, Will Willimon (tell story) “I can’t teach you the game of baseball in 5 min. what makes you think that I can explain God’s plan for the universe in 5 min.” The Gospel demands patience and questions. If you have questions, let Nicodemus’ story empower you. It means that “Huh?” can be an important part of the spiritual life. Questions allow us to move slower, to help clarify difficult things, to address particular concerns. Questions help us to recognize the seriousness of a thing. 

Nicodemus thankfully has the courage to continue.

⁴ “How can someone be born when they are old?” Nicodemus asked. “Surely they cannot enter a second time into their mother’s womb to be born!” ⁵ Jesus answered, “Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit. ⁶ Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. ⁷ You should not be surprised at my saying, ‘You must be born from above.’ ⁸ The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.”

          2.      The second encouragement from John’s Gospel is that “if you don’t understand, that’s okay, ask again.”

Nicodemus continues to misunderstand. “What does this mean? How does it work?” he questions.

Jesus declares, “no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit.” Jesus’ answer is a humbling one because he exposes Nicodemus’ and my own lack of understanding by implicitly pointing out that he doesn’t know the Scriptures well enough. In a variety of places in the OT “water and Spirit” form a uniform metaphor among the prophets to express God’s final work of transforming the earth and all who are in it. Isaiah, speaking for God, declares, “For I will pour water on the thirsty land, and streams on the dry ground; I will pour my Spirit on your offspring, and my blessing on your descendants. (Is. 44:3). So “water and Spirit” are joined as life giving gifts of God. This was the point of our reading from Ezekiel 36:25-27. This born from above or born again image in the end make the same point. It challenges our heroic image of self-transformation. You do not birth yourself in this life and you can’t make yourself a Christian no matter how many boot straps you have or how hard you pull. Being born from above is not some horizontal experience of doing religious things but a vertical one in which the entire person needs to be remade by God.

So salvation is not your work but the the work of God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit and the  Spirit, like the wind, Jesus tell us, is unpredictable and incomprehensible. Likewise, Jesus says, so it with those who have been born by that same Spirit. They are also surprising and inconceivable, in other words, because no one would predict this motley lot of sinners and non-Jews being a part of God’s plan. They are like the baby girl parents receive when the technician promised that the sonogram revealed a baby boy. They are the existence of triplets when the doctor said twins.  They are well – you.

⁹ “How can this be?” Nicodemus asked. ¹⁰ “You are Israel’s teacher,” said Jesus, “and do you not understand these things? ¹¹ Very truly I tell you, we speak of what we know, and we testify to what we have seen, but still you people do not accept our testimony. ¹² I have spoken to you of earthly things and you do not believe; how then will you believe if I speak of heavenly things? ¹³ No one has ever gone into heaven except the one who came from heaven—the Son of Man. ¹⁴ Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, ¹⁵ that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him.” ¹⁶ For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. ¹⁷ For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.
 

          3.      The third encouragement for you from John’s Gospel is that if you still don’t get what Jesus is saying “remember who He is and ask one of us.”

Unfortunately, Nicodemus moves from misunderstanding to bafflement, “how can this be?.” His commitment and obedience to Torah, to prayer and sacrifice, his understanding of Israel’s election are being overturned. Jesus’ explanation doesn’t allay his concerns but heightens them in a more poignant way. He still doesn’t understand, he says, which causes Jesus to yell, “Get out of here and quit bothering me, you idiot!” It doesn’t say that in your version? 

Now Jesus offers his credentials– those things which allow him to bill himself as a trustworthy heavenly obstetrician. The first credential is simple enough. He can speak about heavenly things because he’s been there. It’s a claim of sole authority – not one among many but the exclusive claim of “no one” but myself has come down. Many are embarrassed about such an astonishing claim or believe it to be too exclusive. It’s only exclusive if he practices his spiritual obstetrics on a select group, a particular community, one kind of patient. He is claiming that only he has what we need and if that’s so – the most offensive thing would be to say nothing, to remain quiet, to allow for people to suffer and die when you hold the cure. Jonas Salk would not have been inappropriate, or exclusive, or intolerant to say that no one else could cure polio. He invented the vaccine. He would be those things if he refused to share it. Jesus’ claim is even more important for our world – he is not simply some teacher, saying nice things, to make us better people. He is saying, “I am revealing God’s work, giving God’s truth, making known God’s plan – He succinctly states, later in John’s Gospel, “I and the father are one.”

It’s Jesus next credential, however, that shows he isn’t some insensitive, narrow minded individual. He describes his own message and mission using a story from Numbers 21, in which Moses built a serpent of bronze and elevated it among the Israelites so that whoever gazed on it would be healed from the snakes that bit them in the desert. Jesus’ credentials are his willingness to be lifted up – to suffer and die on the cross. He will be that One who heals our world by giving his life and rising again – all we have to do is look up.

In the end, however, despite Nicodemus’ concerns about birth and truth, salvation and election, it’s not his questions but Jesus’ “we” that bothers me. It’s the “we” in vs. 11 that sticks in my gut. “We’s” are like that. When Jesus says “we” in vs. 11 he means “us.” It may be Jesus’ work on behalf of God by the power of the Spirit that saves us. But we must also “speak of what we know” and “testify to what we have seen.”

This is why beginning in vs. 3:16 we are challenged by a startling reality – these following words SHOULD NOT BE IN RED – Jesus most likely didn’t say them, for example John 3:16 describes Jesus’ death in the past “so loved . . . gave”. We are now reading John’s “we” - his explanation, his witness to what Jesus has done. This is John taking his place beside Jesus as part of those “who testify to what they know and have seen.” He is becoming one of the witnesses, the explainers of what God has done on our behalf. And his witness is one of the most powerful and pithy descriptions of the Christian message.

All this happened, John writes, because God so loved the world. This is a critical verse that many misunderstand because we don’t get John’s use of the “the world” [kosmos]. For John, the world is not a reference to the natural world of trees, animals, and plants – a world defended by the Sierra Club and rightly understood as God’s beautiful creation. For John, kosmos is used 78 times in this Gospel to represent humanity in opposition to God. I think of that statement from the sixties, “That’s just the man trying to keep us down.”  - a statement so easily misunderstood. John 3:16 is better understood as “For God so loved his enemies, that he gave his one and only son.” Jesus came to earth not in order to change God’s mind and we are to be witnesses of that. Still don’t get it? That’s okay, ask again. Then again, maybe you do finally get it.

Song “Here am I, Lord”

“What shall I do?” that’s the hardest question we can ask. For some it’s continuing to ask your questions and for others it’s to quit stalling and give your answer.