John 3:1-17 (Lent 2A)

John 3:1-17 (Lent 2A)

St. John, Galveston 3/5/23

Rev. Alan Taylor

+ In Nomine Jesu +

Grace and peace to you, from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.

In this morning’s Gospel reading, we meet up with Jesus and Nicodemus who were engaged in a discussion about Holy Baptism. Nicodemus is mentioned at length in this section of John’s Gospel, but he’s only mentioned briefly two other times in the rest of the Gospel. Still, we know quite a bit about Nicodemus.

He’s called “a ruler of the Jews.” Elsewhere we’re told that he was actually of the party of the Pharisees. That, in itself, makes Nicodemus a bit of unique individual, in that most of the Pharisees were adamantly opposed to Jesus and His teaching. Nicodemus, on the other hand, took the time to visit with Jesus personally to find out what He was all about.

From John 19, we know that Nicodemus was a wealthy man, in that he provided the very expensive spices and oils to anoint the body of Jesus after He was taken down from the cross. That bit information also leads us to believe that Nicodemus may well have come to faith in Jesus. In fact, there is a tradition in the early church that suggests that he was eventually baptized by Peter and John and that he lost his status as a Pharisee because of his conversion to the Christian faith. That same tradition, tells us that he was eventually banished from the City of Jerusalem.

As I read through this section of John’s Gospel, I was trying to think of a word that described Nicodemus as a person. To do so, I needed to stay within what we know about him from this encounter, in other words, from what John recorded here in chapter 3. I first thought Nicodemus was a bit of a skeptic, since he questioned what Jesus told him about being born again, or being born, literally, “from above.” I looked up the word skeptic though and I don’t think Nicodemus could be considered one, since a skeptic is someone who tends to deny accepted opinions.

Next, I thought he could maybe be described as a pragmatist. That didn’t work either because a pragmatist isn’t really concerned with the truth. He or she is only concerned with outcomes. A pragmatist is the person who believes that “the ends justify the means.”

I wasn’t sure the word I finally settled on to describe Nicodemus was a real word, so, I looked it up, and sure enough it was. Nicodemus, I would say, was a logician. Not a magician, a logician, with an L. Logic was important to him, as it was frankly to many people in the ancient world. People from that time were often skilled in debate. I think it’s a skill that many of us have lost because we don’t tend to discuss issues with people who disagree with us. Instead, we just right them off, or perhaps even cancel them. As you’ll see in this encounter between Jesus had with Nicodemus, while logic and reason were supremely important to Nicodemus in virtually every aspect of his life, most aspects of our lives, they couldn’t be used when struggling to comprehend heavenly things.

Jesus told Nicodemus that for anyone to see the kingdom of God he had to be born again. Nicodemus, the logician that he was, said, whoa, wait just a minute! Did you say that, to see the kingdom of God, a man has to be born again!? That’s not reasonable! It’s not logical! “How can a man be born when he is old (Nicodemus asked)? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?” To which Jesus said, “Are you the teacher of Israel and yet you do not understand these things? Truly, truly, I say to you, we speak of what we know, and bear witness to what we have seen, but you do not receive our testimony. If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you heavenly things?”

I find quite a number of things in the natural world, that is, earthly things, hard to believe. We usually point those sorts of things out by saying, “that’s unbelievable.” The sun burns continuously at about 10,000 degrees Fahrenheit, but it never burns up. And yet, a human being in space without a vessel or a space suit to provide protection, would freeze solid in as little as 12 hours. A little closer to home, there is a particular pine tree in the West, called a Jack Pine. It has a unique feature in that the only way it’s pine cone will open to release the seeds inside for regeneration, is by the application of intense heat. In other words, a forrest fire. I find these things amazing, even though I can’t say I understand them.

Since there are earthly things that are hard for us to believe, it stands to reason, if I may, that there are likely many heavenly things that are hard for us to believe. Nicodemus discovered very quickly that his reason, or his intellectual powers, were not sufficient to understand heavenly things. When Jesus told him about the need to be born again, he really didn’t know what to do with what Jesus told him, because his mind couldn’t process it. And, what’s interesting about this encounter between Jesus and Nicodemus is that is no indication, at least from John 3, that Nicodemus ever did understand what Jesus was saying. Which sort of begs a question, “is it necessary to understand everything in God’s word to believe it?” Or, if I may pose the question a little differently, “is understanding a prerequisite to faith, or is it, in some sense, part of the ongoing struggle of faith?”

The fact is, there are many things about the Christian faith that are difficult to understand. Frankly, there are many things about the Christian faith that are impossible to understand. “To see the kingdom of God, you must be born again, or born from above.” There is a lot that goes into that statement. To begin with, to complete the analogy, there’s the whole issue of participation, or of the place of the human will in coming to faith. What part did you play in your birth? I mean, when you were born physically? What part did you play? Did your birth happen as a result of an act of your “will?” Of course it didn’t. So it is, that you must be born from above, by the hand of God, by water and the word.

But how does God do that? I mean, how can such simple things like water and God’s word accomplish so much? Do you understand how God, in baptism, brings someone who is dead to life? I don’t. And yet, every baptism nearly brings me to tears because of the incredible thing God does in the lives of people at the font of His grace, using water and His word.

When your reason, be it logic or some other aspect of reason, comes to a wall in the Christian faith where it can’t reconcile what God says with what you understand, or even with what makes sense, it is a critical juncture. Either the Scriptures will be forced to serve your reason, or your reason will be subjected to the wisdom of God and His word.

As it turns out, one of the hallmarks of the Lutheran Reformation was Luther and the other reformers being willing to live with unanswered questions regarding articles of faith. They points of tension where we simply can’t explain why something is the way it is. The point for Luther and the Reformers was that we dare not speak where God has chosen not to speak. But we also dare not disregard what God has said. Therefore, we are bound by the word of God. Sola Scriptura. Scripture alone!

It seems highly likely that Nicodemus did come to faith in Jesus. Again, after Jesus’ crucifixion, he was the one who provided the spices and oils for the anointing of Jesus’ body. He was also one of the ones who took Jesus’ body from the cross to lay Him to rest in the tomb of Joseph of Aramithea.

Thankfully, understanding heavenly things isn’t essential to faith. God’s word often transcends our reason, which, by the way, doesn’t make it unreasonable, it simply makes it above our reason. Then again, He tells us as much, doesn’t He? “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.”

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

The peace of God that passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus unto life everlasting. Amen.

+ Soli Deo Gloria +