Tuesday, November 11, 2008

John 3:1-13

Jesus Teaches Nicodemus

1 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 without being born again."

4 "How can anyone 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 without being 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 again.' 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."

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.



Dig Deeper

A couple of years back, my wife and I were out on a date and decided to go to a movie one night. We had been having dinner and decided to go to the movies a little late so by the time we got to the theater the movie had already started a few minutes earlier. We quickly got our tickets and hustled into the movie. We walked into the movie directly from the bright lights of the lobby and were virtually blinded in the darkness. We put our hands on the railing and walked all the way up the steps until we got to an area fairly high up where we could tell that no one was sitting. We still couldn't see very well, but slid in down the aisle and found a seat. As we sat down, I reached for my cell phone to turn the ringer off but realized that my phone had slid out of my pocket as I was sitting down. I now began to feel around and try to look under my seat but my eyes hadn't adjusted yet so I still couldn't see very well and I couldn't find it. After a few minutes, my eyes had adjusted even though it was still fairly dark so I decided to look again. This time I could begin to see a little bit under the seat but I just couldn't put my eyes or my hands on the phone. I had to give up and wait until the movie was over and lights came .. I would finally find my phone. When I did, I could see clearly that the phone wasn't quite where I thought it was, but it had been within my grasp the whole time.

The scene that I described in the movie theater reminds me of Nicodemus in a certain way. Nicodemus was a teacher of Israel, but he was clearly in the dark. Yet, he wasn't satisfied with that. He seems to be a man that at least knows he is in the dark about certain things. He wants the truth and is willing to go around searching for it in the dark. Even though, in this first encounter with Jesus, the truth is right there within his grasp but he just cannot quite place his hands on it. Nicodemus is still in the darkness in this scene both literally and figuratively but he will keep searching, and don't be surprised if he pops up again in John's Gospel, but this time in the light with the truth firmly in his hands.

Nicodemus was a Pharisee, a member of the Jewish ruling council, and an all-around important guy at the time of Jesus. The Pharisees certainly thought the Temple priests and ruling Sanhedrin were basically corrupt, so they likely would not have had a problem with, and may even have applauded Jesus' actions in the Temple. So it's not unusual at this point that Nicodemus would come to Jesus to ask questions. Yet, there does seem to be something unusual about coming to Jesus at night. This was not the normal way of doing things. We are simply not told why Nicodemus came at night, whether he was afraid of others and did not want to be seen, or he wanted a private audience away from the crowds, or whether there was some other explanation. Regardless of the situation, though, it seems that John wants his readers to catch the symbolism of this man who cannot quite see things clearly, yet has come to Jesus in the darkness, in the cover of night.

He opens his conversation with a typical Jewish greeting of praise, saying that clearly this is a man worthy of respect. He gives him the respect of calling him Rabbi even though Jesus apparently had no formal training. Jews generally believed that signs of the type that Jesus was performing could only come from God, so rather than looking for alternate explanations, as others would do, Nicodemus recognizes that Jesus is from God. He believes that no one could perform the signs that Jesus was doing if God were not with Him. Nicodemus is still in the darkness, but he is feeling around, looking for the light.

Jesus doesn't really engage with Nicodemus in the culturally expected niceties but gets right to the heart of the matter. No one, he says, can see the kingdom of God without being born again. To "see the kingdom of God" referred to participating in the life of the age to come, both in the present through the life of Christ and in full after the resurrection. Jews at that time, however, believed that all Israelites, except for a few exceptional reprobates, would be part of the age to come. What this means is that we have a scene here where Nicodemus has come to Jesus in the dark reaching around looking for the truth and beginning his conversation with normal Jewish customs, but Jesus cuts him off and basically says that all of the old expectations are no longer valid. The kingdom of God is not reserved for those that are born children of Abraham, but is reserved for those that are born again. The word translated "born again" can mean that but can also mean "from above." Jesus probably meant to imply both meanings by using this term, but he confuses his unenlightened questioner.

Nicodemus was a wise rabbinic teacher in many respects and it is likely that his response is not nearly as dense as it appears to be. It is improbable that that Nicodemus actually thought that Jesus was telling him that he must crawl back into his mother's womb and be born over. His response is probably a bit hopeful, even wistful, more along the lines of, "How can we start over again and erase who we are? It would be great if we could, but we can't go crawling back into our mothers and be born again, so what are we to do?"

This is the moment when Jesus is going to introduce a glimpse of the new creation to the darkness of Nicodemus' world, but rather than being able to see it clearly right away, Nicodemus reacts more like someone who has been in the dark and suddenly walks out into a bright sunny day. He is more blinded by the truth momentarily than he was when he was completely in the dark. Entrance into God's kingdom has nothing to do with being born into the nation of Israel, but it has to do with being born of water and the Spirit. It was the prophet Ezekiel who promised that God would renew His people and put new hearts in them with the double action of cleansing them with water and putting His own Spirit into them (Ezek. 36:25-27). This is likely Jesus' primary reference and certainly what Nicodemus would have understood, but John is no fool, and is writing this down decades after Jesus' death. Certainly he, and the early Christian community would have sees a clear foreshadowing to being baptized into Christ and receiving the Holy Spirit at that baptism (Acts 2:38).

This is how God will induct children into His new kingdom. This is a new kingdom and a new creation. The Old Covenant was a physical covenant with physical enemies, physical battles, physical sin, and a physical people of God. Flesh gave birth to flesh under that covenant. But no more. This is the time when God is renewing His people with His own Spirit just as He promised. He is taking away their heart of stone and replacing it with a heart of flesh (Ezek. 11:19; 36:26). Understanding the spiritual nature of the New Covenant as opposed to the physical nature of the Old Covenant helps us understand Jesus' words in verses 8-9. The wind blows and can be heard but it cannot be quantified, it cannot be easily defined and put in a box. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit. This spiritual birth cannot be contained or neatly confined within the nation of Israel or any nation.

This seems to blind and confuse Nicodemus to the point of exasperation. "How can this be?" he retorts. Surely God was going to work through Israel not apart from her. What Nicodemus was failing to grasp was something that John has already alluded to and will develop more fully as his Gospel unfolds. Jesus is Israel, the true Son of God.

Jesus chides Nicodemus a bit pointing out that he is supposed to be a teacher of God's people, and yet cannot seem to make room in his mind for the fact that God is doing something new, even though He had promised just that (Isa. 42:9; 43:19; 48:6; 65:17; Ezek. 11:19; 36:26). If Nicodemus cannot grasp the truth when Jesus speaks of earthly things like the fact that God has promised to do something new and that time has arrived, how can he possibly understand if Jesus actually began to explain the deep heavenly truths of those things? This doesn't mean, I don't believe, that Jesus is telling Nicodemus that he won't tell him these things, simply it is a challenge to Nicodemus that he is still feeling around in the dark and had better get his eyes used to the light quickly because it is standing right in front of him. If Nicodemus wants to even think about understanding the things of heaven he had better start paying attention to the one who came from heaven, because he doesn't just have the ability to see the light. He is the light.



Devotional Thought

Jesus talks about birth into the kingdom of God, but there is a funny truth about the fact of birth. Once someone is born they don't spend much time thinking about their birth again, but get busy with the business of living. Taking a little time occasion to honor and be thankful for your spiritual birth is a great thing, but only if you go beyond that rather than thinking that that is the culmination of your spiritual journey. Once you've been born from above, get on with the business of growing and living spiritually.

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