20 March 2011

“Faces of faith: Jesus and Nicodemus”
John 3:1-17
2nd Sunday in Lent
20 March 2011


When we last encountered Jesus – one week ago – it was in Matthew’s telling of the story of Jesus being tested in the wilderness – his “time of trial” with Satan – and Jesus’ proving himself worthy of his Father’s praise, “This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased.”
Now – today – we make the move into the rest of the season of Lent – four Sundays’ worth of stories from John’s gospel – four conversations, visitations, between Jesus and some unforgettable characters in his- and our- faith story; people who, in their time spent with Jesus, come from darkness into the light of the Son of God.
The Samaritan woman at the well. The man born blind. Mary and Martha, and their dead brother Lazarus.
And today … today, the first of those “darkness to light” encounters … between Jesus and the Pharisee, the leader of the Jews named Nicodemus.
Nicodemus has heard about Jesus – the Word about him had gone out, first from John the Baptist; then, Jesus calling his own disciples; and finally, word about Jesus coming into the Temple in Jerusalem – a story which happens at the beginning of John’s gospel, rather than at the end – Jesus’ coming into the Temple and raising a ruckus, overturning tables, kicking out the moneychangers and trying to straighten out the mess that people had made of their religion.
Nicodemus had heard about Jesus … but, being a member of the religious elite, the religious leadership, he couldn’t be seen publicly going to Jesus, listening to him, being discipled by him … his fellow Pharisees did not believe Jesus had any authority to do what he was doing … indeed, they were demanding a sign from Jesus that he was really sent from God.
Nicodemus saw something in Jesus which set him apart from the rest of the religious establishment. He remained in the darkness, but wanted to know more. He was a seeker, a stumbler in the shadows, trying to find out more about faith.
Which, going by the standards of the Pharisees … those of every time and place, who are absolutely convinced of their own rightness and righteousness … this kind of behavior should make Nicodemus a candidate for criticism and ridicule. Faith, so they say, is a matter of certainty. God said it, the Scriptures reinforce it, I believe it, period. No need for questions … just get on with your life.
And yet Jesus welcomes this seeker, this stumbler, this one who is in the darkness and clings to the darkness to protect himself and keep safe. Jesus doesn’t try to rip away his protective darkness … he doesn’t ridicule or make fun of Nicodemus … no, he enters into relationship with him, enters into his struggle, walks with Nicodemus from the darkness to the light.
It is a direct result, outcome, of last week’s story, Jesus’ enduring and conquering trial and temptation.
Fully God, Jesus didn’t need to have that encounter with the devil and the temptations to hubris … he could have taken all these on just fine … for he is fully God.
But he is also fully human … the only way Jesus could, can, save us, rescue us in and through our times of trial, and offer us the forgiveness of God when we give in … fully human, Jesus knows what this search, this struggle, this stumbling in the darkness is like … for Nicodemus, and for us …
… So do not criticize the seeker in yourselves … or the seeker in our midst.
Jesus welcomes Nicodemus as he is, where he is … so please, feel welcomed in your questioning, your wondering, your doubting. This is precisely why Jesus came … for you.
That being said – though – Nicodemus shows how far off he is from the Way of Jesus, the Way of the Kingdom, the Way of the Cross.
But don’t get angry at Nicodemus for this, either. He gets hung up on that phrase which is translated here as “born from above.” He understands it as “born again,” and of it Nicodemus makes a legalism, a rule, which he just doesn’t get how anyone can live into perfectly, as he understands we are to be before God.
But remember … Nicodemus has been raised in a religious system which is all about rules, and acting, and doing from our side of the God / us equation. He doesn’t know anything else.
Jesus hears Nicodemus’ questionings and wonderings, and takes it right back to his fellow Pharisees’ demand for a sign.
“Do not be astonished” – literally, “don’t go looking for a thaumaturge … a wonder worker … here.” Don’t go making being “born again” into some kind of a new law, a new rule or set of rules which must be followed perfectly, literally, to “get into” the Kingdom.
And then … a little later … Jesus makes things even more clear … shining the brilliant light of the Gospel into Nicodemus’ darkness.

“For God so loved the world … 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.”

The conventional wisdom of the age looked for a heavenly Messiah-deliverer to come and enact the Deuteronomic principle onto the earth … that he would come bringing God’s wrath and judgment, to condemn, to eternally punish, even to destroy the masses for their unfaithfulness, while gathering a remnant of the faithful people of God, to save them and bring them home to Paradise.
But Jesus … here, Jesus blows that wrong-headed religious notion away. Yes, it’s an earthquake … not of condemnation … but of Gospel … and a tsunami … not of punishment, but of grace, washing over Nicodemus and all people … if we would but listen to him.
For too, too long … the new Pharisees of every time and space … including our own … so, totally, our own … have commandeered the bandwidth of faith, using John 3.16 like a cudgel, “For God so loved the world … dammit … so BELIEVE IN THE JESUS WE PROCLAIM TO YOU OR ELSE! Turn … or BURN!”
“Be born again … and of course, that means living your life … all aspects … political, economic, social … JUST LIKE US … or else, be condemned to hell for all eternity … YOU HEATHEN.”
And seekers like Nicodemus … lost in their darkness, their doubt or just wonder … they are simply driven away.
To this … we must say … ENOUGH.
It is time … it is high time … for the pure, sweet Word of Grace to once again be heard in our land. Lived out without shame, without apology … even shouted from the rooftops … this is our time … the time for quiet, timid Lutherans to be quiet and timid no more … and stand up to these spiritual bullies, these fearmongers and liars …
… as they speak lies and brood fear about God, the world, our nation … and themselves ...
… it is high time we stood up, to stand and deliver, loud and clear, for God’s Word in Jesus … the truth and love and grace of the Gospel … the true Word in the Word of John 3:16 AND 17 …

“For God so loved the world … 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.”

This is the Word of a God who welcomes questions and doubt; a God who calls and welcomes sinners … all of us, no one better than another … all of us, to come to him, to confess, to be forgiven, and to believe in him, and in his Beloved Son Jesus the Christ.
This is the Word of a God who takes broken people, struggling people, people like Nicodemus, and makes them whole.
Guess who shows up to help claim Jesus’ body from the cross at the end of John’s Gospel. NICODEMUS. Called and welcomed by Jesus in his questioning, his wondering, his doubt, Nicodemus GETS IT, and receives it, and lives it … that wonderful, amazing grace which flows through Jesus from the heart of God to all people.
This Word is also for you and me. Not to bank, not to protect, not to hide away, not to huddle around in buildings on Sunday mornings … but to carry forth as the light and love of God in Jesus Christ, into and for the world.
Just imagine what we might do, where we might go, who we might welcome, embrace, call to new life, through this amazing grace, grace in Jesus’ name.
Friends, IT IS HIGH TIME.
So LET US DO IT. Let us go forth and speak and live so that the world may truly hear of this One, this Jesus, who comes, not to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.
In his love, and in his name. Amen.