Advent Lutheran Church

"Nicodemus' New Dawn (Lent 2)"

                For those of you who have ever read a story to a little one, you know very well the invitation, “Mommie, tell me a story.”  No sooner do you open the very large book with colorful pictures and big print and begin to read than the little one cries out, “no, no, NO! That’s not how it goes!  FIRST, this happens and THEN this happens!”  It is then that you realize you have skipped a page – a fact that does NOT go unnoticed by your critical audience.

                That is sort of the way I felt when I read today’s passage.  “No, no no!  First, Jesus preaches, teaches and heals people in and around Galilee.  Then, after he tells his disciples three times that he is going to Jerusalem where he will suffer and die, he finally arrives at the Temple, overturns the moneychangers’ tables and gets himself in Dutch with the religious authorities.  In fact, it is his behavior at the Temple that contributes to his arrest, trial and crucifixion!”  But in John’s telling, the word becomes flesh, John baptizes Jesus, Jesus goes into the wilderness, then starts out his ministry with a miracle at Cana in Galilee.  Almost before he gets started, he arrives for Passover in Jerusalem where he runs afoul of the Temple merchants and meets up with Nicodemus.  And it is only the 3^rd chapter!  Just doesn’t seem right.

                But as we turn to John, we are offered a unique telling of the Christ event, one that is not so interested in chronology as it is in themes.  This text is an introductory illustration and uses the story of Nicodemus coming to Jesus at night to reinforce the theme of Light in the Darkness.  It is the theme that we voice each week during our midweek vespers service: “The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.” (John 1:4)

                Before we move on, let’s take a moment to understanding the religious atmosphere surrounding Jesus and Nicodemus’ encounter.  Nicodemus belonged to the Sanhedrin, a group of 70 men, comprised (not unlike our houses of Congress) of one half Sadducees and one half Pharisees.  The Pharisees were the laymen, teachers who used the Prophets and the Writings of the Old Testament to interpret the Law.  Their role was to support the synagogue system and teach the faith.  Elsewhere we see them continually confronting and questioning Jesus.

                Sadducees were the Temple priests, the “ordained clergy” of the time.  They adhered strictly to the Law, and their role was preserving and protecting the Temple.  They were not happy about Jesus’ “attack” on the Temple merchants just a few days before.  The only thing the members of the Sanhedrin could agree on was that Jesus was NOT one of them…and that he represented a threat to their authority, their position and their status in Jerusalem.

                I’m sure you’ve heard the old saying, “Be careful what you wish for (or pray for)…you might get it.”

Our New Testament professor always said you should pay attention to the first and last words that Jesus speaks in a gospel, for it will reveal the gospel’s theme.  In John, those words are, “what are you seeking?” He says them first to John the Baptist’s disciples who John has sent to him, and we hear them again at the tomb on Easter morning, when Mary mistakes Jesus for the gardener.  “What are you seeking?” might be the question for us gospel of John readers today, as we come like Nicodemus, looking for something “more.”  But what WAS Nicodemus looking for that night?  More information for the Sanhedrin, to build a case?  More clarity about Jesus’ teachings and actions for the Pharisees?

                Or might Nicodemus be having his own “crisis of faith?”  Perhaps he had become tired of the in-fighting, the waiting for Messiah.  Perhaps he was afraid to leave his all-too-comfortable rut at the same time knowing it was damaging his relationship with God.  Whatever was going on, and why he came to Jesus, the text does not say.

                 “We know that you are from God…”  But no one in this story knows!  Least of all Nicodemus – he cannot make sense of this Jesus - and he doesn’t even know how to begin.  So he covers his own question with a statement seemingly from a group.  But the Sanhedrin would not have agreed that Jesus was from God, and probably neither would the Pharisees.  Finally, in the interaction, we can hear the question underneath the façade:  “Are you from God?  Are you the One we’ve been waiting for?”  (Almost like last week’s “IF you are the son of God…”) Only for Nicodemus, there is the knowledge that IF Jesus is who he says he is, Nicodemus’ life will never be the same.  He embodies, “faith seeking understanding.”  But Jesus doesn’t even let him speak his question before he begins to turn on the Light in Nicodemus’s Darkness.

                 “You cannot enter the Kingdom of God unless you are born from above.”  Unfortunately, Nicodemus’ misunderstanding, and a bad translation of that phrase “born from above” has brought division and enmity for generations as we must endure the pointed inquiry of our more conservative Christian brothers and sisters, “Have you been born again?  When were you born again?  What evidence do you have that you have been born again?             “Born again?”  Nicodemus did not understand Jesus, and it is ironic that it is the misunderstanding that has stuck, rather than what Jesus was suggesting.

                Of course, if Nicodemus had not been a person of faith, you might understand Jesus expecting some sort of experience as a credential for “initiation” into the religious club.  But Nicodemus is a man of faith, and Jesus was talking about being born “in a different way.” Jesus was offering an alternative reality. Jesus was teaching the teacher “a new thing.”

                Pastor Peter Marty wrote in a recent Lutheran magazine:  “The Hebrew people got the ordering of grace straight.  Life for them began not at sunrise, but at sunset.”  And from Eugene Peterson:  “We wake into a world we didn’t make, and into a salvation we didn’t earn.”  If Nicodemus understood Jesus, even a little bit that night, he left changed.  He went to sleep and allowed God to do some of his best work, and Nicodemus awakened to a fresh start, a second chance, a new life of walking toward the Light that shines in darkness.

                It is in this way that we are born again in Holy Baptism, into a “God – process” of new life from death, of light from darkness; of creation and recreation.  Our Baptism is God’s gift of grace that turns on our God light

– and allows us to be born “in a different way” day after day - over and over and over again.  I’d like to conclude this sermon time by reminding us all of what Martin Luther wrote as an explanation of Holy Baptism in his teaching booklet, the Small Catechism.  Please turn with me and let’s read responsively on page 1164 of the ELW:

               

                What is Baptism?  Baptism is not simple water only, but it is the water used according to

                                God's command and connected with God's Word.

                Which is that word of God?  Christ, our Lord, says in Matthew 28: Go therefore and make disciples of all                                   nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

                What does Baptism give or profit?  It works forgiveness of sins, delivers from death and the devil,

                                and gives eternal salvation to all who believe this, as the words and promises of God declare.

                Which are such words and promises of God?  Christ, our Lord, says in Mark 16: The one that

                                believes and is baptized will be saved; but the one that does not believe will be condemned.

                How can water do such great things?  It is not the water indeed that does them, but the word of God

                                which is in and with the water, and faith, which trusts such word of God in the water.

                                For without the word of God the water is simple water and no baptism. But with the

                                word of God it is a baptism, that is, a gracious water of life and a washing of regeneration

                                in the Holy Spirit, as St. Paul says in Titus 3: By the washing of regeneration and renewing

                                of the Holy Spirit, which He shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ, our Savior, that,

                                being justified by His grace, we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.

                                This is a faithful saying.

                What does such baptizing with water signify? It signifies that the old person in us should, by daily                                 

                              contrition and repentance, be drowned and die with all sins and evil lusts, and, again, a new

                                person daily come forth and arise; who shall live before God in righteousness and purity forever.

                                Where is this written? St. Paul says in Romans 6: We are buried with Christ by Baptism into                                             death, that, like as He was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also                                       should walk in newness of life.

 

                “For God so loved the world that he gave his only son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life.  For God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world should be saved through him.”  John 3:16-17  AMEN.