Let
the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable to you, O
Lord. Amen.
Today’s gospel reading seems to come out
of nowhere. Last week we were in Jerusalem where Jesus was tossing tables, and
now we’re talking about a snake on a stick. How the heck did we get here?
The passage today is the end of a
conversation Jesus had with the Pharisee Nicodemus, a conversation that we
heard last year during the 2nd week of Lent. As a Pharisee,
Nicodemus is an educated man, a “pillar of the community.” The Jewish leaders
are pretty ticked off at Jesus, so, as Jewish leader himself, Nicodemus wants
to have a conversation with him. And he comes to see Jesus in the darkness of
night.
We might be tempted to think the worst of
Nicodemus. Perhaps he doesn’t want to be seen with Jesus, and so is trying to
slip in to see him under the cover of darkness. However, some commentators note
that coming at night could be a way that Nicodemus honors Jesus. Coming on his
own time, after a full day’s work, demonstrates that Nicodemus is motivated by
a genuine desire to learn from him. Almost like a student booking time with a
professor not to argue, but to confirm understanding in a subject matter.
Nicodemus comes to Jesus by night, not
knowing really what it is he is looking for. He has heard stories, no doubt,
about this strange person. He has seen something happening in Jesus that he
can't quite explain. He has seen and heard of healing and love and celebration.
During their exchange, Nicodemus acknowledges
that Jesus must be from God because he’s heard about the signs that Jesus has
been doing, and only someone from God could possibly perform such miracles. In
other words, he’s seeking clarity, as if to say, “It seems to me that we know
that you come from God because, otherwise, you wouldn’t be able to do the
things that you do.”
Nicodemus seems pretty sincere about wanting
to understand more about who Jesus is, what he is doing, and why he is doing
it. Nicodemus, a man deeply imbedded in Jewish religious leadership, is
starting to question, is starting to be curious about faith, is starting to be curious
about something new that is beyond his imagination. Nicodemus has heard of
Jesus and seen all that Jesus is doing – healing, feeding, and celebrating with
people – and in confusion asks him, "Who are you and where are you
from?"
Jesus responds with the most famous verse
in the New Testament, the “Gospel in nutshell”, as Luther once coined, “For God
so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him
may not perish but may have eternal life.” God so loves the world that God
comes close to us in Jesus. God moves into our neighbourhoods and searches us
out. And when God finds us, we are invited by Jesus, like Nicodemus, into a
journey of loving, of being compassionate, of having and sharing a true, living
heart. When God finds us, we are invited to be transformed.
Can you see yourself in Nicodemus? Have
you had a transformative moment in your life? Perhaps a moment that changed the
course of your life forever?
John 3:16 shows up in countless public
places. We can find it on posters, in music, and etched on jewelry. It is commonly
seen at sporting events and some people even have “John 3:16” tattooed on their
body. This verse has become a symbol of the key message of Christian faith. When
I was in school, we were discussing this verse in class and my professor said
that he believes the Christian statement of faith is contained within that verse
but in an abbreviated format. “For God so loved the world.” Period. Full stop.
This was a transformative moment for me. God loves all people, creatures, and
living things on earth and is accepting to anyone who searches for God. God
sent Jesus to show us the way to this all-inclusive love. God sent Jesus to
transform the world.
Nicodemus experiences in his encounter
with Jesus love, acceptance, and inclusion. He is invited on the journey, loved
without conditions, invited to give up what he has and what he knows in order
to become a person who also loves without conditions.
We are invited on that same journey. God
sent Jesus to transform our hearts and our minds and our souls, so that we know
we are always loved, and accepted, and included and that we should do the same
for others. But this is not an easy journey, nor is it a straightforward one. Nicodemus,
an intelligent and established religious man, skulked in the darkness to find
answers only to walk back into the darkness even more confused than when he
arrived.
To believe in God, to trust in the words
that Jesus is saying, even if we don’t completely understand them, means
confronting the inconvenient truth that God’s purposes for those God loves might
push us beyond our boundaries, beyond our comfort zones. Nicodemus may have
been confused when he went back out into the darkness that night, but he was
transformed by the words he heard. He became a supporter of Jesus in spite
knowing that he would be excised from religious leadership.
The trail of faith that Jesus blazed
reveals that, while there is nothing in this world worth killing for, there are
things worth dying for. Any parent knows that the love for one’s child is so
great one might sacrifice oneself for a child. And for the sake of this world,
God gives his most cherished beloved son as the ultimate sacrifice of love.
How else for us to respond but to love and
cherish the world and every creature in it as beloved of God. If we can trust
in the process, trust in the journey that following Jesus takes us on, we can
trust that, just like Nicodemus, through the eternal love of God, we will be
joyfully transformed.
Amen.
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