March 16, 2021 John 3: 5-10
3Now there was a Pharisee named Nicodemus, a
leader of the Jews. 2He came to Jesus by night and said to him, “Rabbi, we know that you are
a teacher who has come from God; for no one can do these signs that you do
apart from the presence of God.” 3Jesus answered him, “Very truly, I tell you, no
one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above.” 4Nicodemus said to him, “How can anyone be born
after having grown old? Can one enter a second time into the mother’s womb and
be born?” 5Jesus answered, “Very truly, I tell you, no one can enter the
kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit. 6What is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is
born of the Spirit is spirit. 7Do not be astonished that I said to you, ‘You
must be born from above.’ 8The wind blows where it chooses, and you hear
the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So
it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.” 9Nicodemus said to him, “How can these things be?” 10Jesus answered him, “Are you a teacher of
Israel, and yet you do not understand these things? 11“Very truly, I tell you, we speak of what we
know and testify to what we have seen; yet you do not receive our
testimony. 12If I have told you about earthly things and you do not believe, how can
you believe if I tell you about heavenly things? 13No one has ascended into heaven except the one
who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. 14And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the
wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, 15that whoever believes in him may have eternal
life. 16“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. 17“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. 18Those who
believe in him are not condemned; but those who do not believe are condemned
already, because they have not believed in the name of the only Son of
God. 19And this
is the judgment, that the light has come into the world, and people loved
darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil. 20For all who do evil hate the light and do not
come to the light, so that their deeds may not be exposed. 21But those who do what is true come to the
light, so that it may be clearly seen that their deeds have been done in God.”
After
Nicodemus goes for the ‘literal’ interpretation of what Jesus said, our Lord
responds, laying out the metaphor he wants N. to understand. "Very Truly I Tell You", so important
piece to follow, the kingdom of God is barred to those who are not born of
water and the Spirit. Baptism. The waters of baptism are passing from death
to new life. Descending into the water
and returning once again. And the New
Testament talks about baptism in two types as the book of Acts unfolds, water
baptism, and then the baptism of the Spirit (DYING UNBAPTIZED: see note below). There are four times when the Spirit is
attached specifically to the act of baptism, as the church spreads from
Jerusalem, to Judea, to Samaria, and to all the earth.
It is
the parallel of Jesus’ own baptism, into the water by John the baptizer, then
with the Spirit come down from heaven in the form of a dove.
This
is a contrast. What is born of flesh is
flesh, what is born of Spirit is Spirit.
The first is the interpretation Nicodemus brings, physical birth. In Scripture, there is contrast between ‘flesh’
and ‘Spirit’, a contrast between the world of sin, this one, and the world of
Spirit, which Jesus also calls the kingdom of God. Jesus is distinguishing between these for the
understanding of Nicodemus (and for us).
In
Jesus’ understanding, Nicodemus should NOT be surprised when Jesus talks about
being born from above. That is a
contrast we did not speak of yesterday, when Jesus first talks about being born
from above. The contrast with the
expression ‘being born again’. To put it
into the most generalized terms, God is located ‘up’. The heavens refer to the skies where there is
Heaven (capital H), where God dwells. So
naturally, this new birth comes down from above. This language reinforces the contrast of ‘flesh’
birth and ‘spirit’ birth.
Jesus
compares those born in the Spirit to the wind.
We can hear it, we can see its effects, but ultimately, but where does
it come from? Where does it go? That sounds like a verse from “Cotton Eyed
Joe”. The mystery of the wind was
explored comedically in an episode of “Mad About You”. Paul Reiser plays a documentary film maker
and a celebrity client wants him to film the wind. You can’t, you can only film how it affects
other things. I think that is what Jesus
is getting at when he talks about those born of the Spirit being like the
wind. This is something from God, something
that humans cannot track. It is like the
line from the hymn, “They will know we are Christians by our love.” ‘They’ cannot tell just by looking at us.
The
reaction of Nicodemus is ‘how can this be?’
It is possible to spin this into a grand mystery of faith. No one knows how a Christian is made. No one knows how the Spirit comes down. It is all joyful, of course, but also ‘sneaky
sneaky’. Taken in this direction, the
question “How am I a Christian?” can seem as existential as the age-old question
“Why am I here?”
But
Jesus is not offering ‘new’ or ‘hidden’ knowledge. In fact, I see some impatience in Jesus’
response to what Nicodemus has been asking.
“You are a teacher of Israel and you don’t get what I am saying?” This is NOT a new witness. The Spirit has come down on people before, that
is attested to in the Old Testament, the ‘bible’ of Nicodemus. This idea of the Spirit coming down, it is
not alien, it is not like Jesus is importing something from a new or foreign
religious system and overlaying it on Judaism.
Jesus has come to fulfill the expectations of the Old Testament. That is what the kingdom of God is all
about.
It is
like Jesus wants to throw his hands up in the air and tell Nicodemus that this
stuff should NOT be confusing him so much.
He knows what Jesus is about, what Jesus is sharing, or he should.
Notes:
Dying Unbaptized.
There is a stereotype that shows up in the popular culture that to die
unbaptized is to be condemned and have no chance to enter the kingdom of
God. It is not usually declared so
bluntly, but it shows up where witches or the supernatural is being explored, when there is ritual magic being cast and one of the
ingredients is ‘the blood (or some other part) of an unbaptized child’. This stereotype is based on an understanding of the Roman Catholic church making baptism a 'legal' requirement for salvation.
If we are going to engage with this, such an assumption falls into the theological category of ‘works righteousness’, the concept that
the right works, engaging in the proper rituals, jumping through the right
hoops, that there is a check sheet to be worked through in order to achieve
salvation and enter the kingdom of God.
In
reality, it is not about works, it is about faith. Believing in Jesus is necessary for
salvation. Works are then the result of
that faith. James says that ‘faith without
works is dead’, which is true. For
someone to claim to believe in Jesus but then live out works in their lives
that does not reflect Jesus’ love and faithfulness to humanity and to the creation,
we call that lip-service. We can say
whatever we want. It is how we live that
reflects the reality of our living.
Faith
in Christ is accepted across denominations as the way of salvation.
I
bring this up here because John looks to be saying that baptism by water and Spirit
is a mandatory prerequisite for the kingdom of God.
What
if a baby dies unbaptized? Ignoring the tragedy and emotional trauma of such an event, it becomes the
existential extreme in this discussion.
Well, do we believe in a God of love and mercy or a God of ritual? God is about love and mercy.
Pastor Pete
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