Sermon on John 3:1-16, by David Zersen |

Now there was a Pharisee named Nicodemus, a leader of the Jews. He 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.” Jesus answered him, “Very truly, I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above.” Nicodemus 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?” Jesus answered, “Very truly, I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit. What is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not be astonished that I said to you, ‘You must be born from above.’ The 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.” Nicodemus said to him, “How can these things be?” Jesus answered him, “Are you a teacher of Israel, and yet you do not understand these things? “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. If I have told you about earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you about heavenly things? No one has ascended into heaven except the one who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life. “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. “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.

WHEN TALK IS NOT CHEAP

Some of us enjoy listening to interviews on television, those one-on-one discussions or debates that at times give the interviewee the freedom to make his/her point and sometimes let the interviewer control the table. People like Dan Rather, Charlie Rose, Christiane Amanpour, Oprah Winfrey and Barbara Walters are examples of people who know how to focus a discussion and get to the meat of the matter.

In John’s Gospel, we have two interviews set back-to-back, although you could make the case for the fact that the interviewee is really the interviewer. Nicodemus comes to Jesus at night, presumably to avoid controversy because he is a high-ranking Pharisee and a member of the Sanhedrin. The Syro-phonecian woman starts the discourse because Jesus had asked for a drink of water from a non-Jewish woman.

It’s fascinating to imagine what could evolve from such a confrontation and John makes it clear in both cases that talk is not cheap because Jesus comes right to the point. In both cases, it’s embarrassing for the stranger to be interviewed by Jesus. Given the subject matter, for that matter, one might explore how Jesus would respond to your own comments were you the one trying to get to the heart of the matter on some subject with Jesus.

Getting to the heart of the matter

Jesus has the annoying habit of using a conversation to demonstrate that the premises on which we are approaching him could be shaky ground. In fact, a good case can be made for the fact that this text is an important passage about the doctrine called “original sin”. There are passages in Scripture, certainly in Paul’s writings that show that the original sin committed by our first human parents was canceled by Jesus at the cross. However, it’s also clear to say with Paul that our human nature prevents us from doing what we would like to do. (Rom. 7:15)  It’s

common for people in our Western culture to say they believe that all are born good. However, there is no biblical basis for this. All too often, what we want to do, we do not end up doing!

Jesus tells Nicodemus that he can’t live within God’s kingdom unless he is born anew. The Greek word, “anothen,” has been translated “again, from above and anew.” What it clearly does not mean is that some kind of baptismal rite in which a person participates in infancy or at the age of reason allows an automatic change takes place. Baptism begins a process in which parents, sponsors and church members guide a child, helping it to grow up to the full stature of Christ. And this is true whether baptism takes place for infants or for fourteen-year-old teens. We are born with a desire to go our own way—you can see it in the tantrum thrown by a child. And if we are never helped to be turned around, never refocused by the spiritual direction that comes “anothen” (from above) we are dead in our trespasses and sin.

That’s the heart of the matter. We are not “born good.” That’s an unsophisticated American “theologism” that Jesus is challenging. And he challenges it with Nicodemus—and with us—one-on-one. In baptism we die to a life that could have been. We are helped by God’s spirit and by the communion of saints to become what we were not.

On our own we cannot become what God would have us be. That’s the heart of the matter.

More than one Nicodemus

It’s interesting to me that while John’s Gospel often refers to people in generic ways without giving their names, Nicodemus is mentioned by name three times. The first time is in today’s Gospel lesson, the second time is in the Sanhedrin when Nicodemus reminds his counterparts that a judgement cannot be

brought without evidence, and finally at Jesus’ burial Nicodemus helps Joseph of Arimathea place the spices on Jesus’ body. The second two references suggest that the original Nicodemus may have become a changed man–that, in fact, there was more than one Nicodemus. Interestingly, the Coptic Orthodox Church believes that Nicodemus was baptized and became a follower of Jesus.

There are many stories told about the way in which the truth of Nicodemus’ change had its counterparts in society and in personal lives. After the Civil War, for example, those who had formerly been slaves wanted to use the passage about Nicodemus being “born again” or “born from above” to describe the change that took place in their own situation. And when a group of them who thought this way founded a town in Nebraska, they named it “Nicodemus”, Nebraska. Another example comes from Martin Luther King who believed that American society needed to have a new perspective on what it could become. He used these words of Jesus to make that point, namely, “You need to be born from above.”

It all began with a night visit and that makes for a dramatic setting. However, all of us surely realize that our baptisms involve a lifelong process of becoming. John tells us that “we are already the children of God, but we don’t yet know what we can become.” (1 Jn. 3:2) What a wonderful and encouraging passage that is for the Nicodemuses of the world, people like you and me with whom Jesus is today doing a one-on-one. He doesn’t just talk to us, although his talk is never cheap. But he embraces us with his love and sends us out to become what we yet can be. His final words to Nicodemus have become the famous blessing that empowers us today and always. We who have Jesus as our Savior and Lord are enabled to become more than what we began as. There is more than one Nicodemus—or Bill or Janet or David or Susan or Mary. There is the new man and woman in Christ—born to live not by the flesh, but by the spirit. This is trustworthy saying—not just cheap talk. “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners” (1 Tim. 1:15).

Today, you and I are on the road to share God’s love with all whom we meet.