Recent commentary writers on John 3, this most loved and likely best-known biblical text, have called traditional, meaning orthodox, interpretations of the means and the reason Jesus came to save us as \u201chistorical romanticizing.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 There is a fair amount of history in the Bible, but precious little romance unless you are reading the Song of Solomon, which I don\u2019t really recommend doing in groups including both men and women unless you like blushing like mad in public.\u00a0 The Song of Solomon is an eight-chapter dialogue between a bride and her groom concerning the mutual perfections of their physical assets and the joys, frankly, of married love. And that is all very, very amusing, given the number of Christianity\u2019s critics who loudly decry how very prudish Christians are because we believe that sex should occur within the bonds of marriage. But, more seriously, there is absolutely no romanticizing the cross, a pretty little thing when worn around our neck or a pretty big thing when hung on the back wall of our chancel here, but in truth a tool of terror and murder.\u00a0 Jesus suffered on the cross; He bled on the cross; He died on the cross.\u00a0 We decorate our chancels and our necks with the cross not just to do the pretty but as a sign of our belief in the crucified and risen Jesus Christ, to personally acknowledge the price Jesus paid for our salvation, and to give witness to our gratitude for His sacrifice.<\/p>\n
We speak to the cross and Christ\u2019s sacrifice even though His reference to the cross in this morning\u2019s Gospel reading is indirect.\u00a0 Jesus says \u201cAs 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.\u201d\u00a0 That\u2019s not so much a reference to the cross as an object as it is to the act of raising the cross with Christ nailed to it up from the ground.\u00a0 We are not accustomed to thinking of the cross in that way, in part because as Lutherans we rarely see a representation of the body of Christ on the actual cross.\u00a0 We hear of it in the Scriptures, of course, but we do not see it.\u00a0 Second, St. John, the writer of today\u2019s Gospel, saw in the raising of our crucified Lord upon the cross the exaltation of Jesus Christ, not His diminishment or suffering.\u00a0 The raising up of Jesus on the cross is an exaltation of Jesus Christ because it functions almost like an enthronement.\u00a0 His crucifixion and death fulfill His mission, the forgiveness of our sin, and will lead to His resurrection, and His return to the Father\u2019s throne and His place at the right hand of the Father.\u00a0 It is a little easier to see this if we look at the Old Testament reading for the day that Jesus referenced at the beginning of His conversation with poor, old Nicodemus.<\/p>\n
The reference is to the book of Numbers, the 21st<\/sup> chapter, where we come upon Israel, still walking around in large circles in the wilderness as God, through Moses, works to train His people in faithfulness once again.\u00a0 It is not going well.\u00a0 Manna like the finest bread forms upon the ground every morning, and birds drop from the air, so the Israelites\u2019 need for food is met. But, it is not enough, because there are no radishes, no fish, and no hummus, so they complain bitterly at Moses and God.\u00a0 God has enough of their ingratitude and sends poisonous snakes in and through the camp and people are bitten and some die.\u00a0 Well, now they are more than okay with the manna and the doves or whatever, but they cry for help against the snakes.\u00a0 God instructs Moses to fasten a likeness of the snakes on a pole and to walk that pole through the camp.\u00a0 All who look up at the snake will live; those who do not will die.\u00a0 Why does this happen this way?\u00a0 Well, what was the original sin?\u00a0 Just like the Israelites wandering in the wilderness generations later, it was Eve\u2019s and Adam\u2019s unhappiness with the limitations God put on their diet.\u00a0 They were not to eat of the tree of good and evil; they were not to be ungrateful; they were not to seek to be like God.\u00a0 And yet they did eat of that tree and they were ungrateful, and they did seek to be like God.\u00a0 Who put the notion in their heads that they had anything to be unhappy and ungrateful about? It was the snake, the devil, slithering around, stirring up discontent, the original snake in the grass.\u00a0 Moses raised up a representation of a snake on the pole, forcing the Israelites to look at their sin, their punishment, and their salvation, all in the same icon.<\/p>\n While we can be reasonably sure that Nicodemus knew the story of the snakes in the wilderness from the 21st<\/sup> chapter of Numbers, we cannot be at all sure that he knew why Jesus told that story when he asked the origin of Jesus\u2019 ministry.\u00a0 Nicodemus was the individual who stole away to Jesus\u2019 house under the cover of darkness to ask the questions of Jesus that he lacked the courage to ask in broad daylight.\u00a0 I am not sure what to make of Nicodemus.\u00a0 Clearly it seems to me, that he saw in Jesus\u2019 healings, sermons, exorcisms, and resurrections the hand or the spirit of God, and that made him the odd man out with the other wealthy and powerful leaders of the day in Jerusalem who are already of the opinion something must be done about Jesus.\u00a0 And, just as clearly, he was not powerful enough to avoid whatever punishment could be handed out to him if he was caught becoming one of the followers of Jesus.\u00a0 He was probably fearful and anxious.<\/p>\n Which I think most of us understand, having been fearful and anxious ourselves.\u00a0 But I do think we need to give Nicodemus some credit, too, for he did make the effort, sneaky though it was, to go to Jesus and ask his questions.\u00a0 Perhaps curiosity outweighed his fear, or he was concerned for his salvation and that of Israel. So, he snuck his way through the streets of Jerusalem, maybe even disguised, until he got to the house where Jesus was staying and was invited in to begin his interrogation.\u00a0 None of this story up to this point was included in the day\u2019s Gospel reading, which instead begins closer to the end of Jesus\u2019 conversation with Nicodemus.<\/p>\n By that point, Nicodemus was thoroughly confused and probably wished he had stayed home in bed.\u00a0 Once in the house, Nicodemus opened his inquiry by laying on the flattery with a bucket, saying, \u201cRabbi, we know You are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with Him.\u201d\u00a0 That \u201cno one\u201d is a stretch, because Nicodemus pals around with the people who do think that Jesus is doing magic tricks and not miracles of healing.\u00a0 In other words, they think He is a dangerous charlatan and have already begun to think they must bring Him down before He upsets the tenuous balance between Rome, the Jewish elites, and the people of God.\u00a0 Did you catch the word, \u201csigns,\u201d again?\u00a0 Nicodemus admits to Jesus that in His ministry Nicodemus sees a sign that points to the will and mercy of God, but he does not understand how God works through Him.\u00a0 Jesus does not really clarify the matter much for him.<\/p>\n \u201cTruly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again,\u201d or from above, the text can be read either way, \u201che cannot see the kingdom of God.\u201d\u00a0 Thinking Jesus means he must literally be born again from his mother\u2019s womb, Nicodemus protests, saying this is impossible.\u00a0 Jesus then refers to the new life conferred by Baptism, saying \u201cunless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.\u201d\u00a0 Or, as Paul\u00a0 puts it in the epistle for the day, \u201cdead in our trespasses and sin.\u201d\u00a0 But it is God\u2019s intent to save, for He loves His creation, and through belief in the \u201ctrue light from God,\u201d we may be saved.\u00a0 We are creatures of sin and darkness, until Christ remakes us creatures of light and God.<\/p>\n It is this truth that so embarrasses the cultured unbelievers of the world, that Jesus would save us, one at a time, literally bringing us through death to new life without preaching social revolution.\u00a0 Those modern commentators spoken of above looking for something new to say for their next academic publication or to support the latest social justice revolution, have returned to the viewpoint of those who eventually thought they won their little war with Jesus by crucifying Him.\u00a0 They have made His life, death, and resurrection about something other than the free gift of God\u2019s grace, but about those temporary human structures buried in sin\u2019s darkness and unwilling to come into the light of the kingdom of God.<\/p>\n Paula Murray<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" 4 Lent | 10.03. 2024 |\u00a0John 3:14-21 | Paula Murray | Recent commentary writers on John 3, this most loved and likely best-known biblical text, have called traditional, meaning orthodox, interpretations of the means and the reason Jesus came to save us as \u201chistorical romanticizing.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 There is a fair amount of history in the Bible, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7506,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39,157,853,108,110,223,349,692,3,178,109],"tags":[],"beitragende":[],"predigtform":[],"predigtreihe":[],"bibelstelle":[],"class_list":["post-19583","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-johannes","category-beitragende","category-bibel","category-current","category-engl","category-kapitel-3-chapter-3-johannes","category-kasus","category-laetare","category-nt","category-paula-murray","category-predigten"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19583","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19583"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19583\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19584,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19583\/revisions\/19584"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7506"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19583"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19583"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19583"},{"taxonomy":"beitragende","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/beitragende?post=19583"},{"taxonomy":"predigtform","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/predigtform?post=19583"},{"taxonomy":"predigtreihe","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/predigtreihe?post=19583"},{"taxonomy":"bibelstelle","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bibelstelle?post=19583"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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