John 3:14-21

4 Lent | 10.03. 2024 | John 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 “historical romanticizing.”   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’t really recommend doing in groups including both men and women unless you like blushing like mad in public.  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’s 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.  Jesus suffered on the cross; He bled on the cross; He died on the cross.  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.

We speak to the cross and Christ’s sacrifice even though His reference to the cross in this morning’s Gospel reading is indirect.  Jesus says “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.”  That’s 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.  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.  We hear of it in the Scriptures, of course, but we do not see it.  Second, St. John, the writer of today’s Gospel, saw in the raising of our crucified Lord upon the cross the exaltation of Jesus Christ, not His diminishment or suffering.  The raising up of Jesus on the cross is an exaltation of Jesus Christ because it functions almost like an enthronement.  His crucifixion and death fulfill His mission, the forgiveness of our sin, and will lead to His resurrection, and His return to the Father’s throne and His place at the right hand of the Father.  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.

The reference is to the book of Numbers, the 21^st 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.  It is not going well.  Manna like the finest bread forms upon the ground every morning, and birds drop from the air, so the Israelites’ 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.  God has enough of their ingratitude and sends poisonous snakes in and through the camp and people are bitten and some die.  Well, now they are more than okay with the manna and the doves or whatever, but they cry for help against the snakes.  God instructs Moses to fasten a likeness of the snakes on a pole and to walk that pole through the camp.  All who look up at the snake will live; those who do not will die.  Why does this happen this way?  Well, what was the original sin?  Just like the Israelites wandering in the wilderness generations later, it was Eve’s and Adam’s unhappiness with the limitations God put on their diet.  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.  And yet they did eat of that tree and they were ungrateful, and they did seek to be like God.  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.  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.

While we can be reasonably sure that Nicodemus knew the story of the snakes in the wilderness from the 21^st chapter of Numbers, we cannot be at all sure that he knew why Jesus told that story when he asked the origin of Jesus’ ministry.  Nicodemus was the individual who stole away to Jesus’ house under the cover of darkness to ask the questions of Jesus that he lacked the courage to ask in broad daylight.  I am not sure what to make of Nicodemus.  Clearly it seems to me, that he saw in Jesus’ 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.  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.  He was probably fearful and anxious.

Which I think most of us understand, having been fearful and anxious ourselves.  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.  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.  None of this story up to this point was included in the day’s Gospel reading, which instead begins closer to the end of Jesus’ conversation with Nicodemus.

By that point, Nicodemus was thoroughly confused and probably wished he had stayed home in bed.  Once in the house, Nicodemus opened his inquiry by laying on the flattery with a bucket, saying, “Rabbi, we know You are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with Him.”  That “no one” is a stretch, because Nicodemus pals around with the people who do think that Jesus is doing magic tricks and not miracles of healing.  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.  Did you catch the word, “signs,” again?  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.  Jesus does not really clarify the matter much for him.

“Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again,” or from above, the text can be read either way, “he cannot see the kingdom of God.”  Thinking Jesus means he must literally be born again from his mother’s womb, Nicodemus protests, saying this is impossible.  Jesus then refers to the new life conferred by Baptism, saying “unless 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.”  Or, as Paul  puts it in the epistle for the day, “dead in our trespasses and sin.”  But it is God’s intent to save, for He loves His creation, and through belief in the “true light from God,” we may be saved.  We are creatures of sin and darkness, until Christ remakes us creatures of light and God.

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.  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.  They have made His life, death, and resurrection about something other than the free gift of God’s grace, but about those temporary human structures buried in sin’s darkness and unwilling to come into the light of the kingdom of God.

Paula Murray