(John 3.1-17) 8 March 2020
© Neil Millar
‘For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but have eternal life.’ Arguably the most famous verse in scripture. John 3.16. So well-known that we only have to quote the reference, and many know what it refers to. I’ve seen that reference held up in the crowd in great sporting events, I’ve seen it graffitied on walls and stations, trailing behind planes, and written in smoke in the sky. For many of us, it’s etched in our memory. If we can’t remember any other verse, we can likely remember John 3.16. Frequently, it stands alone, isolated and distinct; indeed, if you look in the pew bible, you’ll see that this one verse stands as separate paragraph. This verse deserves such a place, NT scholar Fredrick Bruner thinks, for it is ‘the heart of the Gospel of John’. Having said that, there’s always a danger when we take verses in isolation of distorting their meaning – something Koula has rightly noted about this verse! Today we’ve heard it in context, and I’d like to explore this in order to deepen our appreciation of what John’s Jesus meant when he uttered these words.
The first thing to note is that the verse arises from a conversation that took place in Jerusalem during the time of the Passover – the great festival that celebrated God’s deliverance of the Hebrew slaves from Egypt back in the time of Moses. John tells us this in the previous chapter. Jesus was at that festival and had raised the concern of authorities by dramatically overturning the tables of the money changers in the Temple. It was after this, that Nicodemus, Pharisee and leader of the Jews, came to speak with him ‘by night’ (3.2).
Now, all of this is significant. Nicodemus is a person in his own right, but he also has a symbolic place in this story. In the person of Nicodemus, we have the Jewish ideal or what we might call a true believer, the real deal. He is male (for a start!), orthodox in terms of belief, rigorous and faithful in terms of practice (keeping the Torah), and as a leader, he is experienced and respected – the pick of the crop. Even so, Nicodemus is in the ‘dark’ – literally and metaphorically. As with many Jewish officials, Nicodemus is feeling unsettled and perplexed by this man Jesus, and, under cover of night, he pays him a visit. ‘Rabbi’, he begins, ‘we know that you are a teacher who has come from God; for no one could do these signs that you do apart from the presence of God.’ ‘Very truly, I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above’, says Jesus, to my mind, cutting him short and redirecting the conversation.
And, what unfolds, is the first extended discourse of this gospel, the first of eleven. Until this point, Jesus’ speaking parts have been few and brief. His calling of the disciples happened with minimal speech; so too the water into wine incident at Cana; in his dramatic ‘cleansing’ of the Temple he uttered only two punchy sentences. He really hasn’t said much, but here in chapter three, it all changes. It’s as if, finally, he has an opportunity to share his concerns freely, and what he speaks about is how and what it means to enter into a true and life-giving relationship with God.
So then, rather ironically, in this first discourse we have Jesus talking to a symbol of salvation about how to be saved!! And this, while they were already celebrating their salvation – during Passover!! It’s a discourse in which a bunch of taken-for-granted assumptions are challenged. And the challenging of assumptions, we’ll discover in coming weeks, is a feature of these discourses in John.
To my sense, this conversation starts awkwardly. Nicodemus opens with the line about Jesus being ‘a teacher who has come from God’, and Jesus immediately chimes in with that enigmatic pronouncement about being ‘born from above’. Huh?? How does that work?? ‘How can anyone be born after having grown old?’, he questions, even more perplexed. ‘Can [they] enter a second time into the mother’s womb and be born?’ Well, of course not, Nicodemus. But Jesus isn’t talking about physical birth, he’s talking about being birthed into the life of God. ‘Very truly, I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water (symbolising repentance) and the Spirit (symbolising the action of God)’. ‘What is born of flesh is flesh, and what is born of the Spirit is spirit.’
In simple terms, Jesus is making the point that relationship with God, entering the stream of God’s life (what in religious terms we call ‘salvation’) is a gift. It’s not a birth right, as Nicodemus assumed, it can’t be manufactured or manipulated. We don’t qualify for spiritual birth, just as we didn’t ‘qualify’ for this life; we receive it, we undergo it. The initiative comes from God; ‘from above’ is how Jesus describes it – ‘You must be born from above’ (7).
How can this be? Nicodemus replies, dumbfounded. Jesus responds by evoking a familiar Old Testament scenario. The time when the people of Israel were in the wilderness and were being bitten by poisonous snakes. In response to their cry for help, Moses erected a statue of a serpent on a pole in the middle of the camp. When they were bitten, they were to look upon it, and be healed. They couldn’t heal themselves, something had to be done for them, something they then received as gift. And that’s what it’s like for us. ‘Just as Moses lifted up the serpent, Jesus says, ‘so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.’ Eternal life… life in all its fullness… abundant life… salvation… rest… it’s not something we generate ourselves; it is a work of God. We receive our life (spiritually speaking), as we look to the one lifted up on a pole. The work of salvation is costly for God, as Easter reminds us, but from our side, it’s a gift – a gift of love. ‘God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but have eternal life.’
Hearing the verse in context, we get a better sense of its meaning. When Jesus talks about ‘believing’ here he’s not speaking primarily about some mental assent by which we tick the box – pass the test – and so get the goodies. The Greek word translated ‘believes’ has much more of a relational sense. It means to ‘trust’: whoever is trusting him (entrusting themselves to him) may, by means of him, have Life. The verb is a present-tense-participle, it refers to a way of being – continuing trust, ongoing trust – day by day.
From our side, that’s the invitation. ‘No merit, no deserving, struggling, steps, conditions, techniques, disciplines, inward or outward “doings” … are placed on our back,’ Bruner writes. ‘Dear Nicodemus…: You asked, “How in the world can these things ever happen?” They happen by Jesus, the Son of Man, being hoisted up and, then, by (you and by all the rest of us) simply trusting that this Man and his hoisting brings us into the entirely new, free, and happy relation with God called Life. Trust him, Nicodemus. That’s “how”.’
It sounds simple, but what if you are struggling – struggling to trust and still feeling on the outside of this Life? You’ve sought to be open, you’re looking to Jesus, but nothing seems to have changed. If the wind of the Spirit is blowing it seems to have blown right past you!! I know this is the experience for some of us. All I can do is encourage us to be with this – to be with our desire for God, to be present to our feeling of ‘stuckness’, failure, disappointment, doubt, fear – not judging or condemning ourselves or impatiently dismissing the possibility. Being with how it is, honestly… patiently… prayerfully. God’s nature is always to give, to pour out love, a smouldering wick he will not quench (Isaiah says). If we can be with the truth of our situation – our wound, our resistance, our helplessness – somehow this itself becomes the point at which God breaks through – sometimes dramatically and in a moment; sometimes slowly, almost imperceptibly. Remember, God ‘loves’ the world; God desires us, wants us to live. God didn’t send the Son to condemn the world, or you, but in order that the world might be saved (17).
Stay with it, the gift is being given. Let us dare to believe it, and remain ready to receive it. Amen.