Nicodemus Part 2 (and of Course, John 3:16)

John 3:10-17

“Jesus answered, “You are a teacher of Israel and you don’t know these things?  I assure you that we speak about what we know and testify about what we have seen, but you don’t receive our testimony.  If I have told you about earthly things and you don’t believe, how will you believe if I tell you about heavenly things?  No one has gone up to heaven except the one who came down from heaven, the Human One.  Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so must the Human One be lifted up  so that everyone who believes in him will have eternal life.  God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him won’t perish but will have eternal life.  God didn’t send his Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through him.

The world generally does not know that the most famous verse in scripture is uttered towards the end of a “secret” meeting between Jesus and the Pharisee Nicodemus.  This is because we generally quote John 3:16 all by itself.  Some commentators don’t have a big issue with this because their general take on the famous verse is that it is a good summary of all Jesus wants Nicodemus to know.  To that I say (and I dare say the author of John would say as well), “NOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!”

To do that is to reduce what Jesus’s earthly life was the adoption of his John 3:16 slogan and get everyone else to do the same.   There is a sense that Jesus is restating in plain language what we talked about in the last reflection.  But if you missed that, go back and read it now.  Go ahead.  I’ll wait until you come back.

In John 3:16, Jesus still talking about what it means to be born anew and to be born from above.  He is still talking about the activity of God’s wind/spirit.  The salvation alluded to in v. 16 comes from the God-initiated wind that brings new birth from above.  Those who welcome this movement of God and allow God to regenerate them find new life.  They find that they have been ”adopted,” that they have been….

“authorized to become God’s children, born not from blood nor from human desire or passion, but born from God.” (John 1:12-13)

This happens not because we did anything, but because we believe God has done it in us.  As John says in multiple places throughout the gospel, “we are witnesses.”

The most astute theologians of Jesus day (i.e. Nicodemus) are befuddled by this.  Nicodemus will get there, as we will see later, but for now. He does not “know these things” (v. 10). 

                Most of the time, when John 3:16 is invoked, what is generally described is a moment when one believes this eternal truth about Jesus for the first time.  The emphasis is on that first moment of belief that makes all the difference. However, the “believing” of John 3:16 that the gospel writer wants us to see is that is something that we live out every day of our lives as we embrace the life “from above” that God has offered.   What that looks like is different for each of us, but for all of us, it is a lifelong endeavor, not a key moment of choice.  To be entirely accurate, the endeavor is not just lifelong, but eternal. 

Questions:  What are you learning about your life “from above” in the current season of your life?  What about your answer to that question feels like salvation?

Prayer:  Lord God, help us believe that the life offered to us by Christ is happening in us as we live in this very moment.  Help us to trust in that not just now, but every moment that we live and for eternity. Amen.

Prayer Focus:  Pray a deepened sense of understanding of the faith God has given you.

Song:  Rend Collective – Christ Lives in Me