John 3:1-17
He was righteous. He
had authority and influence. He impacted culture with his teaching and
decisions. He could silence his fellow leaders with a simple question. People listened to him. As Nicodemus walked to meet Jesus one night, I
wonder what he expected. Was Nicodemus prepared
to listen?
We don’t have to go too far to see why this man inspired
respect. Jesus had recently driven the
money-changers and those who sold animals for sacrifice out of the temple. He upset the normal and perfectly acceptable
way the temple ran, the system supported and maintained by religious leaders
just like Nicodemus. This powerful man
was part of what Jesus saw as the problem.
But Nicodemus doesn’t immediately reject Jesus or put him on the enemies
list. He doesn’t quickly decide that
Jesus is a fraud. No, Nicodemus wants to
hear more before making his decision. So, instead of plotting, he starts
walking. He sets out to talk personally to
Jesus.
They sit down, and he respectfully gets to the
point. He says, ‘Rabbi, look, we know
that you are a teacher. We know you came from God, because no one can do the
signs you do.’ Jesus was a good teacher, and maybe he was a prophet. But, that is where Nicodemus stops. That is all he is comfortable with. And I think there is an unasked question
hanging in the air between them. Who
does Jesus think he is? If he is from
God, why did he disrupt the temple and drive people out with a whip? Whose team is Jesus on? Prophets called people back to God. Jesus just drove people out of God’s temple! Why?
I love where Jesus starts, “Truly, truly, I say to you,
unless one is born from above, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” It is impossible to recognize what you need
if you do not think that you are in need.
And Jesus knows that Nicodemus needs to see himself as he really
is: A dead man in need of new
birth. But Nicodemus doesn’t see himself
that way. So he misses the pun. Instead of hearing “born from above,”
Nicodemus hears “born again.” (Why would
he need to be born from above? Those who
were “born from above” or “born of God” were converting to the Jewish faith. He
is already a Jew. He is a Jew’s Jew.) Jesus must mean being physically born again,
but that didn’t make sense either.
Nicodemus fails to understand what Jesus is saying because he fails to
see himself as spiritually dead.
So Jesus brings up Moses and the bronze snake in the
wilderness (Numbers 21:4-9). Back in the
wilderness, Moses had received the Ten Commandments, the instructions for the
tabernacle and the sacrificial system that the LORD put into place.
Instructions for purification had been explained, including the need to be
cleansed with water if an Israelite came into contact with a dead person. (It
is interesting to read Numbers 19, Ezekiel, 36:25-27 and Heb10:22 with John
3:5.) But when the Israelites complain against God and Moses, no sacrifice or
ritual is named that can make it right.
Instead, a bronze snake is lifted up.
All who are afflicted with the deadly plague, which was a result of
their complaining, must look at the snake and be saved. Sacrifices were in place for all sorts of
wrong-doings. But wrong attitudes, wrong
hearts, what was there in place for those?
Jesus doesn’t lay it all out there for very many people as plainly and
completely as he laid it out for Nicodemus that night. He 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.”
What could change the heart? The tabernacle, the temple,
the vessels set aside to hold water for purification, the sacrificial system, they
were not enough. All pointed forward to
Jesus Christ and upward to a restored relationship with God through His
Son. Because of Jesus, purification jars
were filled with the finest of wine. Jars cannot purify, Jesus can. Because of Jesus, the temple courts were
emptied with zeal, and the fullness of the gospel was told to a Pharisee who
was full of questions and reservations. Because of Jesus access to God is personal
and direct. Because of Jesus, sin is
washed away, dead hearts believe, and lives are filled with the Spirit of
God. Because of Jesus, whoever believes
in him may have eternal life! Did
Nicodemus see the truth in Jesus’ words? Did he realize his own need for
salvation, despite the fact that he was a really good person? Do you?
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son,
that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world
to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.”
John 3:16-17
