Change of Heart?

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