Lent 2 A
Made Right from Above
St. John 3:1-17
16 March 2014 – Redeemer
[wpfilebase tag=file id=32 tpl=download-button /]
Nicodemus – a teacher of Israel is asking questions. Nicodemus – a ruler of the Jews is seeking a different kingdom. Nicodemus – a pharisee is with Jesus. Something is wrong in Israel. Nicodemus knows it and all the signs are that Jesus has come to right what is wrong.
With his very first words to Nicodemus, Jesus undoes all of Nick’s knowledge. “Truly, truly, I say to you , unless one is born again he cannot see the Kingdom of God.” As Nicodemus sits in the classroom of Jesus he knows that when Jesus says, “truly, truly” that’s Greek for “if you’re taking notes, write this down, ,memorize what I’m saying. It will be on the test.” “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the Kingdom of God.”
In Jesus’ words to Nicodemus there are two radical declarations about you. The first is that everything wrong in the world has its source in you. Nicodemus has come to Jesus because he has heard or perhaps even seen the signs of Jesus fixing the broken, healing the sick, making blind eyes to see, and lame legs to polka. All of you here this morning come bearing the burden of something that is wrong – your back might be hurting, your daughter might have cancer, your husband might be a jerk, your son might be rebelling. What’s true for you is true for everyone – a Chinese mother has a son on that missing airliner. A Crimean family looks out their window to see Russian occupiers. A Sudanese Christian gets stoned by a Muslim crowd. We all know something is wrong – life is not a smooth ride down the lazy river. It is more like a roller coaster on an unmaintained track. We’re jerked around waiting to be derailed. As with Nicodemus we know something’s wrong and we desire it to be righted. Seeing the signs of Jesus it appears He’s a pretty good candidate for righting the wrongs.
Jesus tells Nicodemus that you cannot enter this Kingdom of Jesus (where everything is made right) “unless [you are] born again.” With those words Jesus declares that everything is wrong because of you. The problem is in you. If your life is to be made right, if bodies are to be healed and broken lives are to be fixed your life needs to start over. You need to be born again. (a translating note – a better translation for this phrase is “born from above.” That’s how the word is translated in most of the NT – “from above.”) The problem is your heart, your sinful nature, the very essence of you is corrupted by sin, leading to the wrongs, the hurts, the sickness, the pains, the deaths, the suffering. There is no righting what is wrong without righting you, because this brokenness is so deep within you you need to be born over, again, from above.
It’s not your parent’s fault. It”s not the president’s fault. It’s not your childrens’ fault. It’s not the economy, the school, the teacher, the Republican, the Democrat, the Libertarian, the insurance company, the oil industry, the welfare system, the rich, the poor. It’s not God’s fault. They didn’t cause everything that’s wrong in your life. You did Nicodemus. You did Bruce. You did.
Nicodemus seems to realize that Jesus’ word is his only hope. Truly, truly, the problem lies within my own sinful heart and person. But how can I be born a second time? I’m a grown man. I cannot return to my mother’s womb.
Now we come to the second radical declaration of Jesus. You can be born again. You can start life over. A new you can be born in which everything is set right. Jesus says, “Truly, truly (write this down, memorize it, it will be on the test), 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. Do not marvel that I said to you, “You must be born from above.’ The wind blows where is wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.”
Here Jesus declares to Nicodemus that a new birth is not only possible, but it happens, by water and the Spirit, by Holy Baptism. For all the wrongs of life to be righted, you need to be born again, born from above, and that happens by water and the Spirit. If you are born only according to the sinful flesh then you will go the way of sinful flesh which is death and judgment. If you are born of the Spirit then you will go the way of righted flesh, of flesh that has been created anew by the Spirit, you will go the way of life and the resurrection.
This new birth, this birth of water and the Spirit, is birth from above. It is from your Father in heaven, the Father who loved the world in this way – He gave His Son.
Jesus uses an event of history to teach Nicodemus how this birth from above happens. Nicodemus, as a teacher of Israel, knew Israel’s history. At the beginning of Israel’s journey from Sinai to the Promised land God’s OT children grumbled against God. With their mouths they poisoned the good name of their Father. God disciplined them by sending poisonous snakes into their camp. As the snakes poisoned their bodies, the children of God died. They realized this was all wrong and it was their fault. Seeing their sin they confessed to Moses and pleaded for mercy. God instructed Moses to craft a snake on a pole and erect it in the camp and then to speak this Word to His children, “Everyone who looks to that snake will live.” The sin came from below – from the flesh, from the heart of Israel. The death came from below as a result of sin. Life came from above, from the merciful heart of the Father, and it came through a sign – a snake lifted on a pole – an odd sign – the very creature they feared (the snake) is the very object of salvation. The sign, the Word, the promise, were from above, from their Father.
Now Jesus tells Nicodemus how he can be born a second time, born again, born from above. It will be the Father’s doing – for the Father sent His Son down from above. The Father will lift His Son on a cross as Moses lifted the Serpent in the wilderness. Jesus will die for the sins of the world. Whoever looks to Jesus, whoever believes that Jesus died for the sin of the world, will not die, but live. Death,the very judgment you fear because of your sin, now becomes the object of your salvation in Christ. His death saves you. Born according to the flesh you will die. Born again, from above, with water and the Spirit you will live.
Jesus doesn’t expect Nicodemus to understand it – anymore than you can understand the wind. It blows here. It blows there. Where does it start? Where does it end? Why does it blow cold out of the Northwest and warm out of the south? Who knows? Oh sure, Dave Dahl can give me a lesson about isobars and isotherms and wind speed, but really it doesn’t matter if I can explain it. I simply know that in the winter wind makes it colder and in the summer wind means I can’t go fishing. Jesus does not expect Nicodemus to understand that He is at the same time true God and true man. Nor likely can Nicodemus grasp how this man being raised on a wooden pole can undo the sin of the world. Or how water applied in the name of Jesus can give him a new birth, creating a new man within him, who will live forever. In the same way the Israelites could not explain how a snake on a pole heals snake bites – except for this – it was given from above to make right all that was wrong. Jesus was given from above to be the Savior of the world. Baptism is given from above – so that you could be born from above, again, cleansed of sin, forgiven by Christ, living forever as God’s own child.
So when you look around and see all that is wrong, remember this is from below, from your sinfulness and then take heart, for your Father is in heaven. From above He sent His Son. From above He has forgiven your sins. From above He has given you a new birth. From above He has made all things right and when He comes from above for the last time you will see, what you truly are, what you truly believe – all right, from above. In the name of Jesus. Amen.
Pr. Bruce Timm
15 March 2014 anno Domini