Sermon for March 22nd

The gospel reading today is the end of a conversation. The end of a conversation between Jesus and a Pharisee named Nicodemus who came to ask Jesus some questions one night. Nicodemus came to Jesus and said, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God; for no one can do these signs that you do apart from the very presence of God.” Jesus answered him, Very truly, I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above.” I hope that you are already getting a sense here that Nicodemus and Jesus are talking in two very different ways. Nicodemus is talking down here somewhere and Jesus answers him on an entirely different plane, going right over his head.

But Nidodemus tries to get the conversation back onto an understandable track by saying, “How can anyone be born after having grown old? Can one enter a second time into the mother’s womb and be born?” Jesus answers, “Very truly, I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit. What is born of the flesh is flesh and what is born of the Spirit is spirit.” Once again, Jesus’ answers are anything but easy. Christians throughout the ages have spent many a ream of paper trying to decipher what exactly Jesus meant and so, you can imagine, how Nicodemus felt hearing it for the first time.

Nicodemus finally throws up his hands and says, “How can these things be?” Jesus answers, “Are you a teacher of Israel and yet you do not understand these things? If I have told you about earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you about heavenly things?” That’s the spot where our reading comes in today.

Now, why is this important? Because the first part of the conversation sets the stage for the second. Here is Nicodemus, a well-educated member of the elite class of theologians in Judaism and he is lost when it comes to understanding what Jesus is saying. Nicodemus is coming to Jesus for answers, maybe for a little homework to understand what he’s all about, but Jesus frustrates all these attempts and keeps talking about faith, trust and belief. It is clear that Nicodemus does not believe and THAT, much more than his lack of understanding, is the problem.

What does Nicodemus need to do? What does Nicodemus need to understand? What does Nicodemus have to believe in order to get on Jesus’ good side? These are the same questions that we are all driven to ask of ourselves. Nicodemus represents all of us and our attempts at belief. Even if we try to jump through all the hoops it is as difficult as a camel jumping through the eye of a needle, as Jesus puts it. No matter how smart we are, how diligent we are or how faithful we are Jesus puts it quite simply, “No one has ascended into heaven except the one who descended from heaven, the Son of Man.” If you are confused about what to believe or who to believe or how to believe join the club that Nicodemus started that day in a conversation with Jesus. And, welcome to the human race. We are all lost.

But after listing how impossible it will be for Nicodemus, or any of us, to take heaven by storm, Jesus gives you a glimpse of your hope. “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.” To our ears this sounds so easy. Love. You can still hear Rodney King crying out, “Can’t we al just get along?” It should be so easy, but it’s not. When I hear talk about the world on NPR or in conversations with people, the world is a beautiful place worth saving. But the world, as the word is used in the gospel of John, is a place for of sin and death. It’s not a pretty place. It’s not a place that is easy to love. For God to love the world is a dramatic and radical step. So radical, that God’s only Son, Jesus has to DIE to save it.

If we simply start at John 3:16 and skip the first part of this conversation we miss the point. Jesus doesn’t just save a nice little pretty world of duckies and bunnies. He saved a world of sinners. He had to come because we were unable to be saved without him. We didn’t understand him. We couldn’t believe.

Verse 17, “Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.” The Greek word for what is translated condemn is krino and it refers to a judgment, a final conclusion about something, especially a negative decision. But the text says that Jesus was NOT sent to judge the world or sent so that God could make his final conclusion on mankind. By the time Jesus was born, the conclusion had already been made.

Verse 18, “Those who believe in him are not condemned, but those who do not believe are condemned already,(they are condemned already) because they have not believed in the name of the only Son of God.” Jesus came to earth not to judge you or to express an opinion about you, but to save you. God’s judgment of you has already been made as far back as Genesis, “The Lord saw that the wickedness of humankind was great in the earth and that every inclination of the thoughts of their hearts was only evil continually.” God’s judgment on humankind is clear, “Guilty.”

When God made that statement about the world in Genesis six, he decided to blot out every living thing from the Earth except for Noah and his family by means of a flood but, afterwards, God promised never to flood the earth again. So now, to deal with our guilt, God is doing something new in Jesus. Not killing the world because of the judgment against it, but saving it. The world isn’t in MORE trouble because Jesus died on the cross; the judgment has already been made. Jesus came to save.

Judgment Day, that event everyone is always worried about, shouldn’t really be that much of a mystery. That day will be great and terrible as the Bible tells us over and over again because we already know the judgment. We already know we are guilty. The Israelites rebelled against God and we still rebel against God. On the last day, God will tell you that judgment once again. You are rebellious. You are a sinner. As great and terrible as it is it is nothing you don’t know already. And, just like Nicodemus, nothing you can do will change this.

In other words, nothing new happened when we killed Jesus on the cross. Lots of people died before Jesus and lots of people died after Jesus. Death isn’t new. It is expected. We hear this expressed again and again in the gospels where Jesus knows he is heading for death, that he will suffer and die at our hands. The new thing, is what happens after we hide in the dark from his light. Jesus, the light of the world, finds us. Whether it is in the upper room where the disciples are hiding behind closed doors from the Jews or when Jesus finds Peter on a fishing boat. Jesus’ death is old, what happens after his death, however, is quite new. He is raised from the dead and comes after his betrayers. Not for vengeance like in some horror movie; instead, Jesus does something extraordinary. He forgives. He saves. Not only his disciples but all who believe in him.

The first part of Jesus’ conversation with Nicodemus is old. It’s about the law and how impossible it is for us to follow God’s demands. But the second art, from today’s reading, well, that is a promise: what God is going to do for you because he loves you.

The world is condemned already, Jesus comes to save it. Apart from Jesus there is only judgment and, since we can’t meet God’s demands, condemnation. But NOT believing in Jesus doesn’t CAUSE condemnation, do you see that? Sometimes you’ll hear people talk about belief in Jesus as a choice that if it is not made right now means you are suddenly condemned. But we are all condemned already. We have caused our condemnation based on our own sins. We are all condemned when Jesus shows up on the scene. We are all in the same boat that is capsizing, only jumping out of that boat and into the arms of Jesus can give us salvation.

You’re no worse off than you were before if you don’t believe in Jesus Christ. You’re JUST as worse off as you have always been. Living in an old world of sin and death with no hope. But Jesus is new. He comes into your system of sin, death, and judgment, breaking it all to pieces. He doesn’t put on extra demands that were not there before, but says, “Believe in me and everything is done already.” That’s why it always seems like Jesus’ words are gong over our heads just like Nicodemus. We want to understand the right way to pray, or to talk, or what the correct church is to go to, but the only reason any of that is important is because we want the old things of this world to focus our attention to the only new thing that can truly save us, “Trusting in Jesus Christ alone.”

During this Lenten season, it’s time to look not at this old world, but at the new promise you have in Jesus Christ, the promise that we will celebrate on Easter. That Jesus has not come to condemn you, but to save you from the condemnation you already experience on a daily basis. “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.”