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February 17, 2008- Second Sunday in Lent- Year A, RCL
The Reverend Mark Byer
“The Heart of the Matter”

Nicodemus used to strike me as a furtive type of guy. I guess my preference is that people say what they mean and mean what they say. Which is not to say that I’m not above flip-flopping. If it weren’t for flip-flopping, I’d still be an atheist. No, it’s this business of sneaking up to Jesus by night to talk to him, like he’s cheating on his wife. And of course, many of his fellow Pharisees would have ranked his visits to Jesus pretty far up there in terms of sinning. Many people, perhaps most of the authorities, came to believe Jesus was a blasphemer, and in the end, they brought Jesus up on charges, tried him, and executed him.

So I guess eventually I decided I was being hard on the poor guy. It’s hard to change your mind, and even harder when there is so much pressure to keep thinking and doing the same things. Pressure not just from our old habits and beliefs, but even from people who love us, or people who say they have our best interests at heart.

Nicodemus really did like Jesus. He didn’t really understand him, of course. That’s to be expected: often new ideas trip over old ones in our minds for a bit before they manage to get established. And he wasn’t yet committed to him, although he did later stick up for Jesus a little bit when other Pharisees were trying to get him arrested. But he was really TRYING to get it. Nicodemus and Jesus have a biblical Greek sitcom moment, of course, because the same word in Greek can be used to say “again” or “from above.”

But the point of the discussion is, for Jesus, to share with Nicodemus and with us that kingdom living involves a change in the type of life that we live. Notice that I’m not saying just that we do things differently: what I’m saying is that every Christian is the product not just of God’s initial act of Creation, as is every person, but also of God’s decision to remake every person. That’s what it means to be born again. We sometimes experience this dramatically, and sometimes gradually, but it’s always there. And it’s still possible to reject God, because God creates us with freedom precisely so that our decisions DO matter.

We all experience, either as recipients or givers, parental discipline. Kids struggle against it. Not yours, maybe, but mine do. “I don’t want to eat that.” “I don’t want to wear that.” “I want this.” “I don’t like that.” “I don’t want to share.” “She can’t come over here.” Even if you have pretty good kids, and I do; even if you love them more than your own life, as I do, they’re still kids, and they still act that way. As a parent, we’re trying to get our kids safely to the point where they can make responsible decisions based on a reasonably truthful worldview. That involves some protection, some rules, some teaching, a lot of caring, and a lot of love and encouragement.

In a sense, what we’re watching in Nicodemus is something like a lot of us have gone through. The tentative approach to Jesus, to faith. The silly misunderstandings because we don’t quite get what he means. I think it’s a mistake to imagine that Jesus is doing anything more here than trying to help Nicodemus be born and come to maturity. Because he loves him, and that means that he wants for him to reach the point where he has a true view of reality and can make the right decisions.

I’m not sure what happens, either to grown-ups seeking Jesus, or to kids trying to become grown-ups. I don’t think it’s any one thing, but somehow, a lot of us come to be curious about Jesus, and then to hope that he’s who he says he is, and then to love him and believe in him and try to help him build his kingdom. Jesus said to Nicodemus, “If I have told you about earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you about heavenly things?”

Or, as you’ve probably also experienced it or said it, “If I have to constantly remind you about… your responsibilities, your behavior, your manners, your safety, how do you expect to become an adult?” But young people do grow up, most of them, although being an adult is no guarantee of responsibility or wisdom or the ability to love others. And not all young people or adults end well, either. Freedom is a dangerous gift, one that God is only to aware can be lethal. Human freedom, after all, cost Jesus his life.

But then we come right to the heart of the matter, the part where we understand why we are, at our best, the way we are. And that’s because God is the way that He is. I call this section of John “The End Zone Gospel.” I can’t count how many times I’ve seen some guy or gal holding up a big card that says John 3:16 as I’ve watched a team attempt a field goal or extra point. That’s the best time to see the cards people are holding up, I find. You have a few seconds from just before the snap until the kicker boots the ball between the uprights.

The Heart of the matter:

“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.”

That still takes my breath away. It’s been called “the Gospel in miniature,” by Martin Luther. And it does summarize things nicely: the world, of course, would be humanity. We’re the part that seems to have trouble growing up, or that even needs to. And it shows how to love as we were intended to love: by giving as God gives, so that others might be lifted up out of danger. And it acknowledges, as so many people refuse to these days, that in fact there is danger around us, life-threatening danger. Not Al-Qaeda, for pity’s sake. On their most lethal day they killed three thousand people. Sin traps, twists, and kills in thousands of ways. It mocks hope, destroys generosity, subverts altruism, celebrates death, and encourages people not to love their neighbor as they love themselves, but to love themselves at their neighbors’ expense.

“God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.”

A lot of people don’t believe this. A lot of people scoff at this. They say that the world is too complicated for this sort of Good News, and that nothing really ever changes. Evil just migrates somewhere else. There’s really no point in even arguing with them: just love them. Be compassionate to them. Subvert their hopelessness with God’s caring. Undermine selfishness with openhandedness. Not obviously, but gently. God in Jesus Christ did not, after all, resist sinners. He loved them, he taught them, and in the end, he allowed them their freedom, even the freedom to nail him to the Cross. And then he forgave them. And in forgiveness and resurrection lives our new life. The heart of the matter.

 

 

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