Extreme Makeover, Jesus Edition

       We use the same words but we don’t always mean the same thing.  According to the story, the Joint Chiefs ordered different branches of the Armed Forces to "secure a building.”   The Navy responded by turning off the lights and locking the doors.  The Army occupied the building so no one could enter.  The Marines assaulted the building, captured it, and set up defenses with interlocking fields of fire, established reconnaissance and communications channels, and prepared for close hand-to-hand combat if the situation arose. But the Air Force acted the most swiftly on the command.  It took out a three-year lease with an option to buy.

       Communication isn’t just a matter of words.  It’s background and expectations.   That’s what we see in the famous nighttime conversation between Jesus and Nicodemus.  This is one of those passages that is hard to preach on simply because it is well knows and everyone feels they already have a handle on what it means.

       First the background.

       Jesus drives the money changers and animal sellers from the Count of the Gentiles at the Temple.  We looked at this on July 26.   John 2:23 tells us that Jesus then performs a number of signs in the city of Jerusalem.  These aren’t described but we can assume that Jesus heals diseases and cast out demons just as He had done up in Galilee. 

       John writes that many people trusted Jesus when they saw the signs.  But we are also told that Jesus did not trust Himself to them.  This is because they haven’t really received Him.  They have simply been impressed by His power and are ready to climb on His bandwagon. 

       Jesus always discounts a response to Him that based on the miraculous.  He knows that miracles have a very short shelf life.  If we need a miracle today to create faith, we need another miracle next week to sustain faith.  We don’t believe what we saw a week ago so we need to see it again.  The response Jesus wants from us, the response that lasts, is our response to the Word of God.  As we hear the word of God we realize that it is a word for us.  In the words of the Heidelberg Catechism, true faith is a “wholehearted trust which the Holy Spirit creates in me through the Gospel” – not through a religious show.

       Verses 24 and 25 says of these miracle seekers:  “Jesus did not trust Himself to them, since He knew them all and because He did not need anyone to testify about people because He Himself knew what was in each person.”  That’s the background to chapter 3.

       Now in chapter 3 John shows us how Jesus knows what is in very particular person named Nicodemus.  Nicodemus comes to Jesus at night. This sets the stage for an unforgettable conversation between a man who seeks to know Jesus, and the Jesus who already knows him backwards and forwards.

       John tells us that Nicodemus is a Pharisee. That means he is a layperson who is dedicated to the purification of the Jewish faith through obedience to the law.  He is highly educated and politically conservative.  His main opponents are the Sadducees, the priestly party.  He feels that the priests have sold out the pure religion of Israel, are way too accommodating with the occupying Romans.  He feels the priests use their positions to feather their own nests and harm the poor through schemes like the Temple trade.  Unlike the Sadducees the Pharisees read and believe the Prophets.  They stand for social justice,

       The second thing we know about Nicodemus is that he is very rich.   John tells us that Nicodemus is the one who later prepares Jesus' body for burial with a hundred pounds of myrrh and aloes.  Only a very rich man could have done that.

       The third thing we know about Nicodemus is that he is a ruler of the Jews. Nicodemus is a member of the Sanhedrin.  He’s one of seventy men who make up the combined senate and Supreme Court of the Jewish nation.  Most of the members of the Sanhedrin are priests with the chief priest, Caiaphas, serving as chairman or speaker of the house.  However, there is a strong minority party of Pharisees.  This makes for some very interesting politics.  Our State Assembly would feel right at home.

       The Pharisees have no trouble with Jesus cleaning the Temple. They’re cool with that.  They know that the family of the High Priest has been abusing the poor through extortion disguised as worship.  So there is no problem about a leading Pharisee coming to Jesus just after the temple cleansing. 

       Jesus hasn’t done anything to offend the Pharisees -- yet.  Jesus hasn’t started healing people on the Sabbath.  He hasn’t yet claimed to forgive sins.  So at this point the Pharisees still see Jesus as a possible ally. 

       They send Nicodemus as an emissary. Nicodemus starts out by indicating that he isn’t just speaking for himself -- "Rabbi" (or teacher), we know that you come from God as a teacher, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him."   

       But Jesus knows that Nicodemus doesn't need another teacher. He's had plenty of teachers.  Nicodemus needs a savior.  So Jesus quickly moves the focus.   He says to Nicodemus:  "Truly, truly I say to you, unless one is born from above (or born again) he cannot see the Kingdom of God."

       Peter Drucker one wrote that “The most important thing in communication is to hear what isn't being said.” Here Jesus answers the question Nicodemus is not asking.  Jesus senses a deep spiritual hunger in Nicodemus -- a spiritual emptiness.   

       Nicodemus is a man who is doing his level best to obey what he thinks God wants.  But he has an empty and unsatisfied heart.  Nicodemus is a man with a drawer full of honors and accomplishments but there is something really flat in his life

         It isn’t a lack of trying.  The Pharisees are so earnest about keeping the Sabbath that they made up endless and minute laws on Sabbath keeping.  They will carry no more food than the weight of a dried fig or no more milk than could be swallowed at one gulp.

       They are serious about their faith! But the way the approach faith leaves them imprisoned. 

       Last year a man named David Lynder wrote in Discipleship Journal about his son Micah who is autistic.  He writes to connect his experience with his son with God’s experience with us when our walk with God is based on rules and closely guarded routines.  He writes that many people suffer from a kind of spiritual autism.  Spiritual autism is shown in a preference for a static relationship with God as opposed to what autism researchers call fluid relationships.

       Lynder writes:  “Every time two or more people interact, they create a temporary communication system. In a fluid system, communication flows freely, not just through words, but also through body language, facial expressions, volume and tone of voice, and other nonverbal expressions. A fluid communication system is when you and a friend sit down face-to-face to shoot the breeze over a cup of coffee.

       “In contrast, a static system has clear boundaries; the movements of the relationship are predictable and staged. Waiting in line at the bank is a static system. You enter the building, stand at the back of the line, and stay within the roped-off aisles. When you reach the front of the line, you step to the next available teller and turn in your bank slip. After the transaction, you step to the side and return to your car. You don't even need to make eye contact with the teller because the relationship is based purely on function.”  Lynder writes, “A person with autism, while able to learn static systems, cannot function in a fluid system. Micah can now ask for a cookie or juice, but he cannot share an experience with me. Nor does he seem to understand when I tell him, ‘I love you.’ Our relationship is imprisoned in choreographed routines.”

Isn’t that sad for a relationship between a parent and a child? 

      The Pharisees are big on choreographed routines.   They have their ways of doing things; set prayers, set rules and set boundaries on who is in and who is out.  Their goal is faith management – to keep faith on a predictable path.  It isn’t relationship based but performance based. With their huge number of rules it isn’t an easy path. But it was certainly static and secure.

        Jesus knows that this isn’t enough.  It’s not enough for God who longs to be with us and longs for us to understand when He tells us that He loves us.  It’s not enough for people. 

       Jesus sees into Nicodemus’ heart.  So He cuts to the chase.  He tells Nicodemus that he needs a total makeover. "You are wasting your time," Jesus says, “if you think you can enter the kingdom of God the way you are. You cannot do it by keeping rules and regulations. You must be born again – or from above."

       Now as a side note, this text shows that Jesus, at least in Jerusalem, taught in Greek which was the common language of the eastern Roman world.  In Greek, the word translated "born anew or born again" can also mean "born from above".  It’s the Greek word anothon.  So when Jesus says "you must be born again (or from above) Nicodemus immediately takes this to mean "again” because he asks "how can I be born again?  Do I enter my mother's womb? " This confusion of meaning could never have occurred in Aramaic because the words "born again" and "born from above" are two different statements.

       I think Nicodemus takes advantage of the confusion over language to try to bring the conversation back to a safe level.  We will see this again and again in people’s talks with Jesus.   Nicodemus says: "Okay, let's talk about biology.  How can a man reenter his mother's womb?"  Jesus says, "No, let's talk about life -- your life." Nicodemus says "let's look at it out here where it’s safe."  Jesus says, "No, let's look at it in here.  What I’m talking about is a total change.  It’s when you stop trusting your safe systems and start to get personal with God.  It’s when you let God change you and then take you wherever He chooses.

       I’m sure that’s hard for Nicodemus – to be told at his age that he has to go back to square one.  We have a hard time with the gospel for lots of reasons.  For Nicodemus it’s that he’s done pretty well.  For many others, the issue is that they haven’t lived life at all well and they don’t wan t to face facts.

       In almost forty years of ministry I have seen that one barrier that prevents many people from being changed by God is their own unwillingness to confront their deep need. They don't want to admit that they are sinful and helpless and that God must come into them and completely transform them. They cling to the idea that there is some good in them that God ought to accept.  They see their lives as balanced on a set of scales. If they do more good things than bad things, they will go to heaven.  They are sure they’ll go to heaven if God grades on a curve.

       But Jesus says no.  You will never see the Kingdom of God by balancing the scales even if you could.  You need a total make-over.  Whether you are a good person or a bad person you need to go a whole ‘nother direction.

       Jesus says, "Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit."  Now everyone knows what physical birth is all about. Jesus came to show us what spiritual birth is all about. It is the Spirit of God who produces spiritual birth, not our own works, not our own observance of the Law. If we are trying, in our unchanged, fallen nature, to please God, we will fail. But if we allow God to recreate us through the birth from above, birth by the Spirit, we will become citizens of the kingdom of God.

       Jesus says that there are two essentials in this rebirth.  The first is that we are born of water.  “Unless one is born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot see the Kingdom of God.”

       Being born or water is the symbol of baptism – and the repentance baptism represents.  That’s an essential part of the process and one that is sometimes overlooked. 

       Back in the 1980’s the term “born again” became very trendy and very superficial.   Everyone was claiming to be born again but there was sometimes a marked absence of repentance.  For example, Larry Flynt, publisher of the pornographic magazine Hustler proclaimed he was born again, But he continued to publish Hustler.  

       That’s not repentance.  And Jesus says repentance is key.  Jesus said, “Not every one who says to me Lord. Lord, will enter the Kingdom of God but those who do the will of my Father in Heaven.” 

      But repentance by itself is also not enough.  It’s not enough to clean up our acts or get our heads straight.  Jesus says that we also need to be born of the Spirit.  “Unless a person is born of water and the Spirit he or she cannot see the Kingdom of God.”

      As the Apostle Paul describes in Romans 8:1-11, our first scripture, there are two kinds of people in the world. 

      There are what he calls sarksatoi or “those of the flesh.”  These are people in their natural condition apart from being transformed by the power of the Holy Spirit of God.  Paul writes that those who are in the flesh are not even capable if submitting to God’s law or pleasing Him. 

       In contrast to these sarksatoi are what Paul calls the the pneumatoi.  These are the people of the Spirit.  These are the people we become when we put our faith in Jesus Christ.  So Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 5 that “if any person is in Christ, he or she is actually a new creation -  not sarksatoi but pneumatoi.  The old is finished and gone.  All things have become new.”

       This new birth by the Spirit, is not some experience added on to our old way of thinking and acting.  We have had too much of this in our churches – people who go through the motion of religion but who don’t experience the transforming power in it.  They suffer from spiritual autism -- a static relationship with God made up of rituals and rules instead of the deep encounter God desires.  The relationship is imprisoned in choreographed routines.

       God wants more from us than that.  He wants more with us than that.  This is why Paul writes in Galatians 5:25 that we need to be who we are: “If we live by the Spirit let us also walk by the Spirit.” 

       This shows up in our moral behavior.  But it also shows up in our freedom and openness to God’s call. 

       Jesus makes it very clear that the Spirit of God within is neither safe nor predictable.  He tells Nicodemus, “The wind – another word for Spirit – blows where it wants to.  You hear the sound of it.  But you don’t know where it comes from or where it is going.”  Then Jesus says that the same thing will be true of everyone who is “born of the Spirit.”  The Spirit isn’t static and God doesn’t want us to try to make the Spirit or ourselves static. 

       I’ve had my own struggles with spiritual autism.  But I also have experienced times when a certain persons name or face will come to my mind for no particular reason. I have learned to get on the phone and say something like, “I don’t know why I’m supposed to be calling you.  What’s going on?”  I usually find that there’s a reason.  And I also find that the more readily I respond, the more often it happens. 

       Open yourself to be led by the Spirit.  Who knows what might unfold.  As you’re driving down the street you might get a sudden nudge to pull into Starbucks.  You might say, “I don’t want coffee.”  But the Spirit says, “It’s not about the coffee. It’s the person who is there who needs to see you.”  Follow those nudges and see what happens. 

       And when freedom starts to happen it’s wonderful.  There is release in our walk with our God. As one person put it: "For so many years there had been a high, hard, impenetrable wall between God and myself. I used to throw token gifts over the wall and hope someone was on the other side receiving them. It was impersonal and so tentative. And then one day the wall came down!"

       Yes, the wall comes down and by the power of the Spirit all barriers—the fears, the self-doubt, the guilt—are removed and we give ourselves to God totally—our brokenness, our strength, our problems, our hopes and dreams, our yesterdays, our living and our dying.

       Earl Palmer in his commentary or John points out that most of us find it easier to identify with Nicodemus than with, say, blind Bartimaeus who came in the daylight eagerly seeking Jesus, loudly proclaiming his need for healing.  Most of us aren't that desperate – or at least not publicly desperate. We may be desperate inside ourselves but it doesn't show on the successful outside face.  So we come to Jesus for a polite conversation and, before we know it, He has seized hold of our heart."

        Nicodemus comes to Jesus with a need, and Jesus speaks to that unexpressed need. I'm sure that the answer Jesus gives is hard for Nicodemus to accept:  “Start over!  All of your wealth and position and recognition are finally meaningless, Nicodemus, but there is a kingdom of God and that kingdom is for you, if you can put away the past and follow me.”