John: The Spiritual Gospel
After talking about some of Jesus miracles and some of the controversial issues he ran into with the Pharisees John 2-3 is an appropriate side track. John’s gospel is uniquely different from the other gospels. The first three gospels are based on physical or bodily facts. Mark for example gives just the bare bones facts which leads us to believe that he was the first one to create a gospel record, and then Matthew writes in a way that the Jewish hearers can resonate with, pulling out the Jewish significance of Jesus. And then Luke well he just decides that the story is worth telling in his own light, and records his perspective of the story as if he has done countless interviews and wants to create a historical record. In fact Luke’s gospel was combined with the book of Acts – showing an emphasis on the early church as it was developing after Jesus’ death.
And then we find the gospel of John, which doesn’t seem to fit with any of the other gospels. The language is different, the themes are different and some of the significant stories seem to be missing. But the key things that John does pick up on has helped to shape the very core of Christian beliefs.
John’s gospel is often considered the spiritual, or theological gospel. The very beginning of the book sets the stage for what’s to come. “In the beginning was the word…” Doesn’t Genesis say in the beginning was God? Uh oh… this is going to get a little bit complicated.
I remember having to read John 1 at a Christmas Eve service when I was about 12 yrs old, and boy did I stumble over those words. What’s the word, is the word God, or is the word not God? How is a word light? It all makes a little more sense now… but the language is very complicated compared to the other gospels.
The spiritual gospel of John can be divided into 2 major sections or books. The book of signs, things like miracles and parables that point to Jesus lordship, and the book of glory, where Jesus is crucified, and is resurrected displaying the glory of God. The section in John 2:23-3:15 fits uniquely into these two books. It includes signs that points to Jesus lordship and glory; the fact that he was doing miracles and people were putting their faith in him. But also includes Jesus’ clear prophetic description of how his glorification will take place. Both signs and glory are found in the same section.
Setting the Stage
To set the scene we need to ignore the title line and chapter division that shows up in the middle of the story. The end of chapter two provides valuable information about the situation that is about to take place between Jesus and Nicodemus and will help us to understand some of Jesus responses. The end of chapter tells us that we are around the time of the Passover Feast, which celebrated the blood of the lamb that was spread on the doorpost of the Israelites when they were in Egypt. During the feast, which was a week-long festival, Jesus was present performing signs and miracles and people are drawn to his acts. However, their faith is superficial at best, they are merely struck by Jesus' signs and miracles and are not transformed by the faith he teaches.
It’s night time in the story. Now what do you think when you think that someone is coming to visit at night…
Sure, it can seem like Nicodemus’ visit is a sinister sort of act, like he, as a religious leader is going to go challenge the new rabbi.
Or it could seem like he may not want to be seen by his fellow religious leaders, if Jesus wasn’t the most popular guy in town, you may not want to be seen visiting him, after all he associated with tax collectors and adulterers.
Or maybe he had just spent his day doing the things that religious leaders do, whatever that is…, and it wasn’t until night time that he could show up to chat with Jesus.
The Conversation
Repeatedly throughout the record of Jesus ministry, stories are found of Jesus' disciples and religious leaders of the day failing to understand the meaning behind his words. Jesus encounter with Nicodemus is no different. Nicodemus gets caught up in the idea of being born again, and doesn’t understand that Jesus is actually talking about being born of the spirit. What Jesus is really talking about is “to experience a complete change in one’s way of life to what it should be, with the implication of return to a former state or relation—‘to be born again, to experience new birth, rebirth.’ John is emphasizing that rebirth is the work of the spirit.
There is nothing that the individual believer can do to see the kingdom of heaven, but instead it is the work of the spirit.
Jesus takes themes and motifs that the Nicodemus, the religious leader would have understood in a specific context and transforms them. One writer about this passage said that Jesus explanation to Nicodemus of new birth would have been downright startling.
Jesus Monologue
The dialogue between Nicodemus slowly teeters out as it seems that Nicodemus simply cannot grasp the concepts that Jesus is teaching. His final defeated response is “How can this be?”
Jesus responds…
10 “You are Israel’s teacher,” said Jesus, “and do you not understand these things? 11 Very truly I tell you, we speak of what we know, and we testify to what we have seen, but still you people do not accept our testimony. 12 I have spoken to you of earthly things and you do not believe; how then will you believe if I speak of heavenly things? 13 No one has ever gone into heaven except the one who came from heaven—the Son of Man.[e] 14 Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up,[f] 15 that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him.”[g]
16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. 18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.19 This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. 20 Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed. 21 But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God.
The Monologue
From the text we can imagine a bewildered Nicodemus. He has encountered the living Lord and his understanding of everything has been turned upside down. I wanted to take a few minutes to just play out what would be going on in Nicodemus’ head, to tease out how everything he has believed up until this point has been changed. So imagine with me, if you will, the internal dialogue as Nicodemus walks home, after talking with Jesus, after barely being able to get a word into the conversation.
Does that son of Joseph know who I am? Does that Galilean know where I come from? Does he know that I am a religious leader? Does he know the training I have gone through, or the deep commitment to the law that I have maintained since childhood? Does he know the respect that my family name carries? What’s more, I am a Pharisee among Pharisees.
I came to him out of humble respect and he returned no such respect. I called him rabbi, when I too am a rabbi. I acknowledged his miraculous deeds and he did not even allow me to ask a question.
Who does he think he is? How can the son of a carpenter compare to me?
Does he know how far I travelled to get here? I came at night so that my fellow religious leaders would not see me, and I now I wished they had, I wish all of us leaders would have come to put him in his place. Then his rhetoric and spiritual talk would not stand against us.
But then again he must be a man of God, for look at all the miraculous signs he performed. Not since the time of Moses has there been so many miracles performed by one man. Surely the Lord is with him. Did he know my heart before I even showed up?
If he knew my heart could he not see that I too am a man of God? That I faithfully follow the law? I am righteous before the Lord, but still he kept going on about needing to be ‘born again’. How can one be born again. At my age! Must I go backwards in understanding? Or maybe he meant I must be like those new converts to Judaism when they adopt the faith, becoming like newborn children…But why would I forget everything I know, why would I erase all my efforts towards righteousness. I am an heir to the true faith of Israel!
Over and over again he talked about the word born again and spirit and the kingdom of Heaven. What does he want me to do, what more could he ask? I’ve followed the law all my life, in fact, I was born into the law.
But what about that word he used for ‘again’, it was a different word than the word people usually use for ‘again’. Actually, I’ve used that word before, but I used it to mean ‘from above’. To mean that God is ‘from above’ that he is not on our level. Could the birth that Jesus is talking about be a birth ‘from above’. But what about covenant? What about us Jews who are born as into God’s covenant of a chosen people.
Surely WE are born from God, Surely WE have been born ‘from above’.
And then he kept talking about the spirit… pneumatos, pneumatos he said, born of the spirit and water? Water is ceremonial, and water is for cleansing, and water was used by that guy John in the desert, he was fully washing people with water. But can water wash away a person’s sins? Surely sacrifice is the only acceptable atonement for sin. Is that not what the Passover feast that we have just celebrated is about?
A person’s righteousness comes only from their own actions and from their fulfillment of the law!
And then he talked about the spirit being like the wind. Whatever can that mean? No one can see the wind, it is unpredictable, and at times violent. I will have nothing to do with such spirits. The law can be known, the law gives stability and the law gives assurance.
And to think he accused me saying “You are Israel’s teacher, and do you not understand these things?”
That man only inspires havoc, he performs miracles like one who is from God, but his teachings confuse everyone. Did he not say he could rebuild the temple in three days! How many years did it take Solomon to build the temple? Did it not take seven years?
This man is a danger to our faith. His teachings are reckless and his miracles are deceiving. We cannot allow him to continue.
Nicodemus walked home that night a confused man. I’m sure he felt that so much of what Jesus said felt right, it felt like the God he know. But at the same time so much of what he said scraped against his understanding of the law. He most likely felt as though his efforts to remain righteous were being downplayed by this fellow rabbi. I believe that the spirit of God that Jesus taught Nicodemus about was working in this situation. I believe that his heart was being changed despite how he may have felt when he walked away. His eyes were at least partially opened. When he shows up again in John’s gospel, he questions the other religious leaders that are accusing Jesus saying, “Does our law condemn a man without first hearing him to find out what he has been doing? (John 7:51-52)” Or maybe Nicodemus is simply saying that he has more credibility because he has spoken one on one with Jesus. Either way his rhetorical question is quickly balked at by his fellow Pharisees. But there is hope for Nicodemus. The spirit of God worked in his heart. The end of John’s gospel records that he was present with Joseph as they took it off the cross and wrapped it with linen and spices. Nicodemus may not have got it right away when he first meets Jesus, but his later actions testify to a transformed heart.
Application
Have you ever had a conversation where you felt that you had something valuable to say and you just weren’t heard? Have you like Nicodemus been lead in a completely different direction in a conversation than where you wanted to go? Have your rules and understandings of God been challenged and turned upside down? The comfortable place where you were living just became uncomfortable. Suddenly you can see a tension between what you have believed to be true and the way you may live.
I think this is what Jesus does in our life. He comes into the places where we are comfortable and shakes things up. For Nicodemus it was his understanding of the law that needed to be questioned, it was his attitude of entitlement that made him think that he was righteous and others were not. For me it can be my motivations that need to be shaken up. Why am I doing the ministries I do? Who am I serving when I do them?
Or maybe it’s a Nicodemus style shake up, a blatant and painful reminder that there is nothing you have done that can make you worthy of being counted as righteous before God. No amount of goodness, or rule following, or serving of people can make you worthy of God: Nothing but Jesus’ death and his resurrection. We have all fallen short of the glory of God, we have seen the signs and ignored the glory. But just as an infant has nothing to do with the decision to be born, so it is with the spirit, it falls on those that God chooses, and we live out of that overwhelming grace.
