John 3:1-17; Digging Deeper on the Road to Discipleship

[**In honor of Dr. J. Ramsey Michaels. Dr. Michaels was one of my NT professors at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary (MA) from 1974-77. He actually taught there for 25 years, beginning in the late 1950s. Every year one of the special classes offered at the Seminary was his seminar on the Gospel of John. Each year, as he told us, he closely read one more major commentary on the Gospel (I think he was reading Rudolf Schnackenberg's three volumes my year). By the time I took his class in 1976, he had such a depth of acquaintance with every aspect of the Gospel that nearly every sentence he spoke was worthy of committing to writing. Yet, such a humble man was he that he asked me if he could keep a copy of my term paper on "Seeing and Vision of God in the Fourth Gospel..." He wrote a 350+ page commentary on the Gospel (he called it his "little" work) in the Good News Commentary series in 1984. A few weeks ago he contacted me, having learned of my whereabouts through these pages, and we renewed our relationship which had been dormant for 30 years. One of the things he mentioned to me is that in his retirement he is authoring his "big" work on the Gospel of John--a commentary which already has reached 1000 pages and will be out some day in the New International Commentary on the New Testament, which is now edited by another former GCTS professor of mine--Gordon Fee. When I turned to the passage for the morning, I went searching for my copy of Dr. Michaels' 1984 commentary. Luckily, I found it. The binding was broken, and the pages crinkled a bit as I opened them, but as I read his text it was as if I was plunged back more than 30 years into our John seminar. I "heard" his voice as I read his words--indeed a very Johannine experience. As a former professor I can say without equivocation that one of the blessings of becoming a more "senior" person (well, I am 55) is that students from my past return and, biblically speaking, rise up to bless me. And, as a former student, I can also say that one of the signal pleasures of being a student was having teachers of character, intellect and passion for their subject, whose example and quest helped fuel my own. That, friends, is one of the things Dr. Michaels did for me, and I am grateful for it.]

Here is the text for the morning, from the NRSV:

"Now there was a Pharisee named Nicodemus, a leader of the Jews. 2 He came to Jesus by night and said to him, “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 presence of God.” 3 Jesus answered him, “Very truly, I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above.” 4 Nicodemus said to him, “How can anyone be born after having grown old? Can one enter a second time into the mother’s womb and be born?” 5 Jesus answered, “Very truly, I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit. 6 What is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the Spirit is spirit. 7 Do not be astonished that I said to you, ‘You must be born from above.’ 8 The wind blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.” 9 Nicodemus said to him, “How can these things be?” 10 Jesus answered him, “Are you a teacher of Israel, and yet you do not understand these things? 11 “Very truly, I tell you, we speak of what we know and testify to what we have seen; yet you do not receive our testimony. 12 If I have told you about earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you about heavenly things? 13 No one has ascended into heaven except the one who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. 14 And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, 15 that whoever believes in him may have eternal life. 16 “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. 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."

I. Introduction

Lent is a time when we examine ourselves, reconsider the Gospel message, lament our shortcomings, embrace the grace of God and rededicate ourselves to following Jesus. One of the assumptions behind the Lenten season is that we need to explore discipleship in a deeper dimension, and that new and more profound levels of meaning are available to us if we only slow down, hear the words of Jesus afresh and apply them to our lives. The passage for the morning reinforces this point because it is the story of an encounter with Jesus and a teacher of Israel, an encounter in which Jesus encourages the teacher to explore faith in a new way, to dig deeper into the heart of God. While the ultimate message of the passage may appear very simple (indeed the culminatory verse, John 3:16, was often displayed in the 1980s and 1990s between goalposts and hanging from balconies at various athletic venues), the important point of the passage is to encourage us to look at life and faith in ways we previously hadn't imagined. Nicodemus' studied political reaction to Jesus bewrayed his inability to do this. The implicit question behind the text for the morning, then, is whether we have the wherewithal to hear Jesus' reconceptualization of faith for us. Can we hear the wind of the Spirit blowing our way in 2008?

In order to explore this question, I will briefly exposit this passage under three heads: (1) Nicodemus' coming to Jesus in v. 1; (2) The "Give and Take" between Jesus and Nicodemus in vv. 2-13; and (3) Jesus Statement of the Faith Principle in vv. 16-17.

II. Nicodemus' Coming to Jesus

The Gospel stories are full of visits of figures angelic and human to each other. But often the unanswered question is, 'What kind of visit is this?' Mary was troubled in heart and wondered what kind of visit Gabriel made to her when he announced the coming birth of Christ (Lk. 1:29). Jesus' parents no doubt wondered what kind of visit the wise men's presence portended (Matt. 2). So, Jesus had every reason to wonder what kind of visit Nicodemus was seeking.

As Dr. Michaels points out in his commentary (p. 38), Nicodemus was a particular example of the "believers" mentioned in 2:23-25. In ch. 2 Jesus had turned water into wine at Cana and then cleared out the moneychangers from the temple in Jerusalem. These dual actions resulted in many believing in his name (2:23). Now John will give us an example of one person who believed in his name though, as we will soon discover, this belief showed an inadequate faith.

John has a habit of fleshing out general statements by giving us a particular instance of the story. He delights to tell long narratives about desperate or vulnerable people who come to Jesus with their questions or needs. Two other such unique stories in the Gospel of John ar the story of the woman at the well (Jn. 4) and the man born blind (Jn. 9). Each of these stories results in Jesus either showing forth his glory or confessing his messiahship. Thus, for those who know the structure and method of John's Gospel, we see the Nicodemus story as another example of John's personalizing of general principles.

We really don't know Nicodemus' motivation for coming to Jesus, either at the beginning or, really, at the end of the passage. Could there have been a genuine spiritual quest? Or was he trying to "co-opt" Jesus for his movement? Was he trying to "build bridges" between the Pharisees and Jesus? Was he trying to "gather evidence" that could be used against Jesus at a later time? Sometimes we don't even recognize our own purposes in searching out Christ--if indeed we are diligent in that search today. Christ, it seems to me, is so packaged in our culture that the living Jesus is completely hidden--under the political analysts' statements about "voting power of Evangelicals," under the legal scholar's arguments about whether certain actions violate the Establishment or Free Exercise clauses of the First Amendment. Very few people want to take the time calmly to open the text, read it, listen to it, think about it, and respond to it. So Nicodemus, as we, come to Jesus with unspoken motivations.

Let's look at the actual conversation between the two, in the next essay.

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