In our Gospel reading for this morning, we’re introduced to a man named Nicodemus. We’re told that Nicodemus is a Pharisee, a ruler of the Jews. He comes to Jesus at night on account of the miracles Jesus has been performing. It would seem likely that some of them he’d seen himself, and certainly a man in his position would have heard from others about even more. Having seen these amazing things, Nicodemus comes to find out even more.
I think we all understand Nicodemus’ actions here. I remember back in 1998 when Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa were making their charge toward the single-season home run record. Everywhere you looked, there were Big Mac and Sammy. They were on the news, they were in the newspapers, their faces were on magazine covers…they were two men doing something amazing, and America couldn’t get enough. The attention and interest was so great that people would come to the stadium two hours before the game started just to watch them take batting practice. Fans and journalists alike were itching to know the secrets to their incredible success. How did they prepare themselves? What were their workouts like? How were they able to do what they were doing?
People who played the stock market knew that it was a volatile, risky venture. Even the best and savviest of investors could hit a rough patch. But not Bernie Madoff. For years he could boast a steady, consistent success rate that made him a legend. The more success he had, the more people wanted to entrust their money to him. What was his secret? What made him so amazingly, almost unbelievably successful at what he did?
Of course, in time it turned out that those things, like so many incredible, unbelievable stories before turned out to be less than they were made out to be. Eventually McGwire admitted that steroids helped create the Paul Bunyan physique that helped him crush baseballs at a record rate. Bernie Madoff was caught running the largest ponzi scheme the financial world had ever seen, all his supposed brilliance exposed as a con and a pile of lies.
In his responses to Jesus, it’s clear that while Nicodemus says that he knows Jesus must have come from God, his mind is still firmly stuck on the things and ways of the world. It would appear that in coming to meet Jesus, Nicodemus has come to Jesus to find evidence as to whether or not this miracle man is too good to be true. Perhaps he isn’t quite what he seems, and is yet another false prophet. Another skilled con man using the name of God to make his name and fortune. Though he acknowledges Jesus as coming from God, he seems either unwilling or incapable of understanding Jesus’ words in a spiritual manner. Nicodemus saw the signs, but life-giving faith eluded him. He saw the signs, but he altogether missed the point.
Jesus first addresses Nicodemus saying literally, “Truly, truly I say to you, unless someone is born again, he is not able to see the kingdom of God.” One of the amazing and beautiful things about John’s gospel is its use of words. Obviously Jesus is a nuanced, revelatory speaker in all the gospels, but John’s especially has a tendency to use words that work on multiple levels. And these words of Jesus are a prime example. Because while the NIV and my translation from the Greek both say “born again,” it could just as easily and just as rightly be translated “unless someone is born from above.”
From his question of how this is possible Nicodemus obviously understood Jesus to be saying “born again” in a physical sense. But when Jesus says “flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit,” we understand that he’s is talking about being born from above. Man can’t be born from his mother a second time, but to see the kingdom he must be born from heaven…washed and made clean, made a new man by the power of God.
The “kingdom of God” too has a depth of meaning that Nicodemus apparently fails to catch. When we think of a kingdom, we generally think about a physical place. We think about the area of land over which a king or queen exerts his or her authority. But in the gospels as applied to Jesus, the word translated “kingdom” isn’t such a static noun. In the gospels, Jesus himself is the kingdom of God. He is the reigning power of God, come down into the earth to enact and demonstrate God’s might and plan for his people. So as Jesus speaks to Nicodemus he’s saying that if anyone wants to see the kingdom of God, if anyone wants to truly understand who Jesus is as both God and man, he needs to be born from above.
But Nicodemus doesn’t catch any of that. He wants to know how a man can be born again, since entering back inside your mother’s womb seems a rather impossible proposition. But that’s not what Jesus is talking about. He’s talking about the gift and work of holy baptism. This is another time I just love how Scripture fits together. Notice that Jesus talks about entering into the kingdom of God. And I just said that Jesus is the kingdom of God, breaking into the world. Beyond the fact that Jesus talks about the joint use of water and the Word, how do we know that he’s speaking here about baptism? In Jesus’ explanation, he says that no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit. And St. Paul in Romans 6:3- says “Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death?” When we are baptized, born into the kingdom of God, we are being born into the very death and resurrection of Christ.
Still, Nicodemus fails to understand. Finally Jesus basically says “You want a sign? Alright, I’ll give you a sign.” He sends Nicodemus back to the Old Testament. To the book of Numbers. In Numbers 21, as they did so often, the people complained about God leading them out of Egypt just to be miserable and die in the desert, going far enough to even complain about there being no bread when God was providing manna for them each and every day. As punishment for their sin, the Lord sent venomous snakes among them, biting and killing many of the people. Recognizing and confessing their sin, the people asked Moses to help them. Numbers 21:8 then says “The Lord said to Moses, ‘Make a fiery serpent and set it on a pole, and everyone who is bitten, when he sees it, shall live.’”
Anyone who had faith in God’s promise could be saved. All they had to do was look up at the standard, see pole holding the snake, and they would be healed. We know that this salvation was through only through faith in the Word of God connected to the snake and not the snake itself because in 2 Kings 18 King Hezekiah had the snake destroyed. It had become an object of idolatry, with people putting their faith in the snake, rather than the Word. Salvation and healing was through faith in God and his word, not the snake itself.
Jesus makes only a brief reference to this snake, but it’s a story that as a teacher Nicodemus would have known well. Though it’s a brief comment, Jesus uses it to point a far greater coming event. In the desert Moses was told to put a snake on a standard for the salvation of the people. Jesus says that in the same way, he too must be lifted up. If Nic desires a sign of God’s kingdom and salvation, then he will need to be confronted with the cross, the standard on which the body of Christ would be hung for the salvation of all people.
Events like the recent earthquake in Japan often and easily lead people to ask questions of God. If God is love, how can he let something like this happen? Like Israel, we often fall into the temptation to grumble against God when things don’t go our way, or the way we think they should go. We may accuse him of not caring.
Like Nicodemus, we at times want Jesus to provide confirmation of who he is. We want earthly answers, earthly evidence. We want God to answer our questions our way, and in accordance with our expectations. When we look at God this way, when we try to confine the God of all eternity and all power to the limits and sensibilities of our sinful, human natures, we can all too easily miss that he’s saying and directing us toward something far greater. Something far more lasting. Something eternal.
Like Nicodemus, Christ calls us to fix our eyes on the standard of our salvation. To look at Christ’s body…stripped, beaten, bloody, and hung upon the cross for our salvation. The snake was held up on the standard in the desert before Israel as a symbol God’s just punishment of their sin. In repentance and with trust in God’s word, they could look at it and receive healing and rescue.
Jesus too was lifted up and on display for all too see. But his body hanging on the cross was no mere symbol. He was lifted up as the very Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. As we see Jesus nailed to his standard on Golgotha, we see the very real punishment of our sin. We see the full weight and consequence of our sin being laid upon and paid by the perfect Son of God. In him we see all of God’s just wrath poured out on Him who bore our guilt and the punishment we truly deserved.
The cross is the consummation of all the signs Jesus performed. It is the greatest demonstration of God’s power and glory the world has ever seen. It is God’s ultimate sign of his love; that he sent his Son into the world to bear our sin and die, so that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life. All the pain, all the suffering in the world…all of it pales in comparison to this one, ultimate act of sacrificial love. Whatever challenges face us, God’s promise and our sure hope is that there is no condemnation for those who believe. For those who look to the cross and believe, there is salvation, life, and joy.
Nicodemus would eventually see this sign. He would see Jesus lifted up on the cross. And it is he who would bring his body down and bury him. Whether this sight yielded to the Spirit’s call of faith isn’t said for sure. Certainly though it was a grisly and terrible sign, a scandal and offense to the eye to those who don’t believe. But to those who do believe, to those who have been born from above by the power of the Spirit, it is the greatest sign and miracle of all. Far from being a disappointment or a fraud, in his death Jesus surpassed all human expectation. This Lent, may we see again this greatest of Jesus’ signs and believe. Let us see and believe so that, as the Scriptures say, by believing we may have life in his name. Amen.
