1Now there was a Pharisee named Nicodemus, a leader of the Jews. 2He 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.” 3Jesus answered him, “Very truly, I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above.” 4Nicodemus 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?” 5Jesus answered, “Very truly, I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit. 6What is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the Spirit is spirit. 7Do not be astonished that I said to you, ‘You must be born from above.’ 8The 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.” 9Nicodemus said to him, “How can these things be?” 10Jesus 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. 12If I have told you about earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you about heavenly things? 13No one has ascended into heaven except the one who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. 14And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, 15that 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.
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May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable to You, O Lord, my rock and my Redeemer.
Grace, mercy, and peace are yours from God the Father and our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.
John 3:16 is arguably the most well-known verse in the bible; in fact, if we were tasked with summing up the entire doctrine of Christianity in one sentence, this verse would serve that purpose. God’s love for the world, as expressed by the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ is what our faith is all about. It’s what it means to be a Christian. It is the Good News of God, it is the euangelion, it is the gospel itself. We could probably delete every other verse in Scripture and these 25 words would suffice, if we were asked to explain the Christian faith to someone who had never heard of God, or Jesus, or Christians. “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.” Thus, Jesus distills for Nicodemus the reason for God sending Jesus into the world. And he goes on to tell Nicodemus that God sent Jesus not to condemn the world, but to save it.
But quite a bit of other teaching takes place before Jesus gets to the good part, and this dialog with Nicodemus experiences a few bumps along the way. And each of these points out the difference between “knowing” and “believing”. It’s apparent that Nicodemus, in spite of his vocation as a Pharisee, a teacher of Jewish Law, has become aware of what Jesus has been preaching and teaching. He seeks Jesus out, wanting to learn directly from him, and perhaps gain a more theological insight as to what is being taught. But he’s not foolish enough to visit Jesus in the light of day where others might observe his coming and going; this wouldn’t bode well for him among his colleagues. So, he goes to see Jesus under cover of darkness and begins to tell Jesus what he “knows” about him.
Nicodemus “knows” that Jesus is a rabbi, a teacher sent from God. He “knows” Jesus can perform miraculous signs. He “knows” that a person can’t be born again. He claims to know all these things but Jesus chides him because he doesn‘t “believe” what Jesus assures him is true. It’s obvious that Nicodemus has come to Jesus in the dark, seeking light, but he is slow to recognize the light that Jesus imparts to him. Again, he “knows” quite a bit, but doesn’t yet “believe”. In his nighttime search for spiritual light, he spends his time with Jesus arguing with him, rather than trying to comprehend what he is being taught. “How can these things be?” he asks, and isn’t that the indication that he feels he knows things but doesn’t grasp the nature of the real truth?
But, let’s not judge Nicodemus too harshly; he was steeped in thousands of years of Jewish religious doctrine, and the things Jesus is teaching would have sounded incomprehensible to him, the learned Pharisee he was. He may be a bit reluctant to go all-in on Jesus’ radical teaching, but he has made the effort to seek him out to try to understand what is being taught. And it seems that he does come to believe, at least in some manner, for later in John: 6 Nicodemus defends Jesus before a group of Pharisees; and he, along with Joseph of Arimathea takes Jesus’ body down from the cross to prepare him for burial. He eventually comes to see the light which Jesus brings, but this morning we are witnesses to Jesus and Nicodemus’ encounter in the darkness of night. It will take quite a bit more time for Nicodemus to consider Jesus’ words before he comes to acknowledge them as truth.
I’m sure Nicodemus spent a great deal of time considering what Jesus taught him; about the need to be born from above, the role of water and the Spirit in rebirth, and that Jesus was to be lifted up on the cross to secure eternal life for all who believe. Nicodemus must have debated greatly within himself, struggling with reconciling what he knows versus what he believes. And we now find ourselves, once again in Lent, the season in the church calendar when we are encouraged to self-reflect, to examine our relationship with the God who created us. This time of self-examination sets the stage for us to go beyond simply considering how we view our righteousness with God. It affords us the opportunity to acknowledge more deeply what it is about our faith that we “know” and “believe”.
We are rather familiar with God’s Word, we “know” the words that God has spoken, we read them in Scripture. This Lent we must ask ourselves, what do we “believe” about them? We “know” God’s promises; what do we truly “believe” about them? We “know” that Jesus told Nicodemus and us that God loved the world so much that he sent Jesus to be given for its salvation. How fully do we “believe” this? I’ll be honest, these are really trick questions; if all of us didn’t truly believe God’s Word, God’s promises, and the salvation brought about through Jesus’ sacrifice, we wouldn’t be here this morning. So, it’s not really about discerning whether or not we “believe” these things, but rather what we’re going to do with this belief, this faith we profess. Belief is best expressed through action.
And, in keeping with these things that we believe, the church encourages the parents of a child being baptized to accept certain responsibilities to help the child grow in their baptismal promises. And these are then repeated when confirmands are asked if they intend to continue in their life of discipleship, as they celebrate Confirmation. And quite simply, these promises are the reflection of putting into practice what it is we affirm that we “believe”. We confirm that we will express our beliefs through action. We respond, “I do and I ask God to help and guide me”, when these are presented to us. We affirm that we will; “live among God’s faithful people”, “hear the Word of God and share in the Lord’s Supper”, “proclaim the Good News of Christ through word and deed”, “serve all people”, and “strive for justice and peace”.
And it just so happens that these five disciplines compose the theme for our community’s weekly Lenten worship services with our neighboring churches. What a wonderful invitation to examine our understanding of how what we know and what we believe come to demonstrate how we live. Our Lenten practice must include a sincere willingness to reflect on how we put our belief into action. We are called to pose these promises as questions to ourselves. Do we “live among”, “hear the Word”, “proclaim the Gospel through our deeds”, “serve”, and “strive”? We “know”, like Nicodemus that these are the ways in which we are called to live out our discipleship, and we “believe” them to be true. But there is one more piece to the story, and that is the putting of that which we know and believe into action. We must “know”, “believe”, and “DO!”
Will you pray with me? Good, and gracious, and holy God, like those who have come before us we know that your promises are truth; and we believe that we are called to live as disciples of Jesus. Help and guide us as we strive to turn what we know and believe into how we think, and speak, and act. And we pray these things in the name of Jesus Christ, the One whom we know and in whose saving work we believe.
God is Good, all the time. All the time, God is Good. Amen.