Nicodemus and Learning: Numbers 21: 4-9; John 3: 1-17
Many years ago, I got to visit London and go to a few shows at West End of London. It’s basically their version of Broadway in New York. Now, because I’m an American and was with a bunch of other Americans, we decided to do a very American thing—watch a musical—specifically Wicked, which retells the Wizard of Oz in a new way. One of the songs has a line, “Because I knew you, I have been changed for good.” The audience is left to wonder whether “for good” means for goodness, permanently, or both.
In our final installment of Shocking Grace, we see a man who, many years before Broadway or West End musicals were invented, came to Jesus looking for something. He truly got the shock and the grace. But it is evident that, whatever Nicodemus took away from his encounter with Jesus, he was changed for good. That is the power of Christ, when it meets us, there’s something overwhelming, unexplainable, breathtaking, even. It comes to us and changes us as well.
Nicodemus was a respected Jewish leader who had become curious about Jesus and the miracles, signs, and wonders that Jesus displayed. In our Gospel, he comes to meet Jesus in the dark of night to avoid being caught. It clearly was not a random meeting for Nicodemus had sought out Jesus to talk with him. And the first words out of his mouth should knock the socks off any reader. We gloss over them, I think. Nicodemus says, “We all know that God has sent you to teach us. Your miraculous signs are evidence that God is with you.” They knew. They all knew of Jesus’s power and authority. Nicodemus outs his fellow Pharisees. They weren’t worried about the law, what was right, or anything. They were afraid of Jesus, the change his preached, and the way he welcomed people, yet they had him killed despite knowing all of the holy power he possessed.
Jesus, for his part, speaks powerful words to Nicodemus which confuse him. He is shocked at this teaching, these ideas that Jesus is saying. “You must be born again.” This is followed with, “You must be born of the Spirit.” It’s one of the first times Jesus references the Holy Spirit. He is basically laying out the roadmap of all of God’s plan to Nicodemus, who is still at a loss. But then, Jesus makes it plain, saying, “As Moses lifted up the bronze snake on a pole in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up.” This is a reference Nicodemus would know well. We’re not told what Nicodemus’s response is. Jesus’s teaching ends abruptly at verse 18, and in verse 19 he and his disciples leave Jerusalem.
But, I believe we can get the answer a little later on in the Gospel of John. Nicodemus is heard from two more times. In chapter 7 he defends Jesus to Sanhedrin or temple court. And after the crucifixion, it is Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea, who help bury Jesus. Nicodemus brings the myrrh and aloes for Jesus’s body. Who can say what Nicodemus took away from his meeting with Jesus? However, it appears he was changed for good.
The first big thing we see here is the grace of a Rabbi who patiently taught the teacher. Jesus gives a confused Nicodemus the full brunt of a message, “You must be born again.” Finally, Jesus makes it plain. In Numbers the people griped, complained, and turned against God and Moses rejecting them both and cursing the manna God provided. They had become filled with evil and poison in their hearts, minds, and words. So, God sent poisonous snakes to show them how filled with venom and poison they were. Then God provided a way for them to be healed when they called out for mercy.
What Jesus is saying is that people have become filled with poison again. It’s our humanity, or corruption. To cure that, to take that poison out, Jesus would be lifted up on a cross like the bronze serpent. With that act of love and grace, we would be healed like the Israelites. Jesus put it into words Nicodemus would know and understand. For us it’s the same. I get tired when people talk about “born-again Christians.” Jesus isn’t making distinctions here. There’s no such thing as “born-again” Christians and other Christians. Either you follow Christ and have the Spirit or you don’t. There’s not some layers or levels to this, and it’s wrong for people to make false divisions over whether there is one type of Christian or another. It’s simple: do you believe in and follow Jesus or not?
But there’s an even bigger lesson here—that of Jesus’s act of love to welcome. Verse 16, so often quoted, tells us that God loved the whole and entire world, and if you believe in this, you have life. But even more powerful is verse 17—that our God is about giving salvation over suffering, life over death, grace over judgment. This is our God, and our God did not come to judge or condemn. We seem to do it a lot, but God does not.
Jesus appears to welcome people as they were. Nicodemus was welcomed in the dark of night with all his questions and doubts. Zacchaeus the tax collector was welcomed despite his sneaky, cheating past. The woman at the well was welcomed despite her messy love life. The sanctimonious, the sinner, the would-be saint, the betrayer, the wicked, and the unwashed masses of people all searching for something new were welcomed to come to Jesus.
Unfortunately, Christ’s church has not always been so good at this. In the past the church drew a line to keep African Americans out, but Jesus said, “For God so loved the world.” In the past, the church drew a line to keep gifted women out, but Jesus said, “For God so loved the world.” In my formative years, the church drew a line to keep LGBT people out, but Jesus said, “For God so loved the world.” In times past the church has looked down on people with criminal records, who didn’t seem to fit, who looked different, but Jesus over and over again brought people into his presence to pull them upright and show them God’s miraculous and life-changing, unexplainable love.
The truth of the matter is that not one of us, and not any single person was ever condemned, refused, or turned away by Jesus. He welcomed everyone who came to him. The church cannot and should not ever keep anyone out. This is exactly where people need to be: here, welcomed to find love beyond human understanding and God’s grace for whatever burdens are carried. Yet, none of us can come to Jesus without expecting to be changed by that holy power and presence—that grace which makes us new, gives us life, gives us hope now and forever, and gives us purpose.
And how does this happen? For all of us, no matter what we’ve done, we hear those words of our hymn, “My sin, not in part, but the whole is nailed to the cross, and I bear it no more. Praise the Lord, O my soul.” But we are also, in a sense, born again because Christ gives us a new life, a new way, and a new direction in our walk here on earth. We lay down our old ways of being and thinking, and we find this new way where Christ leads us through God’s Spirit in us. It’s unexplainable, but no less miraculous and powerful. When Nicodemus came to Jesus, he was looking for an explanation. Instead, he got something completely different—he was changed for good. The same is true for us: Jesus still loves the whole word and yes, you and me too. But that love calls and tugs at us challenging us to be changed by the power of our loving Savior Christ—and changed for good.
Worship Video: https://www.facebook.com/fccmacon/videos/544022290234351