John 3: Jesus, the Great Teacher (part 4)

To believe or not to believe? That is the question. Sorry, Hamlet. I couldn’t resist. But to be honest, that is the dilemma we all face, isn’t it? Every person who ever heard the good news has had to make that decision. But to believe is not to just give mental assent. This belief is one fraught with danger. It requires one to sell-out, to make a commitment so deep and so total that it not only improves who we are but changes who we are. Once we become believers, we are never the same – forever and radically altered. And even those words fall short of describing the demands of belief.

What Jesus is essentially doing in this encounter is laying down the conditions for entry into the kingdom of God. Under the previous system, one was a Jew by birth. He maintained his birthright by performing specified religious rituals. Of course, we know that true relationship to God was always a matter of faith – believing. But Jesus draws the line in the sand here. He makes it abundantly clear what he expects from those who would be in his kingdom.

To be honest, I’ve often wished for a new start. And you have too, haven’t you? Ever said, “If I could go back to when I was twenty (knowing what I know now), my life would be so different than what it turned out to be?”

Well, duh! For one thing, I would have invested every penny I ever earned in Microsoft and Apple. I would have avoided Krispy Kreme donuts like the plague. I would have spent more time with my wife and kids. I would have helped more old ladies across the street (you never know when one of them might be rich and leave her money to you).

Unfortunately for the flesh side of me, that is not at all what Jesus is talking about here. For one thing, I have been a fleshly kind of guy for as long as I can remember. I am truly drawn to the principles that govern this world. I want money. I want six-pack abs. I hate that double chin of mine so much that I would let a doctor cut it off if I had the money. I want nice cars and a house I can be proud of. The lure of the world is as common to me as it is to every human being who ever lived. I want what I want, and I want it now! And I want more of it now!

And that, I think is Jesus’ point in John 3. In order to enter the kingdom of God, there has to be a radical and complete shift in what is important to me. In other words, who and what I want to please changes. In the mind of the kingdom-minded man, the desire to satisfy the flesh doesn’t evaporate, but he makes a conscious decision to believe Jesus’ words about the flesh – that it counts for nothing. When I believe his words, I make a corresponding decision to be controlled by the spirit of God rather than my flesh. When my mind is focused on that truth, I choose to obey the spirit rather than the flesh every time (no matter how strong the pull on my flesh to satisfy itself).

Where I get in trouble is when my focus is not on the spiritual but on the flesh. Look around you! The entire world is operating on the principle of flesh satisfaction. The flesh is all about me and nothing about finding out what pleases God. For someone to break out of that fleshly mold and live his life on the entirely opposite principle is so radical in its difference that it’s like becoming a new person.

I know someone is going to say, “Hey, what about baptism? That’s what Jesus meant when he said ‘water and the spirit.’”

Maybe so. But even if he was talking about baptism when said “water,” that’s still not the point. If someone has not believed Jesus’ words about flesh and made the decision to submit to his will, what good would getting wet do? So what if I’m baptized in water. You think that’s going to make me a new person? If water baptism was all there was to entering the kingdom, I’ve got a better idea than believing. We round up some of those husky boys that hang around the gas station in my neck of the woods and we go out and find baptismal “candidates,” tie them up with duct tape (which is very common in my neighborhood), throw them in the back of one of the thousands of pickup trucks that run the roads around here, and take them to the river. Easy as pie!

I believe in the necessity of baptism as much as the next guy, but baptizing a fellow who has not believed in Jesus or in his words is like…, well, I can’t think of analogy so ridiculous that it would show you how foolish it would be to dunk an unrepentant, unbelieving man in water.

“ You should not be surprised at my saying, 'You must be born again.' The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit."

John 3: Jesus, the Great Teacher (part 3)

Have you ever considered this story from Nicodemus’ point of view? Well, I have. And I’ve got to be very forthright here – I completely identify with the poor fellow.

Think about it this way: He witnesses a few of Jesus’ miracles, so he begins to think to himself that there is no way that Jesus could be pulling off these signs and wonders if God were not with him. Am I on the right track here? So he goes to Jesus one night just to talk to him. Surely he knew that some of the other Pharisees would have raked him over the proverbial coals if they had seen him making this renowned visit. It’s not like he would be unwilling to take a public stand for Jesus if he were absolutely sure. Later on, after the execution of Jesus, Nicodemus was one of the fellows who carried his body to the tomb, so we know that he was a man of principle. But at this point, he just wasn’t sure – at least he wasn’t sure enough to stand next to Jesus as he preached in the synagogue. So he pays him a visit before he makes a total and public commitment.

And what does he get in return? If you want to know what I think, I think he gets what looks like at first glance, a runaround.

“Unless you are born again…”

Two thousand years later, this statement makes perfect sense – at least we think it does. But Nicodemus did not have our perspective. Jesus’ words were fresh off the press. Live TV, if you will. What do you think must have been going through his head at this point?

Born again? What in the world could he mean by born again? What am I supposed to do now? Go back up into my mother’s womb and come out again? I weigh 150 pounds now and I’m five feet seven inches tall. What in the world is all this born again talk? I just want to know if he’s from God or not.

What would you have done at this point? I would like to think that I would have pursued it further. But I would have probably been saying to myself, “Something's a little off with this guy. How am I going to get out of this one?"

Me? I probably would have been thinking of a thousand excuses for why it was necessary for me to leave.

I’m assuming here that Jesus was well aware of the fact that Nicodemus was confused by his reply. Personally, I would have responded to Nicodemus differently. I would have been more direct. But then again, I’m not the son of God. My problem is that I’m not as sure of where I came from, where I’m going, or why I’m here as Jesus was. He knew who he was. He knew his purpose. And he definitely knew the message he wanted to deliver to the world into which he had been thrust. So Nicodemus’ temporary discomfort was subjugated to Jesus’ greater purpose. Jesus knew that what he would teach Nicodemus that night would offer him the opportunity to live a vastly different life than the one he would have lived had he never encountered the son of God. As a matter of fact, his offer of a new and different life still stands over two thousand years later.

That’s why God is so good at what he does, by the way – he always sees the bigger picture. You and I are more prone to value the here and now, but God sees all the way to the end. And so, in the interest of the greater picture, Jesus adds to the confusion.

"No one can enter the kingdom of God if he is not born of the water and the spirit. "

And now for the big question – what does it mean to be born again? What does it mean to be born of the water and the spirit?