"Born Again . . . and Again"

John 3:1-17

Second Sunday of Lent + March 20, 2011

Reverend Dr. David C. Brown
Pilgrim Congregational United Church of Christ
400 Glenwood Drive, Chattanooga, TN 37404

Do any of you recall from about twenty or so years ago when you were watching a major football game on television that there was a zany character with a multi-colored Afro sitting in a prominent place frantically waving two flashlights to draw attention to the sign he was holding up? The sign read “John 3:16,” no more and no less. I haven’t seen that fellow and his sign for years but I continue to see the “John 3:16” signs from time to time.

Sometimes I have wondered if those seeing such signs know what it refers to. I suppose many people recognize that it refers to a famous verse in the Bible: “For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” Some of us learned that verse long ago in Sunday School days and you may have noticed that I quoted it from memory in the translation from which I learned it: the King James Version.

Over the years you and I have heard sermons preached on this text. Nearly always the focus has been on the phrase “to be born again” which occurs a few verses earlier in John 3:3. This phrase is so powerful and compelling that a large group of Christians today identify themselves as “Born Again” Christians.

Given the significance of this phrase, it is fascinating to realize that this is the only place in the Gospel record where Jesus uses it. The words never appear in Matthew, Mark, or Luke but only this one time in John when Jesus is talking with Nicodemus. The Gospels tell us that Jesus met all kinds of other individuals who were searching for meaning in their lives, or a new understanding of their faith, or a deeper relationship with God, and yet he did not use this phrase in telling them what they would need to do in order to find the answer they were seeking. As far as the Gospels are concerned, Jesus never used the phrase “to be born again” with his disciples and they never used it in their own teaching and preaching after the resurrection.

Why is that? I am going to explain it to you but I am afraid that some of you may be upset when I do.

The answer is this: the Gospel of John is not an historical or biographical account of the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. It was written about 70 or 80 years after Jesus by an unknown author who regards himself as writing in the spirit and tradition of the disciple John. While the Gospel contains many historical recollections of what Jesus said and did, it is not a factual biography as you and I would understand it. No, it is a profound theological reflection on the meaning of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus. Let me put it this way – and I hope this does not confuse you – the Gospel of John is not about facts but about truth. “John” is not concerned about facts but faith. He wants us to believe as passionately as he does in Jesus Christ. To do this he will tell his powerful stories. Are they factual accounts of what actually happened? Probably not, but they are truthful stories. I hope you understand the difference. “John” wants us to discover the meaning of life and find faith in Jesus Christ through his gospel. That will only happen when you and I find ourselves in the stories he tells. And that is what you and I can do this morning, listen again to this powerful truth-telling story of the meeting between Jesus and Nicodemus.

To begin, let’s set the scene: Jesus and his disciples have completed a long and tiring day. Nighttime arrives and while his disciples were resting, Jesus finds the time to be alone and renew his own spiritual focus.

Suddenly, there is a gentle knock at the door. Here is Nicodemus come to see him in secret. Nicodemus is a Pharisee. He is a comparatively wealthy man, an aristocrat who belongs to one of the distinguished Jerusalem families. To be a Pharisee meant that you belonged to a deeply dedicated group within Judaism. We must not allow the hostility of the New Testament writers toward the Pharisees to prejudice us. The Pharisees were deeply devout Jews. The name “Pharisees” means “the Separated Ones” and that describes Nicodemus exactly: he is a man who has separated himself from the world’s pleasures in order to live a life of exemplary devotion and goodness. We also learn that Nicodemus is a leader in the Jewish community. He held a seat in the Sanhedrin, a sort of “Supreme Court” of Judaism, composed of seventy leading Jewish leaders of the day who were responsible for safeguarding religious orthodoxy and exercising religious jurisdiction over every Jew in the world.

I think we can assume Jesus was astonished to have this important pillar of the establishment come to see him. Most of Jesus’ time was spent with peasants, farmers, fishermen, merchants, women, foreigners, tax collectors, and prostitutes – those with little or no social or religious standing in the Jewish community. Nicodemus represents his first point of contact with society’s upper crust. What makes it more remarkable is that this very respectable fellow has taken the initiative to come and talk with Jesus. So how can we find ourselves in Nicodemus? How is his story our story? Let me suggest some ways.

First, like most of us, Nicodemus is a solid, respectable citizen who believes that he has a built-in strength of character to which Jesus could add little. Time after time over the years, I have met such people in the course of my ministry. They are intelligent, charming, decent people who feel no great need of deepening their faith and commitment to God. Their motto is: “God helps those who help themselves.” Though they are usually too polite to say so, they regard religion as the last resort of the poor, the weak, the morally fallen. They see religion as a kind of ambulance, the church as a hospital, and clergy as physicians of the last resort to whom the needy can turn in crisis or in old age. In the meantime, these strong ones can take care of themselves.

Such people are by no means anti-religious. They think of the ambulance service as a good and necessary thing . . . for other people(!) Indeed, they want the best ambulances and hospitals and clergy doctors available if and when they might ever need it themselves. Thus, they make an appropriate, though usually not generous, donation to the upkeep of their church hospital and they honor it with their presence now and then.

In a word, these good folk are the patrons of religion and there is a bit of the patronizing in their support.  In every church, we can find counterparts of Nicodemus. He represents what we might call the “in group.” It includes those who have inherited their Christian faith like a family legacy. Some will tell you proudly they were “born into” the church.

Usually, these modern counterparts of Nicodemus are the most difficult to reach. As someone said, they have been inoculated with a mild form of Christianity. That has served to protect them from ever catching a more serious form of the faith. Yet even these folk from time to time feel a sense of uncertainty. Sometimes, they discover within themselves a kind of spiritual need. They feel something is missing, though they don’t know quite what it is. There is no spark, no fire, no flame. They see others who have a passionate relationship to their faith and they know a momentary, wistful hope that, perhaps, they, too, might have some of the same passion themselves. They are Nicodemus.

Second, some of us are like Nicodemus in the way we approach Jesus. There were many in Jesus’ day who approached him openly, without hesitation. Sick people tried to touch him. Others came and asked his advice. Some shouted at him in their attempt to get his attention. On one occasion four men brought their sick friend on a to stretcher. In order to get him to Jesus, they had to go up on the roof and take it apart so they could lower their friend down into the room where Jesus was.

Nicodemus would not come to Jesus in any such open and obvious and public way. He came to Jesus by night when no one would see him. He came secretly so that no one knew about it. He came not as a seeker but as a skeptic, to discuss religion in a detached and philosophical way. He didn’t want to appear to be personally involved. In his opening statement he uses the pronoun “We” rather than “I.” As he put it: “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God . . .”

Isn’t it true that some of us approach Jesus in the same offhand, tentative, skeptical, secret manner? We feel the need to be careful lest we become too personally involved. Like Nicodemus we are wise enough to sense that Jesus and what he represents is a powerful, life-changing force and we aren’t sure we are quite ready for that. We are intrigued but we are also fearful. And, once again, we are Nicodemus.

Third, Nicodemus represents us in not being sure what he is searching for. The story in John’s Gospel doesn’t tell us what was on Nicodemus’ mind. All we can do is make some educated guesses by how Jesus answers him.

Nicodemus is like some people who come to counselors. They know they have a problem but they are not able clearly to communicate what the problem is. They know something is wrong in their lives, but they are unable to pinpoint it.

Dare I say it? I believe there are some people – more than you and I might realize – who come to this church every Sunday who feel there is something missing in their lives, but they are not sure what it is. They sense that there is a deeper spiritual side to life, but they don’t know how to find it. They come searching, yet they are not sure exactly what it is that they are searching for.

What was Nicodemus looking for? Perhaps he had heard Jesus preach, had seen him heal people, had heard him teaching. Each time he had come away with the troubling feeling that whoever or whatever else he might be, this young carpenter from Nazareth had a unique relationship with God, and Nicodemus wanted to have something like that in his own life.

There was no question that Jesus possessed something, a quality, a depth of life for which he, Nicodemus, despite all his wealth and social prominence, had passionately sought, but which he had never been able to find. I believe an irresistible urge led him to seek out Jesus and talk with him privately. Underneath his veneer of piety and respectability was an aching void. Perhaps Jesus could help him fill it. And Jesus does just that. That’s why Jesus could say to him those powerful words: “Very truly, I tell you, no one can enter the Kingdom of God without being born from above.”

At first Nicodemus does not understand or, rather, he misunderstood what Jesus is talking about. He is sincerely puzzled and asks, “How can anyone be born after having grown old? Can one enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?”

So Jesus explains further. He is talking about a spiritual rebirth, a new way of being, so that Nicodemus would begin to see the whole world and his relationship with God in a fresh way. Notice particularly that Jesus never implies that Nicodemus is outside the Kingdom of God. He is already in the Kingdom of God. He simply can’t see it. In so many words, Jesus is saying, “Nicodemus, you are surrounded by God. God is within every part of life and every part of your world. But you might as well be dead to it, because you seem unable to see it or recognize it. You need a fresh beginning, a new start. You need to be born again. Like a newborn child, you need the opportunity to see the reality of God as if for the first time.

Nicodemus is like some of us. He has grown used to seeing the world and seeing God and seeing himself in the old way. He is blind to the ever-changing, every-new reality of God here and now. In that respect he reminds me of those psychological test pictures you may have seen. You know the sort of thing I mean: the old hag or the young woman? The skull or the lovely lady? They are like those children’s toys which viewed one way shows one picture and from another way shows another. Do you realize that there are some people who have enormous difficulty in seeing more than one picture? It reveals the difficulty they have in their lives of seeing things in a new way. They are trapped in old perceptions and understandings.

That is why Jesus says to Nicodemus and, through him, to us: “You must be open to seeing God, other people, yourself, the whole world, in a new way. You need a new spirit and a fresh beginning. You need to re-examine you pre-conceptions. You need to look again at your basic assumptions about God and what God wants from you. You need to become like a child with all a child’s openness and eagerness. Then you will be able to see the Kingdom of God.”

“John” doesn’t tell us what happened to Nicodemus after this midnight meeting. We don’t know if he accepted Jesus’ challenge and ran the risk of opening his life to this new reality of God. If he did, we don’t know whether this happened suddenly or gradually. Perhaps he simply went home and dismissed the whole conversation with Jesus as so much religious double-talk.

Too often, like Nicodemus, when we think of conversation, of being born again, we have in our mind an image of prodigals suddenly turning homeward, or someone in deep trouble suddenly seeing the light. Such miracles of personal transformation do occur and sometimes they are very sudden and dramatic. But some of the most notable conversions I have witnessed have been of a different kind – church members who have never doubted Christianity, who have for years been going to church, and then gradually their lives begin to change, not suddenly or dramatically, but in little ways over the years. Looking back, they see that their lives are different. They have been born again, and again, in little baby steps here and there. They grow and continue to mature in the faith. They are new people.

For them, life never ends.