(part of the “Breathing Out” Lenten Series)

Scripture Passage:  John 3: 1-17 (Lent 2A)

Now 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.

In an essay on this passage, Nurya Parish says she thinks that “every baptism or confirmation class should include a showing of the movie Mary Poppins.  Not for the suffragettes or the magic carpetbag [but for] the scene where Mary, Bert, and the children take hands and jump straight into the middle of a sidewalk chalk painting, emerging in an entirely new, much more colorful world.  That’s what becoming a disciple does…you leave an old, dreary world behind and enter a world where the unexpected becomes commonplace.  It’s not enough simply to say you are a disciple; you actually have to jump.”

That’s what Nicodemus did not get in the Gospel passage that we read, even though he was a learned leader and, therefore, a teacher, of the Jews, a rabbi, a teacher of all things Scriptural and all things faith.  He knew what questions to ask and we should probably give him the benefit of the doubt that he was continuing to probe and explore.  Maybe he wasn’t as sure of his own certainty when it came to beliefs. Maybe he wasn’t ready to admit that to himself.  He wasn’t really ready to go there yet.  So, he goes to Jesus in the dark of night, cloaked in mystery and secrets and probably trying to hide the fact that he was having trouble understanding it all from the rest of the community.  He wanted Jesus to get rid of all the doubts that Nicodemus had.  He wanted Jesus to make it all perfectly clear for him so that he could go on imparting that knowledge to the rest of the community.  He wanted Jesus to give him the answers.

Part of the problem may have been semantics.  After all, he did believe what Jesus had done, what Jesus had told him.  He knew that Jesus had done numerous miracles.  He had seen it with his own eyes.  So he knew that Jesus was good, he knew that Jesus was worthy as a teacher.  And yet, Jesus seemed to talk in circles.  He preached that one had to be born from above.  But how can one be born unless he or she re-enters the mother’s womb?  He preached that one must be born in the Spirit, and yet admitted that the place from which the Spirit blew was unknown and unknowable.  How can this be?  And he preached that one must believe.  Nicodemus believed what Jesus said.  What was Jesus talking about, then?

When you read this, you do sense that Nicodemus must have been a good teacher.  He was astute and knew what questions to ask.  He was diligent as he studied and explored to get to the truth.  But how could he believe this circular reasoning that Jesus was espousing?   Part of the problem, it seemed, was that Nicodemus and Jesus had completely different understandings of what “believe” was.  Nicodemus had, after all, accepted Jesus’ propositions.  He had probably even taught it.  But Jesus was not asking for people to believe what he did or believe what he said.

There is a difference between believing Christ and believing IN Christ.  Believing IN means that you enter into relationship, that you trust with everything that you are, with everything that is your life, that you sort of jump into it. It is much more visceral than Nicodemus was really read to accept.  Nicodemus wanted to understand it within the intellectual understanding of God that he had.  But Jesus was telling him that there was a different way.  Jesus was inviting, indeed almost daring, Nicodemus to believe in this new way, to turn his life, his doubts, his heart, and even his very learned mind over to God.

“How can this be?”  Those are Nicodemus’ last words in this passage, which sort of makes him a patron saint for all of us who from time to time get stuck at the foot of the mountain, weighed down by our own understandings of who God is, without the faintest idea of how to begin to ascend.  But there’s Jesus.  “Watch me.  Put your hand here.  Now your foot.  Don’t think about it so hard.  Just do as I do.  It’s like the Mary Poppins chalk painting.  Just jump!  Believe in me.  And follow me….this way!

We’re the same.  We are ALL Nicodemus.  We want to be certain.  Really?  Consider this:  the opposite of faith is not doubt…that would be WAY too easy.  The opposite of faith is certainty.  I mean, if you were certain, if this all made sense to you, well goody for you but, really, why would you need faith?  Breathe out the need to be certain, the need to have all the answers.  And breathe in faith, that wild, unexpected, sometimes-unexplainable thing that brings us closer not to the answers…but to God. So….JUMP!  I mean, after all, wouldn’t you want to be like Mary Poppins?

When we get our spiritual house in order, we’ll be dead. This goes on. You arrive at enough certainty to be able to make your way, but it is making it in darkness. Don’t expect faith to clear things up for you. It is trust, not certainty. (Flannery O’Connor)

Grace and Peace,

Shelli