Chris Breslin—Year A Lent 2

Anthony: Let’s dive into our lectionary text. That’s why we’re here. We have four passages that we’re going to look at this month. Our first passage of the month is John 3:1–17. I’ll be reading from the New Revised Standard Version, the updated edition. It is a Revised Common Lectionary passage for the second Sunday in Lent / Easter Preparation, March 1.

Now there was a Pharisee named Nicodemus, a leader of the Jews. ² He 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 unless God is with that person.” ³ Jesus answered him, “Very truly, I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above.” ⁴ Nicodemus 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?” ⁵ Jesus answered, “Very truly, I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit. ⁶ What is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the Spirit is spirit. ⁷ Do not be astonished that I said to you, ‘You must be born from above.’ ⁸ The 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.” ⁹ Nicodemus said to him, “How can these things be?” ¹⁰ Jesus answered him, “Are you the 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. ¹² If I have told you about earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you about heavenly things? ¹³ No one has ascended into heaven except the one who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. ¹⁴ And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, ¹⁵ that 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.

So, Chris, how would you herald the gospel if you were preaching this text to your congregation?

Chris: I’m really struck by this scene because it features someone in Nicodemus that is so serious and also in some ways so staked to the status quo but also is courageous and humble enough to ask Jesus to reveal something new to him.

Just think these days it can be really distressing. Maybe you feel this to live in a world, in a media environment where two people can. Receive the same data or receive the same video or hear the same words and interpret those things like drastically differently. And sometimes in host hostile opposition.

And this happens in our church community. Sometimes it’s happening around them and inside them. Putting aside for a second that we’re that we’re all sinful and our vision and our hearing are in some ways, like provisional, still seems like there’s always a subset of folks who can and want to see and hear with clarity.

There’s a subset who can’t maybe yet, and there’s a subset who won’t or don’t want to. And so, I think this is remarkable on a human level: the curiosity and the courage of Nicodemus here. Although he does meet at night with some level of concealment and caution.

Anthony: Sure, sure.

Chris: And also the patience and the creativity of Jesus in his response. So, that’s the lens I’m approaching this with. This is a fascinating scene of Jesus encountering someone who can’t see but wants to. Jesus, Flannery says, draws large and startling images, like the image, the main image, being born again.

But he doesn’t quite shout at Nicodemus here. Jesus is complicating. Nicodemus is closed, too small vision in the world, but also opening up a window so that he can begin to feel how the Spirit is blowing, where it comes or where it goes, you know. So, it seems like Jesus is like loosening Nicodemus’ grip, his control. We talked about a minute ago in likening the coming of God’s kingdom and Nicodemus’ participation in it as passing through a birth canal. This is so scandalous. I’m in a season of life where this seems like every two months is another kid coming up on the talk, and so, dropping birth canal language is — I’m sure that’s not what Nicodemus assumed was he was getting himself into, right?

Anthony: Yeah.

Chris: Like I also I wonder if there’s a little bit of a parallel, not directly, but this strikes me a little bit like the story of the rich young ruler and that story doesn’t show up in John’s gospel. All Nicodemus wanted was something to do, some takeaway, something to achieve, conquer, progress, know that he was right. And all Jesus gives him is an invitation to do less, to give it away, to take his hands off, to gain an innocence that is only able to receive from God like a newborn baby.

And the last thing I notice is that Jesus is fleshing out God’s word. And this is like the theme of John’s gospel, right? The Word made flesh.

Anthony: Yeah.

Chris: But the Word in our translations at the end in famous, like, stadium rainbow wig verse John 3:16, the Word is doing so much work. Most of my life, I considered that like a quantitative statement like, God loves the world so much, which of course is true that he would give his only Son. And maybe that, so muchness has some connections to certain ideas about atonement and, like, mismatch, and what God gives, and what we have.

But what if that so is also like qualitative, like God loves the world, just so. You know, just so. God loves the world by entering into it. The way God loves the world is by giving his Son. The gift of Jesus is a gift of God’s own presence and God’s unbreakable decision to have skin in our game.

Those are some of the things that jump out.

Anthony: Yeah, you just reminded me. We have a mutual friend who likes to say God didn’t just write us a letter, he paid us a visit. And I like the way you said it, that he has skin in the game. You’d mentioned how two people could read the same social media post or watch the same video and come to polar opposite positions.

And in that often what is people condemning one another, that there’s such disdain for the other position that we condemn. But God, as we read in verse 17, did not send this Son who he loved and so loved the world into the world to condemn it. And it gets me thinking if Jesus wasn’t sent to condemn, I’m pretty sure we’re not called to do that either.

And yet, we just have this enormous capacity to do that, to condemn one another. Can you talk about it? What’s the way forward in this roux that we’re finding ourselves swimming in at this constant condemnation of one another?

Chris: Yeah. I don’t know. I don’t know that I can speak generally, but when I feel most condemning of other people, that’s when I’m most insecure or when I feel most out of control or when it seems like, if I don’t lock this down, there’s not going to be enough.

I love that Nicodemus seeks out Jesus and gets this message of non-condemnation. I imagine him, Nicodemus, like, being glad that it’s at night so that Jesus can’t see him like writhing in his chair.

But what if this verse is true? I think it is. Like, what if God’s capital “YES” is so pronounced in our world that any “no” is lowercase and like only makes sense in light of God’s love and care and provision. Like, we don’t get that much about Nicodemus’ response or what happened after this encounter. Like the rich young rulers, he went away sad and we’re not really sure where that sadness is located or aimed. But we do get a story of Joseph, or of Nicodemus popping up later in the gospel alongside Joseph of Arimathea to help bury Jesus in John 19.

I think that’s like profoundly telling, that Jesus has this imaginative, non-condemning encounter with Nicodemus, and then somewhere along the line that turns him into a follower of Jesus, in the sort of person who used to only sidle up to Jesus in the shadows and in whisper tones, and is now out there with tenderness and sorrow tending to the body of a lynched dissident, who for all intents and purposes lost, was pulverized, was erased by the state and the church. People don’t know the bad news about themselves. There’s no need for the good news. Take a look at Nicodemus’ life of slow, steady unspectacular discipleship and the way he grew as a disciple. It’s really remarkable.

And it didn’t come from any condemnation of Jesus.

Anthony: Yeah. I love what you said. What if it’s true? Because it is, and I’m convinced of that, and the Lord has said yes. And so, any response back to the Lord as a yes is contained within his larger objective yes to us, that he so loved us, that he sent his Son.