John 3:1-17 Pastor Nathan P. Kassulke
Second Sunday in Lent Sunday, March, 2023 “Jesus Is God’s Heavenly Gift to You”
Jesus and Nicodemus met at night. They were the only ones. Of course, John’s Gospel records many additional examples of Jesus teaching. Besides this exchange, the Bible tells us only one other sentence spoken by Nicodemus. I couldn’t tell you for certain what Nicodemus would say if he were to speak to us about his experience with Jesus, but based on what John describes for us, I imagine it would be something like this: “Well…I am a little embarrassed that this is the event that people seem most interested in. They don’t want to ask me about the time I reminded the rest of the Sanhedrin that we shouldn’t condemn anyone without a trial. John included that in his Gospel, too. People remember from time to time that I helped bury Jesus on the evening of Good Friday. I know we didn’t have the time or the spices to do everything right, but we still took special care. But most of the time, when people think about me, Nicodemus, they think about the time that I met Jesus alone at night. “And they wonder about the fact that I did it that way. Did I not have enough courage to go during the day? Was I worried about what would happen? Was I concerned that the other members of the council would be upset? Sure, all of those things played a part. I am a human being just like you. We sometimes make decisions out of fear and worry. On the other hand, that late-night visit gave me the chance to talk to Jesus, without crowds interrupting or demanding his attention away. I got to listen to him and ask questions. And I am sure glad that’s what happened. “I was very curious about Jesus. If someone was doing miracles, and that was the report on Jesus, if someone was doing miracles, God had to be with that person. I said as much to him. I thought he might say more about God and about those miracles he was doing, but he instead told me about being born from above. He said that had to happen for someone to be able to see the kingdom of God. Some of your translations have Jesus saying that someone must be ‘born again,’ and that’s not a wrong translation. The Greek could have either of those meanings. But either way, I didn’t know what Jesus meant. I knew he couldn’t mean going back into my mother to be born a second time. Of course that couldn’t happen. But what did he mean? “I know now that Jesus meant that God had to give us a different kind of birth. When he was answering, Jesus said, ‘Whatever is born of flesh is flesh. Whatever is born of the Spirit is spirit.’ And that makes sense. We have sinful parents, and so we are born sinful like they are. And that’s not something to take lightly. That means that we are enemies of God. That means that we are incapable of loving him or serving him or even believing in him, trusting him. It means that without help— without rescue—we are doomed to destruction in hell. I know I have felt my conscience bothering me, warning me. I know that I have done plenty of things wrong. I don’t at all like to think about the fact that I ought to be punished forever, but I sure understand that I ought to be punished. “And without being born again or being born from above, punishment is all I would get. Jesus talked to me about the working of the Holy Spirit. He talked about being born of water and the Spirit. It was obvious to me that Jesus was talking about baptism. Baptism was a big deal with the work of John the Baptist going on. Some people in your day have apparently used Jesus’ words here to suggest that there are two different baptisms. They say that there is a baptism with water, like the one that you would use your font for, and there is another baptism of the Spirit. That Spirit-baptism would be the real one, the important one. That’s not what Jesus was saying. The Greek is even more clear than the English. This is one event, one activity that takes place: being born of water and the Spirit. This is when people are converted to faith. This is baptism. “And this is a gift of God. Just like you, I had nothing to do and no choice involved when I was born the first time. And just like you, I had nothing to do and no choice involved when I was born again,