Nicodemus had come to Jesus by night with questions about things that had puzzled him. Before he even got a chance to ask them, Jesus began a dialog by making a series of very puzzling statements, which thoroughly baffled Nicodemus. Instead of just feeding Nicodemus the answers to his questions, Jesus gave him more food for thought.
We, too, would like to go to Jesus with simple answers to all of our questions, but Jesus doesn’t work that way. We learn more, and our findings become more meaningful when we have to work for the answers. As Jesus did with Nicodemus, Jesus does also with us. We come to the Bible seeking simple answers to complicated questions. Those with little patience quickly shut the books and say the answers are not there, God does not speak to God’s children, the Spirit doesn’t lead us into all the truth. But they would be incorrect. Jesus never said we would be spoon-fed anything. Jesus said, Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened for you. For everyone who asks receives, those who seek find, and to those who knock the door will be opened. (Matt. 7:7-8). Just as Nicodemus was to learn, the operative words require action on our parts: ask, seek, knock.
“In the same way that Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of
Humanity must be lifted up, so that everyone who believes in that One might have
eternal life.”
(John 3:14-15)
Nicodemus might have been overwhelmed by the information that Jesus presented him with, so much so that he could easily have missed Jesus’ prophetic statement alluding to His crucifixion. Jesus reminds Nicodemus of an incident which transpired long ago in Jewish history.
While Moses was leading the Israelites through the desert in their quest for the Promised Land, the people often complained about their situation, saying they regretted leaving Egypt. Even though God provided manna every day for them to eat, still they complained about the lack of bread or water, and they detested the manna. So God sent poisonous snakes into their midst. The snakes bit the Israelites and many of them died. Seeing so many deaths the Israelites went to Moses and acknowledged their sin in complaining about God and Moses, and asked that God remove the snakes. So Moses prayed for the people and God commanded that Moses make a snake out of bronze and erect it onto a pole. Anyone who had been bitten, and then looked on the bronze snake would survive.
At first glance it might appear that God had commanded Moses to make an idol, and in fact, the Israelites had taken to burning incense before it, until King Hezekiah broke it into pieces (see 2 Kings 18:4). Rabbinic scholars interpreted the result of God’s instruction to Moses saying that, knowing it was not the serpent that gave or took life, as long as Moses lifted up the serpent, the people turned to the One who had commanded Moses. What happened after Moses passed on was something entirely different.
Jesus uses this little story, recorded in Numbers 21:4-9, as a metaphor for salvation. Just as the snake was lifted up onto the pole, so would Jesus (the Son of Humanity) be lifted up onto a pole (crucified). Just as those who looked upon the snake were reminded of God and were saved, those who looked upon the crucified Jesus would also be reminded of God and would also be saved.
One wonders that Nicodemus must have been taken speechless after listening to these words from Jesus. John reports no further response from him, at least during this visit. Whether Nicodemus accepted Jesus as Messiah was not revealed; however, a few months before the crucifixion he made an attempt to defend Jesus before his colleagues, and when Jesus was dead he, along with Joseph of Arimathea, saw to it that Jesus had a decent burial. (John 7:50, 19:39)
For God so loved the world that God gave God’s only-begotten, Jesus, that
whoever believes in Jesus should not perish but have eternal life. For God did
not send Jesus into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world
through Christ. Whoever believes in Jesus is not condemned, but whoever does not
believe stands condemned already, because they have not believed in the name of
God’s one and only-begotten.
(John 3:16-18)
While most, if not all, translations of the Bible put the verses of John 3:16-21 in quotes, and in the red letters of Jesus’ words in the appropriate editions, scholars by and large do not attribute these verses to Jesus, but to the author of the gospel of John.
In these three little verses, John lays out the heart of Jesus’ message:
God loves the world. With so much hellfire and damnation being preached from pulpits worldwide, one might easily get the impression that God can’t stand humanity. We must remember that if we believe in an omniscient deity, then we have to assume that God knew what God was doing in creating us. Genesis 1:31 tells us that after God had finished creating the world and humanity, God saw all that God had made, and it was very good. That doesn’t mean that we all are good all the time, but by and large our hearts and our intentions are good. When we make mistakes and ask forgiveness, God is quick to forgive.
God gave us Jesus. In the first century, the collective
intelligence of humanity had risen to the point that we would be able to
comprehend immortality. There is only one way to convey positively and
conclusively that there is life after death–one must die and come back to
life. In order to convey the message throughout the ages, Jesus had to die,
and in a very dramatic, public way.
Beginning with Cain and Abel (Gen. 4:3, 4), human beings engaged in the
practice of offering sacrifices to God–to say thanks, to ask for favors, to
ask forgiveness. It might interest you to note that Genesis does not record
that God required, nor even asked for the offerings. But offerings were
presented anyway, right to the time of Jesus. Jesus was to be the final
sacrifice. That’s what is meant when we say that Jesus died for our sins.
Faith in Jesus brings about immortality. Faith in Jesus assures one of eternal life. Notice that there are no strings attached to this verse. Notice that there are no caveats, no restrictions, no qualifications. Just the words, “… whoever believes in Jesus should not perish but have eternal life.” Far too many preachers and teachers seem either to miss or at least to ignore this: that salvation is offered to WHOEVER believes in Jesus.
Jesus was not sent to condemn the world, but to save it. Down through the ages an inordinate number of teachers of the gospel have incorporated so many restrictions to salvation that it would seem that hardly anyone in the world would ever be “good enough” to qualify. In contrast, the author of John must have foreseen this when he wrote these words. It causes one to wonder if the teachers ever really read what they were teaching.
The only requirement for salvation is faith in Jesus Christ. We read that, “Whoever believes in Jesus is not condemned,” while from the mouths of untold numbers of clergy and lay believers, we hear that this person or that person is condemned, for unacceptable actions taken, or in the case of homosexual or transgendered persons, for simply being who they are. John wanted to make the point so clear that he repeated himself…whoever believes in Jesus shall not perish but have eternal life…and …whoever believes in Jesus is not condemned.
John was so convinced of Jesus’ deity that he believed that for anyone to reject Him once they had encountered Christ and heard His teachings, would result in their condemnation.
However, it is of utmost importance for us to remember that it is not our place to judge others, their religions or beliefs. It might surprise you to learn that there are other religions who also teach that to not believe in their faith or religion also brings about condemnation. There are other religions who teach that another was God’s only-begotten.
We, as Christians, are called to carry the message of God’s love for all of God’s children, and the grace and salvation that comes through Jesus Christ by the Holy Spirit. We are called to carry the message, but not to force it upon those who are not interested or would not benefit. The best way to carry the message of the love of God through Jesus is by living it. By being, the best Christian one can be. The great leader, Mahatmas Gandhi, a Hindu, was once quoted as saying words to the effect of: “I love the teachings of Jesus. I might have become a Christian, had it not been for His followers.” We must teach who Jesus is by living the way He did.
The verdict is this: Light has come into the world, but people loved the
darkness instead of light, because their deeds were evil. Those who do evil hate
the light. They will not come into the light out of fear that their deeds will
be exposed. But those who live in the truth come into the light, so that it may
be plainly seen that what has been done has been done through God.”
(John 3:19-21)
Calling back to statements John made in the first chapter of his gospel, he reiterates that Jesus is the light that has come into the world. One might say he equates and contrasts falsehood and ignorance with light and darkness. Those who want to do wrong love the darkness because it hides them and permits them to do mischief with less chance of being caught. People who want to do good are not afraid of the light.
There is another way that we might read this section. This position certainly applied to the way the Pharisees looked at things, of which Nicodemus was a part, in comparison with how Jesus taught. The lives of the Pharisees were guided not only by the Law, but also by the tradition, which grew up around the Law. God gave only ten commandments, but those in authority created some 600-plus additional laws to interpret the first ten. Over the centuries, these human-made laws were given status equal to the Ten Commandments. By the time of Jesus, people lived their lives under the absolute control of the authorities, governed by this system of laws.
Jesus came to bring to light what God originally intended in the Ten Commandments. But Jesus also knew that the religious authorities were so caught up in their traditions that most would not be interested in learning the truth. They loved the darkness (of their traditions), more than the light of truth, especially if the truth were to cause them to lose special privileges that they had held for so long.
Just as in the time of Nicodemus, we find today that there are those denominations who so cling to their traditional teachings that, even if they are informed that researchers have discovered that their teachings have been wrong, they will cling to their traditions (stay in darkness, rather than bring their people into the light.) This has shown to be true time and time again with respect to traditional teaching about homosexuality and the Bible. Many times in the last half of the twentieth century, denominations formed special committees to investigate the current research on homosexuality and the Bible. Without exception, these committees, after sometimes years of study, had returned the verdict that their denominations’ teachings have been wrong. With very few exceptions, these same denominations have ignored the findings of their own special committees in favor of keeping tradition. In chapters to come, we will see how Jesus confronted these teachers of the Law on their refusal to let go of their traditions in favor of the truth.
This ends our study for today.
Points to Ponder