There is the story of an elderly gentleman who lived in a mid-western town. One day as he sat on his porch a stranger walk up and said, “Could you tell me about the people who live in this town? I’m thinking of moving here and want to know if this is a good place to live.” The elderly gentleman stopped his rocking and asked, “Well first tell me what type of people are there where you live now?” With a frown on his face the stranger said, “Well, the children are always making noise and running up and down the streets. The neighbors are always sticking their noses in other people’s business. And they never leave you alone.” “Then I’m afraid you would be disappointed here young man,” said the elderly gentleman, “for the people in this town are just like that.” With a huff the stranger walked away. Later in the afternoon another stranger approached the elderly gentleman and said, “Excuse me sir, but could you tell me about the people who live in this town? My company is moving me here and want to know if this is a good place to live.” The elderly gentleman stopped his rocking and asked, “Well tell me first what type of people are there where you live now?” A wide grin appeared on the stranger’s lips and he said, “Well, the children are great, they are always laughing and having fun as they run up and down the streets. The neighbors are compassionate and caring and nothing happens that they don’t know about. And they will never leave you alone.” “Then I’m glad to say that you would be happy here young man,” said the elderly gentleman, “for the people in this town are just like that.” And so with a joy filled heart the stranger walked away.
Expectations, we all have them. Expectations make all the difference in the world. Or put another way, what you expect to see is ultimately what you will get. Expectations can be good and expectations can be bad. They can help, or they can get in the way. Our preconceived expectations can cloud our eyes from seeing what is really there. John 3:16 - Nicodemus - You must be born again. We know the story. We know what to expect. Nicodemus - sneaking in at night, lest his fellow Pharisees learn of what he has done. “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these miracles except by the power of God.” Brown nosing it are we Nicodemus! Trying to butter up the teacher? Don’t you need an apple for that? So Jesus blasts this weaselly Pharisee. “You must be born again!!!” Ha, Ha - Got Ya! In this version of the story Nicodemus gets a bad rap. He is not a person. He is a two dimensional bit player who is used to display Jesus’ obvious superiority. He is seen as a cowardly fool, sneaking around under cover of darkness. A Pharisee ready to betray his brothers, to the delight of Christians near and far. We assume that his pharisaic training has trapped him in the letter of the law. And we can never seem to decide whether he is too learned for his own good, or too dimwitted to understand about being born again?
That is what the story says isn’t it? Or is it? While it’s often said that Nicodemus meets Jesus at night to avoid being seen in this unauthorized interview, there is another interpretation you can make. The rabbis of Nicodemus’s day taught that the Torah was best studied at night when it was quiet and the distractions of the day had subsided. In this account of the story, Nicodemus uses his precious study time to expand his search beyond the standard rabbinical texts. In this view, Jesus himself becomes the book which Nicodemus willingly explores, mining every word for wisdom and understanding. Ah expectations, they certainly can cloud our eyes from seeing what is really there. But I’m not talking about Nicodemus the Jew, I am talking about me and you, the Christian. What if Necodemus has come to Jesus as a true seeker? Well, that changes everything. If this is the truth, then Nicodemus recognizes Jesus as coming from God and he seeks out the one who can reveal to him the true nature of the God of Israel. And, in receiving this genuine seeker of truth, Jesus doesn’t’ blast him but lays out the ground rules for his search. To talk about the heavenly father, says Jesus, you must first be born again. To discuss spiritual things you must first be spiritually alive, born, that is, from above. But what does born again mean? We know what it means, we know what to expect. A Revival. An altar call. Praying the sinner’s prayer. But remember, expectations can cloud our eyes from seeing what is really there. And believe it or not Jesus was not a Baptist preacher, in fact he was not even a Christian. He was a Jew, and a good one at that. Altar calls were not a part of his tool kit. But things like repentance and faith were. Jesus was trying to bring Nicodemus to repentance, if by that you mean, Jesus was trying to get Nicodemus to think outside the box. Nicodemus was a Pharisee, a man of great expectations concerning God, concerning the Word of God, concerning living for God. But his expectations had clouded Nicodemus’s sight. So Jesus had to first clear his sight so they could freely talk about the living God Jesus had come to reveal.
Jesus begins, intentionally, with a statement that confuses Nicodemus. He is like the Zen Master who wacks a disciple on the head when he asks a foolish question. And he does it to shock him into enlightenment. He said, “you must be born again.” Jesus sets out to present spiritual realities but his language is foreign to Nicodemus. He interprets Jesus’s word from a physical context. Born again? What? Do I have to re-enter my mother’s womb and be born all over again? Like most of us, Nicodemus is limited by the world he knows best. By his conceptual framework. By his familiar “word” world. So he responds in his best left-brain, legal-scholar, word-parsing mode. He sees tricks, deadends and practical impossibilities. It is all he knows how to see. Yet Jesus persists from his right-brain, heart vocabulary, with fertile images of wind, spirit and expansive love. Jesus is trying to get us all to see what lies behind the words that have become all too familiar to us. He is trying to get Nicodemus, his disciples, the crowds, and even you and me to see that which you can only see when you are born again.
“For God so loved the World that He gave His only son. That whoever should believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”
When you hear the Word, when you read the Bible, what kind of God do you see? Demanding, angry, vengeful, destructive? Or do you see the God that Jesus sees, the God that Jesus came to show us. The God He wants us to see is a loving God. A God who so loves the world who so loves us, that he was willing to give up his only Son to redeem us. The point of John chapter 3 is not about humanity being born again, its about a God that so loves us, one and all, that he gave. And it is in that moment, when we look beyond our human expectations and understand for the first time how much God loves us, that we are, in that moment, born again. DL Moody was a great evangelist from Chicago. He went to England once and met a young man there that wanted to preach in his church. Moody agreed thinking that he would never see him again. To his dismay while back in Chicago he received a letter that said the young man would be in his town shortly and wanted to take him up on the offer. Moody was going out of town that week and agreed to let the man preach, but he warned the deacons to be ready in case it was a real flop. When Moody returned from his business his wife informed him that revival had broken out in his church and that he - DL Moody needed to be converted. It seems that the young man had preached every night on the same text, she said, John 3:16, speaking of the love of God, from his heart. Moody went to one of those meetings and he wrote later that he was indeed converted. He said, “I used to preach the judgment side of the cross, now I focus on the grace side of the cross. I used to preach mainly on the wrath of God, now I preach on the love of God.” From that day forth D L Moody’s life and ministry were forever changed.
We all need to experience that type of renewal of the Love of Christ in our Lives. We all need to be born again, not just once, but over and over again. Because we all need to know more and more of the love which gave his Son for our salvation. Jesus said to Nicodemus, are you a teacher of the law, and you do not understand this simply truth. To know the Spirit of God you must be spiritually alive. Those who are spiritually alive are those who have come to know the love of God and see that love everywhere they look. So what do you see as you walk through this season of Lent? A God of judgment, a God who wants to condemn you for ever little sin you have committed. Or do you see the God that Jesus saw? Have your eyes been opened? Have you been born from above? Do you see the God who loves you right there in front of you? When we talk of sin, do you expect condemnation or forgiveness? When you open God’s Word, what do you expect to find? A book of rules or love letters? What kind of God do you expect to find. A God of judgment or a God of grace? When I tell you that you must be born again, and I am telling you that, do you cringe thinking revival, or do you say thank you thinking salvation? May your seeking lead you to the only true God the God of Love, the God of Jesus Christ.