During the past three-plus weeks of our Lenten Journey, we have reflected on the possibility that we are that people walking in this darkness. Like the sojourners of old, it’s tempting to settle for the easier path, ensuring that we reach our destination quickly and efficiently. Eating from trees with “forbidden fruit,” or fashioning our “golden calves” along the way; we make decisions in the moment that seem to give us direction and hope, when they are actually preventing us from moving forward. We feel as if we’ve done something good for ourselves, when we have actually done nothing at all. We feel safe and secure in our darkness, which is not necessarily a place of pain or emotional struggle. Darkness can also be a place of safety and comfort, just like a comfortable bed in the dark of night, under warm covers. There is a sense of peace here, and a sense of security that seems to lull as back to sleep, knowing that all seems to be well.
On this journey through our darkness, we have encountered many surprises and temptations that are just too good to be true. You can have all the wisdom you need, if you just give it a little taste. You can have the perfect god, if just build it. You can have the world at your feet, if you just allow yourself to live a little. You can be with your Lord forever, if you just pitch a tent and stay here on the mountain. But then out of nowhere, your safe and secure darkness becomes unmanageable. The surprises of apparent goodness and solution become uncontrollable challenges and even shocking tragedy. Suddenly our peaceful darkness becomes a nightmare of sorts. We didn’t see it coming, and then suddenly it’s upon us.
John’s Gospel perfectly illustrates all of this in its first three chapters, as the witness attempts to provide us with another look at our creation, our de-creation and our re-creation. The narrative begins with this: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God… through him was life, and this life was the light of the human race; the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.” (John 1: 1, 4-5) After this introduction, John’s second chapter shows Jesus beginning his ministry at a Wedding Reception, in the changing of water into the best wine for all of the guests, indicating that we are created to be loved by our God and are worthy of his best, given to each of us! But then, as we explored last week, the people seem to spiral a bit. Jesus confronts that part of us that wants it all, when all we should be doing is praising the Lord in his Temple. Suddenly we have “de-created” ourselves into a people that are fine in our own darkness.
But by the third chapter, John is ready to offer us the truth of God’s greatest gift to his “stiff-necked” people, as Jesus meets a pharisee named Nicodemus. It is very appropriate that John presents Nicodemus coming to Jesus during the night, as it matches the reality of where we all are in our journey. Their conversation centers around how a people can be “born again,” or dare I add re-created to be a better people. “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God,” Nicodemus says, but “how can a person once grown old be born again? Jesus answered, ‘Amen, amen, I say to you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit. What is born of flesh is flesh and what is born of spirit is spirit. Do not be amazed that I told you, ‘You must be born from above.’” (John 3: 2, 4-7)
My friends, the flesh of this world will not bring us true satisfaction. It is the Holy Spirit and its gifts that bring us life, love, and happiness. When we open ourselves to receiving Christ into our midst, then his Spirit follows, and with that comes the love of God. Jesus went on to say that, “like Moses lifted up the serpent, so must the Son of Man [Christ] be lifted up,” (John 3:14) referencing that journey of God’s people in the wilderness. This was the journey where we complained about food and were given manna from heaven; only to complain that it wasn’t enough. (cf. Exodus 16: 1-36) This was the journey where God then sent quail “hip deep”, (cf. Numbers 11: 31-35) only to complain that we were thirsty; so God brought forth water from the rock. (cf. Exodus 17:6) This was the journey when we got tired of waiting for Moses and his God, so we fashioned our own god. (cf. Exodus 32) This was the journey where we were bitten by snakes and God asked Moses to lift a serpent on a pole, healing the people who simply looked upon it! (cf. Numbers 21: 4-9)
So with all of this in mind, Jesus tells Nicodemus and us here today, that the Son of Man was sent so that “all who believe [or look upon him] will have eternal life,” (John 3:15) leading us to the ultimate truth of our Christian faith, and the most famous verse in all of Scripture revealing God’s most loving act in loving his people… “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life. (John 3:16) God did not condemn the world, he saved the world so that all might be re-created, or born again to truly live! THIS IS OUR SALVATION! But as you’ve come to expect, even in the face of this incredible revelation by Jesus in John’s Gospel, the people preferred the darkness over the light because it is the easier option. Why? because evil hates the light because it exposes its works to be false. (cf. John 3:17-21) The Truth is that joy comes with morning light (cf. Ps. 30:5) and shows the world that good works are better than evil works, and the true light reveals that these good works are done by God through the work of our hands.
On these steps of our journey, let us pause to reflect on the fact that Christ looks at us with the light of his face. We are no longer in darkness. We are loved by God who has given us everything so that we might live!
AMEN!
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