One day over in the Texas Panhandle, a guy saw a sign in front of a house that said: "Talking Dog
for Sale." He rang the doorbell and the owner told him “The dog’s in the backyard.” So the guy
went into the backyard and saw a black Lab just sitting there. He looked around furtively and asked,
"You talk?"
"Yep," the Lab replied.
"So, what's your story?"
The Lab looked up and said, "Well, I discovered this gift pretty young and I wanted to help out the
government, so I told the CIA about it, and in no time they had me jetting from country to country,
sitting in rooms with spies and world leaders, because no one figured a dog would be
eavesdropping. I was one of their most valuable spies eight years running. "The globetrotting really
tired me out, though, and I knew I wasn't getting any younger and I wanted to settle down. So I
signed up for a job at the airport to do some undercover security work, mostly wandering near
suspicious characters and listening in. I uncovered some dangerous dealings there and was
awarded a batch of medals. Had a wife, a mess of puppies, and now I'm just retired."
The guy was amazed. He went back in and asked the owner what he wanted for the dog, and the
owner said, "Ten dollars." The guy said, "But this dog’s amazing. Why on earth are you selling him
so cheap?" The owner chewed and spat, and said, "Dog's a liar. He didn't do any of that stuff.”
Sometimes we can be so familiar with something amazing that we begin to take it for granted. I think
this can be the case with our Gospel reading today. Jesus’ conversation with the seeker,
Nicodemus, culminates in probably the best-known verse in all of Scripture. We see it displayed on
yellow placards between the goalposts at NFL games, and on T-shirts and baseball caps. It may be
the most distilled, yet beautiful encapsulation of the whole gospel message. “For God so loved the
world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but have
eternal life.”
Is there anyone here who did not memorize this verse at some point along the way? While John 3:
16 stands alone powerfully as a concise expression of the gospel, it stands even more powerfully
when put into the context of Jesus’ conversation with Nicodemus.
First, there are a couple things about Nicodemus that are useful to know. John tells us Nicodemus
was a Pharisee, and a leader of the Jews. Many scholars are inclined to believe that he was a
member of the Sanhedrin, that inner circle of Jewish rulers in Jerusalem. They weren’t in the
majority, but the Pharisees were the most powerful party in Judaism, and Nicodemus appears to
have been one of their leaders. So John says that he came to Jesus by night. Thus the subtitle
“Nick at Night.” (Sorry, I couldn’t resist that one.) He’s been moved by the signs and miracles this
rabbi has performed. So he says to Jesus, “We know you must be a teacher who’s come from God.
How else would you be doing these great things?”
I think it’s interesting that Nicodemus uses the pronoun “we.” Because many of his fellow Pharisees
didn’t see things this way at all. In fact, in the Gospels it’s clear that at least several think Jesus is
demonized. [By the way, a quick safety tip. The one sin that Jesus refers to as unpardonable is
blaspheming the Holy Spirit. He said this right after some Pharisees accused him of doing healings
by the power of Satan. When you call the light dark, and the dark light, well, you’re getting into
some pretty dangerous territory. Just a little tip from the vicar to pass on to your friends.]
Anyway, right off we have Nicodemus kind of set apart from the other Pharisees. He sees Jesus
connected with God somehow. But Jesus’ reply is like saying, “Hoo, you don’t even know!” He says,
“Very truly I tell you (which is a lot like saying, ‘OK Nick, time to listen up), no one can see the
kingdom of God without being born from above.” The word translated “born from above” can also
be translated as “born again.” This is nothing to get hung up on because it works either way.
And of course this sets Nicodemus off into heightened confusion. He says something like, “Are you
serious? I’m an old man! Being born a second time??” And then Jesus says something really
interesting. He says (again), “Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without
being born of water and Spirit.”
This sentence has caused many people to scratch their heads. But really this one isn’t rocket
science. Through the prophet Ezekiel God tells the people of Israel about something involving water
and spirit. Listen carefully: “I will sprinkle clean water upon you, and you shall be clean from all your
uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. A new heart I will give you, and a new spirit
I will put within you; and I will remove from your body the heart of stone and give you a heart of
flesh. I will put my spirit within you…” Water to cleanse, and the gift of a new spirit, “my Spirit” to
start afresh. To start over. To be born again. Jesus here is offering the fulfillment of God’s promise
through Ezekiel.
This is absolutely packed with meaning. First off, the Hebrew word for spirit is ruach. The Greek
word for spirit is pneuma. Both of these words also mean “breath” or “wind.” And Jesus goes on to
say, “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.” OK? This is
something that you and I don’t control. It has nothing to do with our own efforts. It’s not something
we can force; only something we can receive and respond to. The wind blows where it chooses.
And when we do respond, its effects are unmistakably evident.
When you listen closely, if you hear a reference to baptism, I’d say you’re absolutely right. We’re
cleansed in the waters of baptism and given a new spirit. In our baptismal liturgy right after the
words of baptism come the words accompanying the anointing of the newly baptized, “You are
sealed by the Holy Spirit, the divine Ruach, the Holy Pneuma, the very breath of God, and marked
as Christ’s own forever.”
Now I suppose up to this point it could be argued that Jesus, as a prophet, is simply announcing God’
s plan. Just like Ezekiel. But as if Nicodemus weren’t dizzy enough with the mystifying words of
Jesus, Jesus ups the ante once again. He makes it as clear as can be that He, Jesus, is the center
of this divine activity, and it has come, here and now. OK? The kingdom of God is among you,
now! I can hear Jesus saying, almost teasingly, “If I’ve told you about earthly things and you don’t
believe, how can you believe if I tell you about heavenly things? No one has ascended into heaven
except the one who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. And just as Moses, our Jewish
patriarch, lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up—on the Cross,
and then again at His Ascension—that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.”
My friends, this is checkmate. The ultimate zinger that closes off any escape route as to who Jesus
is. “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.” Can you imagine the impact these words would have had
on a good Pharisee?
If I had a few hours I’d unpack this verse more thoroughly for you. But let’s highlight some specific
words instead, so we can see just how revolutionary John 3:16 is. The first word is “love.” God so
loved the world. This speaks of God’s motivation for sending His Son to die for us. It’s all about
love. It’s all about God’s passionate love for the ones He created—you and me, and all the other
wayward humans in this world. Let us never forget this!
We can attribute all kinds of unworthy motives to God. We can complain that He set the bar too
high. We can complain that the gospel message is too exclusive, what with its insistence on Jesus
being the only real Savior.
But the reality is that God paid the ultimate sacrifice, sending not only His Son, but his only Son, to
die for us. If you’re a parent, you needn’t entertain this idea for very long to get some sense of the
cost to God, and to His Son.
When we as a race decided to leap recklessly into the rapids just upstream from the waterfall, it was
God himself who jumped in and gave His life so we could live. “…So everyone who believes in him
may not perish.” The salvation that comes from this sacrifice is available to every single human
being on earth, because God loves us so much. Is this not good news? “Greater love has no one
than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.”
Now, “…Everyone who believes in him.” “Believes” is the key word. In order to receive forgiveness,
we need to accept the gift. It requires an open hand, and that hand is opened by faith. Baptism is
like the check written to us by God, and faith is what deposits that check into our bank account (if
you don’t mind an analogy that’s a bit cultural).
Baptism is efficacious, and it’s activated by faith. Jesus makes clear in the 3rd Chapter of John that
belief is crucial. “…So that everyone who believes in him may not perish,” he says. Baptism and
belief go hand in hand. That’s why we as a church are entrusted with the sacred responsibility of
seeing that the baptized are brought up and nurtured in the Christian faith, and develop a personal
faith of their own. So let’s make sure that, instead of leaving them holding a check, we drive them to
the bank.
Finally, the big promise. “…so that whoever believes in him will not perish, but will have eternal life.”
One of the things we tend to dance around these days is that the scriptures are consistent in saying
that there’s a big price for unbelief. St. Paul says, “The wages of sin is death.” And F. F. Bruce
says, “The separation between those who accept [the Lord’s] forgiveness and those who refuse it is
inevitable, and the latter are self-judged.” If we refuse to exercise faith by taking the saving hand
that reaches out to us, by our own choice we’re left in the rapids, headed for the waterfall. Salvation
can be rejected by us; it’s not automatic.
But for those who do exercise faith and receive forgiveness, we’re promised eternal life. This
eternal life will culminate in our own resurrection and life forever with our beloved Savior in a place
of unimaginable beauty and bliss. But there’s something else we tend to forget. And that is that this
new, eternal life starts right now. If you’ve received forgiveness and placed your faith in Jesus as
Savior and Lord, you have it right now. You see, the Greek phrase zoe aionios, which is translated
“eternal life,” isn’t just about living endlessly. It also has to do with a brand new quality of life that we’
re given when the Holy Spirit comes to dwell within us. It’s something so obvious in the heavenly
realms that the angels and saints rejoice when someone new comes into the kingdom. The
catastrophic separation between God and His beloved human creation is, in this moment, reversed,
and from this moment forward, we actually share in the life of God.
The dying vestiges of our flesh still kick against this new Spirit life, of course, but we’re assured that,
in the end, the Resurrection life of Jesus Christ triumphs. No one can snatch us out of His hand,
and one day, because of the Resurrection we’ll be celebrating in a few weeks, we too will have
Resurrection bodies like His and God’s victory over evil will be final, irrevocable and permanent.
The bad dream will be over and we’ll awake to a new dawn in a springtime that never ends.
Lent reminds us that we’re not quite to this place yet. We still struggle with sin and tempation. But
let us not forget that, however much we struggle, we are children of the King. We possess eternal
life now. Not because of anything we’ve done, but because of what God has done for us. “For God
so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish
but have eternal life.” Amen.
for Sale." He rang the doorbell and the owner told him “The dog’s in the backyard.” So the guy
went into the backyard and saw a black Lab just sitting there. He looked around furtively and asked,
"You talk?"
"Yep," the Lab replied.
"So, what's your story?"
The Lab looked up and said, "Well, I discovered this gift pretty young and I wanted to help out the
government, so I told the CIA about it, and in no time they had me jetting from country to country,
sitting in rooms with spies and world leaders, because no one figured a dog would be
eavesdropping. I was one of their most valuable spies eight years running. "The globetrotting really
tired me out, though, and I knew I wasn't getting any younger and I wanted to settle down. So I
signed up for a job at the airport to do some undercover security work, mostly wandering near
suspicious characters and listening in. I uncovered some dangerous dealings there and was
awarded a batch of medals. Had a wife, a mess of puppies, and now I'm just retired."
The guy was amazed. He went back in and asked the owner what he wanted for the dog, and the
owner said, "Ten dollars." The guy said, "But this dog’s amazing. Why on earth are you selling him
so cheap?" The owner chewed and spat, and said, "Dog's a liar. He didn't do any of that stuff.”
Sometimes we can be so familiar with something amazing that we begin to take it for granted. I think
this can be the case with our Gospel reading today. Jesus’ conversation with the seeker,
Nicodemus, culminates in probably the best-known verse in all of Scripture. We see it displayed on
yellow placards between the goalposts at NFL games, and on T-shirts and baseball caps. It may be
the most distilled, yet beautiful encapsulation of the whole gospel message. “For God so loved the
world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but have
eternal life.”
Is there anyone here who did not memorize this verse at some point along the way? While John 3:
16 stands alone powerfully as a concise expression of the gospel, it stands even more powerfully
when put into the context of Jesus’ conversation with Nicodemus.
First, there are a couple things about Nicodemus that are useful to know. John tells us Nicodemus
was a Pharisee, and a leader of the Jews. Many scholars are inclined to believe that he was a
member of the Sanhedrin, that inner circle of Jewish rulers in Jerusalem. They weren’t in the
majority, but the Pharisees were the most powerful party in Judaism, and Nicodemus appears to
have been one of their leaders. So John says that he came to Jesus by night. Thus the subtitle
“Nick at Night.” (Sorry, I couldn’t resist that one.) He’s been moved by the signs and miracles this
rabbi has performed. So he says to Jesus, “We know you must be a teacher who’s come from God.
How else would you be doing these great things?”
I think it’s interesting that Nicodemus uses the pronoun “we.” Because many of his fellow Pharisees
didn’t see things this way at all. In fact, in the Gospels it’s clear that at least several think Jesus is
demonized. [By the way, a quick safety tip. The one sin that Jesus refers to as unpardonable is
blaspheming the Holy Spirit. He said this right after some Pharisees accused him of doing healings
by the power of Satan. When you call the light dark, and the dark light, well, you’re getting into
some pretty dangerous territory. Just a little tip from the vicar to pass on to your friends.]
Anyway, right off we have Nicodemus kind of set apart from the other Pharisees. He sees Jesus
connected with God somehow. But Jesus’ reply is like saying, “Hoo, you don’t even know!” He says,
“Very truly I tell you (which is a lot like saying, ‘OK Nick, time to listen up), no one can see the
kingdom of God without being born from above.” The word translated “born from above” can also
be translated as “born again.” This is nothing to get hung up on because it works either way.
And of course this sets Nicodemus off into heightened confusion. He says something like, “Are you
serious? I’m an old man! Being born a second time??” And then Jesus says something really
interesting. He says (again), “Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without
being born of water and Spirit.”
This sentence has caused many people to scratch their heads. But really this one isn’t rocket
science. Through the prophet Ezekiel God tells the people of Israel about something involving water
and spirit. Listen carefully: “I will sprinkle clean water upon you, and you shall be clean from all your
uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. A new heart I will give you, and a new spirit
I will put within you; and I will remove from your body the heart of stone and give you a heart of
flesh. I will put my spirit within you…” Water to cleanse, and the gift of a new spirit, “my Spirit” to
start afresh. To start over. To be born again. Jesus here is offering the fulfillment of God’s promise
through Ezekiel.
This is absolutely packed with meaning. First off, the Hebrew word for spirit is ruach. The Greek
word for spirit is pneuma. Both of these words also mean “breath” or “wind.” And Jesus goes on to
say, “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.” OK? This is
something that you and I don’t control. It has nothing to do with our own efforts. It’s not something
we can force; only something we can receive and respond to. The wind blows where it chooses.
And when we do respond, its effects are unmistakably evident.
When you listen closely, if you hear a reference to baptism, I’d say you’re absolutely right. We’re
cleansed in the waters of baptism and given a new spirit. In our baptismal liturgy right after the
words of baptism come the words accompanying the anointing of the newly baptized, “You are
sealed by the Holy Spirit, the divine Ruach, the Holy Pneuma, the very breath of God, and marked
as Christ’s own forever.”
Now I suppose up to this point it could be argued that Jesus, as a prophet, is simply announcing God’
s plan. Just like Ezekiel. But as if Nicodemus weren’t dizzy enough with the mystifying words of
Jesus, Jesus ups the ante once again. He makes it as clear as can be that He, Jesus, is the center
of this divine activity, and it has come, here and now. OK? The kingdom of God is among you,
now! I can hear Jesus saying, almost teasingly, “If I’ve told you about earthly things and you don’t
believe, how can you believe if I tell you about heavenly things? No one has ascended into heaven
except the one who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. And just as Moses, our Jewish
patriarch, lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up—on the Cross,
and then again at His Ascension—that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.”
My friends, this is checkmate. The ultimate zinger that closes off any escape route as to who Jesus
is. “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.” Can you imagine the impact these words would have had
on a good Pharisee?
If I had a few hours I’d unpack this verse more thoroughly for you. But let’s highlight some specific
words instead, so we can see just how revolutionary John 3:16 is. The first word is “love.” God so
loved the world. This speaks of God’s motivation for sending His Son to die for us. It’s all about
love. It’s all about God’s passionate love for the ones He created—you and me, and all the other
wayward humans in this world. Let us never forget this!
We can attribute all kinds of unworthy motives to God. We can complain that He set the bar too
high. We can complain that the gospel message is too exclusive, what with its insistence on Jesus
being the only real Savior.
But the reality is that God paid the ultimate sacrifice, sending not only His Son, but his only Son, to
die for us. If you’re a parent, you needn’t entertain this idea for very long to get some sense of the
cost to God, and to His Son.
When we as a race decided to leap recklessly into the rapids just upstream from the waterfall, it was
God himself who jumped in and gave His life so we could live. “…So everyone who believes in him
may not perish.” The salvation that comes from this sacrifice is available to every single human
being on earth, because God loves us so much. Is this not good news? “Greater love has no one
than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.”
Now, “…Everyone who believes in him.” “Believes” is the key word. In order to receive forgiveness,
we need to accept the gift. It requires an open hand, and that hand is opened by faith. Baptism is
like the check written to us by God, and faith is what deposits that check into our bank account (if
you don’t mind an analogy that’s a bit cultural).
Baptism is efficacious, and it’s activated by faith. Jesus makes clear in the 3rd Chapter of John that
belief is crucial. “…So that everyone who believes in him may not perish,” he says. Baptism and
belief go hand in hand. That’s why we as a church are entrusted with the sacred responsibility of
seeing that the baptized are brought up and nurtured in the Christian faith, and develop a personal
faith of their own. So let’s make sure that, instead of leaving them holding a check, we drive them to
the bank.
Finally, the big promise. “…so that whoever believes in him will not perish, but will have eternal life.”
One of the things we tend to dance around these days is that the scriptures are consistent in saying
that there’s a big price for unbelief. St. Paul says, “The wages of sin is death.” And F. F. Bruce
says, “The separation between those who accept [the Lord’s] forgiveness and those who refuse it is
inevitable, and the latter are self-judged.” If we refuse to exercise faith by taking the saving hand
that reaches out to us, by our own choice we’re left in the rapids, headed for the waterfall. Salvation
can be rejected by us; it’s not automatic.
But for those who do exercise faith and receive forgiveness, we’re promised eternal life. This
eternal life will culminate in our own resurrection and life forever with our beloved Savior in a place
of unimaginable beauty and bliss. But there’s something else we tend to forget. And that is that this
new, eternal life starts right now. If you’ve received forgiveness and placed your faith in Jesus as
Savior and Lord, you have it right now. You see, the Greek phrase zoe aionios, which is translated
“eternal life,” isn’t just about living endlessly. It also has to do with a brand new quality of life that we’
re given when the Holy Spirit comes to dwell within us. It’s something so obvious in the heavenly
realms that the angels and saints rejoice when someone new comes into the kingdom. The
catastrophic separation between God and His beloved human creation is, in this moment, reversed,
and from this moment forward, we actually share in the life of God.
The dying vestiges of our flesh still kick against this new Spirit life, of course, but we’re assured that,
in the end, the Resurrection life of Jesus Christ triumphs. No one can snatch us out of His hand,
and one day, because of the Resurrection we’ll be celebrating in a few weeks, we too will have
Resurrection bodies like His and God’s victory over evil will be final, irrevocable and permanent.
The bad dream will be over and we’ll awake to a new dawn in a springtime that never ends.
Lent reminds us that we’re not quite to this place yet. We still struggle with sin and tempation. But
let us not forget that, however much we struggle, we are children of the King. We possess eternal
life now. Not because of anything we’ve done, but because of what God has done for us. “For God
so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish
but have eternal life.” Amen.
God So Loved the World ~ (“Nick at Night”)
John 3:1-17
John 3:1-17
February 17, 2008
Fr. Dan Tuton
Fr. Dan Tuton