Gospel of John, Chapter 3 (Nicodemus)

A little mini-testimonial to kick start this. I was really straining for what to write this week. I've been doing a chapter from John each Monday, and I didn't want to get off track with that. But it just wasn't clicking for me, so I asked God, "what do you want me to write this week?" and it all fell into place. I should just do that first next time.

This chapter is anchored by the story of Nicodemus. If you look up the meaning of Nicodemus, you'll see "Victory of the People." You have "nike," victory and "demos," people. But that's not really what Nicodemus means here. A better, or at least a more fitting translation is "conquerer of the people." This sets up the ironic reversal, where we find who the real conquerer is -- Jesus Christ. (Hat tip to Jesse Yarbrough for pointing that out.)

I wonder as I'm reading exactly how Nicodemus envisioned that meeting going. He seems to be trying to butter Jesus up. "Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God, for no one can do these signs that you are doing unless God is with him." Nicodemus is a man who is used to getting his way, and having people listen to him. Jesus, though, immediately takes the conversation to a much higher plane by declaring that no one can see heaven or enter heaven without being born again. Nicodemus doesn't know how to respond to that, and Jesus gently chides him for it. ""You are the teacher of Israel and you do not understand this?"

In this way, Christ conquers the conquerer. The fight is between Heaven and Earth; the world and the spirit; light and darkness. Nicodemus is afraid, and has to come under darkness. Jesus Christ is the Light of the World, and we never see Jesus afraid.

How does he conquer? By his death and resurrection. That may sound obvious, but it wasn't to the early Christians. If you had never heard of Jesus Christ, you wouldn't know that, but that's the whole point of the Gospel. That's why John puts all of this at the beginning in chapter three. In chapter one, he hits all of the major themes. In chapter two, we see heaven. Here, in chapter three, we see salvation. It's almost like John is walking us backwards through the story, because the end of the story is the "best wine." (see John 2:10)

The rest of the chapter rests on this teaching. We don't see much narrative, except for John passing his disciples on to Jesus. John the Baptist's disciples seem not to like that all of their followers are flocking to Jesus. John, of course, is gracious, and explains that, "no one can receive anything except what has been given him from heaven." We belong to Christ.

He came not to condemn us, but to save us. You sometimes hear of romantic conquest. The conquest of Christ is his church. If we allow him to conquer us, it's true that we'll die. But Christ died before us. If we die with Him, we can also rise with Him.

That's why we see baptism again in this chapter. Water saved Noah, but killed many others. The Israelites crossed the Red Sea to safety, but the Pharaoh and his men were drowned. The same with light and darkness. Jesus tells us in this chapter that the wicked are afraid of the light. But if you're not ashamed of who you are, you can walk in the Light of Christ. Pharisees like Nicodemus were masters of the world, but none of that mattered.

The message of Jesus Christ forces us to make a stark choice between good and evil; light and darkness; life and death; this world and the next. And, if we allow Jesus into our heart, we'll often find that our understanding of those things -- life versus death, for instance -- is completely askew. We can only see things as they are by the Light, Jesus Christ.