Shame Can't Block the Light

Transcript

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[0:00] Our sermon text comes today from John chapter 3 verses 1 through 17, and I'm reading from the NLT today. There was a man named Nicodemus, a Jewish religious leader, who was a Pharisee. After dark one evening, he came to speak with Jesus. Rabbi, he said, we all know that God has sent you to teach us. Your miraculous signs are evidence that God is with you. Jesus replied, I tell you the truth. Unless you are born again, you cannot see the kingdom of God. What do you mean, exclaimed Nicodemus? How can an old man go back into his mother's womb and be born again? Jesus replied, I assure you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water. The Holy Spirit is the water and the spirit. Humans can reproduce only human life, but the Holy Spirit gives birth to spiritual life. So don't be surprised when I say you must be born again. The wind blows wherever it wants. Just as you can hear the wind but can't tell where it comes from or where it is going, so you can't explain how people are born of the spirit.

[1:22] How are these things possible, Nicodemus? Jesus replied, you are a respected Jewish teacher, and yet you don't understand these things? I assure you, we tell you what we know and have seen, and yet you won't believe our testimony. But if you don't believe me when I tell you about earthly things, how can you possibly believe if I tell you about heavenly things? No one has ever gone to heaven and returned but the Son of Man, and the Son of God. The Son of God has come down from heaven, and as Moses lifted up the bronze snake on a pole in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up so that everyone who believes in him will have eternal life. For this is how God loved the world. He gave his one and only Son so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through him.

[2:31] Let's pray. Our God, we thank you for your word. We ask now for the blessing over this word that you would teach us, that you would mold us and shape us. These things we pray in Jesus' name. Amen. So who is this person, Nicodemus?

[2:56] He doesn't have a name. He doesn't have a lot of screen time in the grand scheme of the Bible. But from this short passage, we actually get to know quite a few things about him. We know that he is a leader and a Pharisee. But would you be surprised to know that he's actually probably a pretty big deal?

[3:20] Nicodemus isn't just some uneducated guy from the street. Jesus refers to him as, the teacher. Not as a teacher, like some of our modern translations may indicate. In the NIV, it actually says, you are Israel's teacher.

[3:40] So it seems that he's not just some random Pharisee, but somebody who's well respected and well known throughout Israel for his religious teaching and insight. We really ought to know that. Because to our modern day ears, Nicodemus' responses to Jesus make him seem like he just doesn't get it. And in a way, of course, he doesn't. But there's more, he has more insight than we give him credit for. His comments may look a lot more pointed when we examine them further.

[4:21] He seems to have come to Jesus as a representative of God. He seems to have come to Jesus as a representation of a group. Like, perhaps he was chosen to go and investigate Jesus. And then later in scripture, he seems to be, if not a follower of Jesus, then at least somebody who is sympathetic to him.

[4:43] Even so, we're immediately set up to distrust something about him. If we just rewind a little tiny bit, and go just far enough back in scripture, to about two verses just before this passage, John starts using the word man multiple times. And of course, in modern translations, we've changed that to include women, so it's people or humankind.

[5:15] But the word used is specifically the word man, over and over. And he says about Jesus, that though the people began to believe and trust in Jesus, Jesus did not trust in them. For he knew all men. He did not need man's testimony about mankind.

[5:44] For he knew what was in each man's heart. And then we move to the very first verse of this passage, which is the very next verse, from what we just discussed. There was a man named Nicodemus. We're supposed to pause there. We're supposed to know that Nicodemus is another one of those people that in some ways Jesus saw the heart of and just could not trust the intentions of.

[6:18] But let's not pull any punches here. It isn't just Nicodemus. It is all of humankind whose intentions are untrusted in some way by Jesus. It is the burden of the human condition, that what is ultimately in our hearts is corrupted by sin.

[6:41] What is in our hearts by nature cannot be trusted by God, which is why Jesus came. Now John continues to paint the picture though, by specifying that Nicodemus came to Jesus after dark one night. In the two chapters leading up to this one, and then in the rest of the book of John, John goes to great lengths to show the difference between the light and the dark. And he says, and more specifically, that Jesus is not just in the light, but is the light itself.

[7:30] What is in Jesus is good and right, and is in the light of God. But anything in the dark is not in Jesus. It is not right with God. Nicodemus comes to Jesus in the dark, in shame. He hides from the light, even as he is drawn to the light of Jesus. And again, it is not just Nicodemus, it is humankind.

[8:05] In fact, all of our lectionary passages today held a similar theme, where there was at least a hint of shame, or of darkness in this case. When Hans-Erik and I were going over the preaching schedule, I had this choice between Pentecost, which was last Sunday, and Trinity Sunday, which is today. And I chose today without knowing which exciting and inspiring passages would come across the lectionary, which Trinity-shaped scriptures would pop up. But I was surprised.

[8:47] When I saw that shame seemed to be one of the themes that stood out to me. So in our passages today, Isaiah cried out in his pain and shame, It's all over. I am doomed. For I am a sinful man, I have filthy lips, and I come from a people of filthy lips. Yet I have seen the King, the Lord of heaven's armies. And then Romans 8, used this language like sinful nature and slaves to fear. All of these passages have this element of crushing shame from the sinful and mistrustful nature of being human. But they also have something else in common, and that is that there is only sin and shame until there is a transformation and a formative encounter with God. And on this Trinity Sunday, we can explore that an encounter with the full and complete person of God includes experiencing God as triune.

[10:02] And this passage with Nicodemus, as he comes covered in darkness to Jesus, Jesus tries to reveal the light of God, and we can glimpse the fullness of the Trinity at work in his explanation. So we continue to look at Nicodemus, and now we know more about who he is, but what about his responses? He first goes to Jesus with a statement which is really more of a question.

[10:40] We know things about you. You must get your abilities from God, right? In other words, who are you? And how do you do what you do? He has true curiosity. And Jesus' answer is to his underlying question. The question about how Nicodemus can fully encounter God, which is only by being born from above, and there is an absolutely blaring miscommunication that results from that right here. And it's what really draws the attention and builds the point of this entire passage. The actual miscommunication might not be as obvious to us as hearers of this passage in English.

[11:39] The word used for again, when Nicodemus, when Jesus tells Nicodemus that he must be born again, is actually the very same word that also means from above. So here in John, the author uses that same word in other places in the book, and it seems to indicate that we are meant to interpret it as from above. So it's clear to us that Jesus was trying to state that Nicodemus must be born from above. But Nicodemus deliberately chose to interpret this word as again.

[12:25] This gives way to the first breakdown in communication. How can anybody be born a second time? It is a strange concept, but it might be stranger to us than it was to them. In fact, it almost definitely is stranger to us than it was to them.

[12:51] Spiritual renewal through birth, through rebirth, from above, was a common Hellenistic idea among pagan religions that a person could put their bodily desires off and then have sort of a divine rebirth, that gave way to spiritual betterment. So though the entirety of the concept may have still been a little foreign to Nicodemus, he was a well-respected, well-educated teacher and an all-around smart guy. So he certainly would have had some idea of popular culture, especially regarding spiritual ideas. And he would have known what Jesus was getting at. So up until this point, he's had a respectful exchange with Jesus as a fellow teacher, and more importantly, from the very beginning of the conversation, he seems to be trying to engage Jesus in something deep and academic. He knows that a person cannot be physically reborn, but that Jesus is referring to something spiritual.

[14:16] So he could be simply trying to be contradictory when he asks the question that perhaps he didn't approve of what Jesus was getting at, so he made a preposterous response to what he thought was a preposterous statement. And that's not out of character for the Pharisees. But it does, feel a little out of character for this particular moment with Nicodemus, where he seems to be genuinely having a conversation and missing the point.

[14:55] What does line up is that he is missing the full encounter with God. Jesus says, you are Israel's teacher. You're someone who should know about these things of God. How are you not encountering the true God?

[15:14] And what also lines up is that there could be a little bit of a melancholy overtone to his words that seemed to be in line with the shame he exhibited by coming to Jesus in the cover of night. So it's not the question of whether it's possible to be physically reborn, but is it really possible for me to be reborn, even in a spiritual way? Is it really possible for humanity to be reborn? Are we not so far gone that it is impossible to start over? Am I not so corrupt that it would be impossible to be renewed?

[16:04] Nicodemus may be a religious leader, but he has not had a true encounter with the living God, the God who gives life and new life, to know that this rebirth from above really is within reach. And that is what Jesus was trying to show him. Jesus wanted him to know the freedom and wholeness that comes from encountering God in his fullness.

[16:34] God who sent both his Son and his Holy Spirit for the redemption of humankind is always relational, always ready to remove the iniquities and the shame, and enter into a reconciled relationship with his children.

[16:55] Now, the word Trinity is not used biblically, but the triune God is evident throughout all of Scripture. And living into the wholeness of the Trinity is where we get a complete understanding of this kind of salvation that Jesus was pointing toward. It always starts with the unconditional love of the Father.

[17:21] Without the Father's unconditional love, Nicodemus would be absolutely correct. We would all be too far gone. Rebirth, no matter how it occurs, would be impossible to achieve. God's love, the love of the Father, made it possible for the forgiveness of sins through the Son, which is something Isaiah discovered as he stood before God in shame, but he found himself cleansed. And the very thing Nicodemus seems to doubt can happen for himself.

[18:03] We did nothing to deserve this love. He loves us even before we repent from our sins. His love is always geared toward bringing our relationship with him back to wholeness. And somebody has to make that first step. Whenever there's a rift in a relationship, somebody has to make that first step. And in our case, it is always God.

[18:28] He always takes the action before we do. In the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve were still hiding when God came down in search of them. They had not yet repented or turned back toward God at all. But God loved first and foremost, and he came to search them out. And then in our Isaiah example, it was God who first came to Isaiah in the temple before Isaiah even recognized the extent of his shortcomings before God.

[19:03] It was the Father's love that made them all of their repentance ultimately possible. So as Nicodemus stood in the darkness before the light, wondering if he was too far gone to be renewed, he only needed to know of God's unconditional love.

[19:23] First, unconditional love, then salvation, and then life transformation. Just as God sent the Son for salvation, God also sent the Spirit for transformation. Second Corinthians 5, 17 to 21 says, Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come. The old has gone, the new is here. All this from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation. That God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people's sins against them, and he has committed us to the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ's ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ's behalf, be reconciled to God. God made him who had no sin, to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

[20:42] Let that sink in. The old has gone and the new has come. That is powerful stuff. That Holy Spirit transformation is what brought Isaiah to declare, Here am I, send me. He was transformed, no longer stuck in his shame, having been cleansed and transformed. He was ready to live a renewed life of praise and partnership with God for the sake of God's kingdom. And that transformational work was empowered by God's Spirit. God's full reconciliation demands that we live in faith, into our transformed lives, with the empowerment of the Holy Spirit, every day, here and now. A few verses after our passage, Jesus explained to Nicodemus that men loved the darkness because their deeds were evil.

[21:52] Everyone who does evil will not come into the light. Jesus died for the forgiveness of sins, but the Spirit is both our counselor to direct us to the light and our empowerment to help us continue on the path toward the light.

[22:12] By the Spirit, we can live our life in praise for the love of the Father and the forgiveness of the Son, thereby allowing the world to see the testimony of our transformation. Are you in the same place as Nicodemus? Or maybe as Isaiah? So close to an encounter with God, but you're holding back because of your shame, or you're holding back because of something?

[22:43] You're not alone. We've been unconditionally loved by God, and the price of our sins has been paid, but we tend to be so hard on ourselves. And why do we do that? We tend to hold on to our shame or to wear it like a prison uniform, complete with the shackles binding us, like Romans 8 said, described us as slaves to our sin and our fear.

[23:14] Our freedom from this sin and shame and fear has certain requirements of us that we acknowledge, receive, and accept the work and promises of God in our lives. Christ's work of salvation? We must receive and accept that. We must allow ourselves to recognize Christ as God with the authority to free us from our sin and shame. You don't have the power to remove sin and shame from your own life, but Christ does. And guess what? You also don't have the authority to say that your sin is not forgiven, is not removed.

[24:03] So if you're standing in the darkness, come into the light and don't let shame keep a hold of you any longer. Internalize it. Know that you are free and forgiven. We can love God and we can love ourselves because God loved us. We can forgive ourselves because God forgave us. And we can forgive ourselves because God loved us. And when we get to that point, we can also love and forgive others in the same way God loves and forgives us. That is what it means to live into this love, the salvation, and the transformation of the Triune God right here and now. Let's pray.

[24:54] Gracious Heavenly Father, we thank you for the fullness of who you are. We thank you for your love and your salvation and the life of transformation we can live when we only accept those things. These things we pray in Jesus' name. Amen.