NICODEMUS IN THE WILDERNESS

John 3:1-17

2nd Sunday in Lent, March 5, 2023

The Rev. Dr. Ritva H. Williams

Good morning. Welcome to season 3 of the story of Jesus. We call this season Lent — the time of lengthening days. Increasing daylight is a lovely gift after the long nights of winter, even as it . exposes what has been hidden under blankets of snow or fallen leaves. Our scripture readings for this season focus on wilderness experiences. Last Sunday, in episode 1, we traveled with Jesus into the wilderness of discerning what it means to be God’s beloved Son. Would his human ego and its desires shape his mission? Would  he be empowered to align his desires with God’s dream? 

This morning in Episode 2 of Lent, we meet Nicodemus, a Pharisee with training, credentials, and authority. As a ruler of the Judean people, he is a member of the Jerusalem Sanhedrin, the highest legislative and judicial council in Judea.  At the time of Jesus, Pharisees were the minority party on this council holding one-third of the seats. The majority two-thirds were held by Sadducees (members of the aristocratic high priestly families). Nevertheless, Nicodemus is a person of privilege, enjoying honor, prestige, wealth and other benefits beyond the imagining of the majority of most people.  

Nicodemus comes to Jesus at night. We wonder, is he Nicodemus afraid to be seen with Jesus? Is the dark of night somehow symbolic of the state of Nicodemus’ soul, as we have been told so often. No. 

In Judaism, darkness has no negative, religious significance.  In fact, night time, especially from midnight to dawn was the preferred time for Jewish sages and mystics to engage in prayer, meditation, and Torah study. Sitting on the doorstep or roof of one’s house where there was an unobstructed view of the heavens was an aid to communing with God. 

So, Nicodemus comes to Jesus at night because that is the best time for deep spiritual reflection. He addresses Jesus politely as “rabbi,” whose “signs” demonstrate he is an authentic teacher from God. The most significant of these signs for folks in Jerusalem was Jesus driving the money changers and sellers of sacrificial animals from the temple. The religious authorities generally were outraged. Many others were impressed and wanted to jump on the Jesus bandwagon. The gospel writer tells us Jesus did not trust these people.

What about Nicodemus? He is seriously confused. Jesus is a low status rural peasant of shady origins — born too soon after the wedding. He has no “proper” training or credentials. His table flipping tantrum in the temple is at best disrespectful, at worst an insurrection. Yet Jesus speaks and acts with an authority that can only come from God. But God’s messiah isn’t supposed to be a nobody, or to challenge the system so radically. It just doesn’t compute.

Jesus presents Nicodemus with a riddle about spiritual rebirth and transformation. Jesus says, no one can see the kingdom of God without being born anothen  (v. 3), a Greek word with two meanings. Nicodemus thinks Jesus is saying that he needs to be born again, and wonders how an old man could possibly enter his mother’s womb for a second time. Jesus, however, is talking about being born from above, specifically being reborn of water and spirit (v. 5). Nicodemus gets this punny riddle. He hears Jesus telling him that to see and enter the kingdom of God, he needs to see with newly born spiritual eyes, but he is puzzled. How is it possible for someone who is privileged to unlearn privilege? How can someone who has studied the fine points of Torah interpretation forget it? How can someone let go of a lifetime of entrenched ideas and attitudes, solidified habits and routines, in order to take on a whole new way of thinking, speaking and acting in the world?

Nicodemus is in a wilderness of confusion where the only way forward is change and transformation. As Father Richard Rohr teaches, 

“Change is when something new begins. Transformation is just the opposite: It happens more often than not, when something old falls away. It happens after a crisis, when something we’ve learned to depend upon is taken away. Not all crises, of course, lead to transformation. When something is taken away that we’ve grown used to or addicted to, we will either turn bitter or be transformed.”

This particular wilderness is very familiar in 21st century America. We all all confronted by a world where once well-established ideas, attitudes, behaviors and routines no longer work. If you are someone who benefits from these this can be excruciatingly painful and scary. We see people all around us hardening their hearts, shutting down their minds, refusing to listen, explore, or face up to their privilege. Just as the snake-bit Israelites had to lift their faces up to Moses’ serpent on a pole, so we need to lift our faces up to the crucified Christ.

Nicodemus shows us a different path through the wilderness. He knows that change is needed but doesn’t know how to let go of all the old baggage. He is like so many of us who recognize that we have implicit biases around gender, gender expression, sexual orientation, race, size, age, those who are differently abled, how to slow down or stop climate change, and so forth. We know we need to change our ideas, attitudes and behaviors, but don’t know how to let go of all the stuff we have picked from family and friends, tv, movies, social media and so forth. Like Nicodemus we sit in the dark with the Christ who continues to invite us to be reborn of water and spirit. 

Water and Spirit are two aspects of the universal Christ doing God’s work in the world.  Water symbolizes Christ’s power to decompose and wash away the old ideas, attitudes, behaviors and routines we need to let go of. Spirit is the how Christ generates the new ideas, attitudes, behaviors and routines we need to become the beloved children of God we are meant to be.

In order for change and transformation to occur, it is necessary for us to face up to our privilege. It is there. We didn’t create it or ask for it, but we have benefited from it and have taken all kinds of advantage of it. Only by facing up to it can we let go of it and accept new insights, wisdom, and reality, and  be born anew.

The good news that this process is set in motion and guided by God whose love for the world is demonstrated in the sending of  God’s only son not to condemn the world, but to show the world through his suffering death who were are. It is only facing to who we are that we can be transformed to become who we are meant to be (3:16-17). an excerpt from Wilderness Blessing by Jan Richardson (Circle of Grace, pp. 99-100)

Let us say this blessing began whole and complete upon the page.

And then let us say one word loosed itself and another followed it in turn.

Let us say this blessing started to shed all it did not need,

that line by line it returned to the ground from which it came.

Let us say this blessing is not leaving you,

is not abandoning you to the wild that lies ahead,

but that it is loathe to load you down on this road where you need to travel light.

Let us say perhaps this blessing became the path beneath your feet,

the desert that stretched before you, the clear sight that finally came.

Amen.