Born Again
John 3:1-6
In this passage we see an encounter that Jesus has with a man named Nicodemus. A lot of fuss is made with regards to the timing of this meeting. Jesus meets Nicodemus in the evening when it is dark (v.2).
This leads to my first question:
What later involvement did Nicodemus have in the crucifixion trial of Jesus?The meeting at night seems to be an important point that John stresses in his Gospel (see John 19:39).Personally, I believe that this is when most people turn to Jesus, in their darkest hour. This lead to the next personal question:
Can you share a time when you approached Jesus in a very dark hour? What happened?Next, Jesus tells Nicodemus that unless we are born again we can not see the kingdom of God. The next discussion question:
Explain in your own words what does it mean to be “born again”. Reference our Lord’s response in verses 5 and 6.Jesus continues with comparing Spiritual regeneration with the wind. After the event of our resent storms, I think it would be beneficial that we ponder/meditate on this statement over the next week and ask “How is God directing my path by the blowing of His Holy Spirit?”
The Tao of Salvation
Ragamuffin Diva writes in "
I Am Yours, Save Me" about the idea of working out your salvation. She asks what this means.
Nicodemus was basically asking the same thing. He came to Jesus at night; being a Pharisee, he'd get into trouble if he were seen fraternizing with this revolutionary. But Nicodemus wanted answers.
Looking at Jesus' answers to people's questions is fascinating. He always looks at the real question, not its surface manifestation. Nicodemus said "We know you're a teacher..." and Jesus responded by telling him about being born again. This section of the Gospel of John is an economical, succinct description of how to be saved.
Born again. How can this happen, and what's it like? Starting from scratch.
Nicodemus was raised by the Jewish system of laws. He was used to performing for his living. He was drawn to Jesus... and got his life changed.
Born again, not of water this time but of the Spirit. We all start out as babies. Lots of potential, no ability at all. It all has to be learned; we learn from our parents and from other experiences over the years how to get on in the world. Unfortunately, it's not really our world. It is, for all its apparent beauty, Satan's place. We grow up learning laws and a lot of other things that go against God's way.
Jesus said he didn't come into the world to judge it, but to save it. You have to be born again because you don't understand any of God's reality.
And then, as Rags observed, you have to go on. You're born again, you're across the Jordan and can't go back. God has made promises, and he always keeps his promises.
If you want his life, however, you have to keep going. You have to work. You don't get to be good at sand sculpture unless you go out and do it, and keep doing it. You don't get good at following Jesus unless you let him take you by the hand and lead your reborn, new self in new ways. You don't know anything about his world, you don't know anything about how his life works. The only way to learn it is to, day after day, only with his help, keep following him.
It's easy to turn this into ritual, as the Jews did. If you do all the right steps you'll inherit the land. But God looks at the heart. He's not interested in rules, judgment and laws. Jesus has given us a new covenant. He asks of us something harder than laws: following him with open hearts and renewed spirit. Daily reconstruction, daily letting the Holy Spirit work his salvation in us.
Some questions:
1. What do you do, each day, to stay in contact with your new father?
2. Does your spirit feel renewed after you've done them?
3. Do you consider yourself an expert at following Jesus?
4. How did you experience being born again?
5. What do you think "being born again" means?
6. Read Ragamuffin Diva's Blog entry. Do you agree with what she says?
2005 February 24
I rewrote this story and expanded it. The new version is
here.
Scourge of the Pharisees
Through a link on a friend's Blog, I found a Blog devoted to leadership. One of the recent stories there got me to thinking about leadership, and it became the subject of thought on the bus ride home.
This scares me. Any time God brings up a subject like this I know I'm in for a rough ride. I don't want to be a leader; I'd rather be left alone in the quiet. Leaders don't have quiet lives.
God sort of helped me through this, showing me that everyone is a leader sometimes and knowing how to do it well makes a difference. "All right," I said. "You'll have to make me able to do this." In a way, this is even more audacious of him than teaching me how to love.
Jesus cleansing the temple is one example of appropriate leadership. All these vendors had turned God's house into a commercial enterprise. Holiness had disappeared under piles of dove guano and squabbling animals. The Pharisees had stood by, not just letting it happen but probably taking their cut of the profits. The temple was no longer a temple to God.
This fit the rest of the practices of the Pharisees. They had no real idea of what holiness was any more. As long as they had their fancy clothes on, were well groomed and had their phylacteries in place everything was fine. If you looked at the temple from the outside it still looked like the dwelling place of their Lord.
Inside was a different story. Filth all over the place. It needed to be cleaned. Jesus, with the authority and leadership that came from being perfectly connected to his Father, drove all of the vendors out of the place.
Jesus' action was appropriate. He took the leadership role that had been abdicated by the formal priests. They should have kept the temple holy. They had full instructions on how to keep the place clean and smelling sweet to their God.
Instructions don't work. Jesus proved that. Not only that but he took on the leadership role and provided a way for us to become clean. He moves in and starts cleaning house.
We have generations of dove-dung equivalent clogging our spirits. Sometimes Jesus has to be very forceful in removing it. A life-threatening problem will be cleared up fast. Others will take more time as old patterns gradually dissolve under the tender ministry of the Holy Spirit.
In one way the result of admitting Jesus to the temple is immediate. Instantly, God the Father sees the person through Jesus, as completely clean. Sins are forgotten. God's love shines, reflected by Jesus' white raiment. The rest of the process is life-long, the cleaning gradually moving throughout each follower's soul. It's delicate too, as the Holy Spirit separates what's life-overlay from what God put in us. Each soul-strand has to be cleansed and then put back where it belongs. Only the Holy Spirit can do this. No self-help book provides a shovel large enough, strong enough and delicate enough to clean our temples.
The Cleansing of the Temple (2:12-25)
The following notes may or may not be used this Thursday due to account access problems raised by James. If James publishes his notes we may decide to use them instead.
This scripture is commonly misused to justify angry or hostile behavior. Well personally, I think that is a far stretch. We should be peace makers. Jesus did this, because He had the authority to clean the temple. Besides it was His Father’s home.
Now before you go and start turning over tables and gathering wipping chords to beat money changers, let’s examine this scripture from different angle. Drawing parallel to 1 Corinthians 6:19 where it states that our body is a temple of the Holy Spirit. Since our body is a temple, we should allow Jesus to clean it. We should purify our hearts with the blood that was shed by our Lord. We need to examine ourselves to see what sin(s) needs to be removed. Some sin needs to be removed violently. We need to do what ever it takes to rid ourselves of it. Note that it is not us, nor the disciples that did the cleaning. It was Jesus and only He has the authority and perfect temperament to do this. We need to let Jesus clean up our life and to restore our hearts to true worship.
Are there any stubborn habits (sins) that need to be removed from our life?
Will allowing Jesus to remove these sins be a violent commotion?
Note: Some scholars say that this was the First Cleansing of the temple. When Jesus returned for his last Passover and His passion to the cross, He needed to cleanse the temple a second time.
How can we continually allow Jesus to cleanse our temple?
Does each cleansing need to be a violent act?
Lastly, (less personal and more theological) this act was preformed to fulfill the prophecy of scripture found in
Psalm 69. Read Psalm 69 and explain what was meant by verse 9 “For the zeal of thine house hath eaten me up; and the reproaches of them that reproached thee are fallen upon me.”
What did this mean to the Psalmist who wrote this passage? How was it fulfilled in our Lord’s actions?
And finally:
What is meant by verse 24 in the 2nd chapter of John’s gospel? “But Jesus did not commit himself unto them, because he knew all men”.
Mother of Controversy
I got my ears pinned back by both Don and Ray for what I wrote in "
Mothers Always Mother." While there was a bit too much glee in their voices as they jumped on me, they had a point.
On my first pass through Christianity, years ago, I got pretty well burned out on theological discussion. You can prove just about anything that way and human values get left out. My thesis this time around has been that God made me as a human being, and anything that requires me to discard portions of what God put in me isn't real theology. My approach is more empirical, a sand sculptor following Jesus.
I read John's account of the wedding in Cana many times, and thought about it before I wrote what I did. The story was intended to be breezy and perhaps spark some discussion, in an attempt to bring forth some new thought. I'll acknowledge that I'm not much of a bible scholar. As I wrote the story I knew that it was probably shallow.
How shallow it was I didn't know until Don presented the results of his study. There are depths and details to this story that just don't come out in the translations of the Bible that I have. The NIV has Jesus saying "Dear woman, why do you involve me?" Don's study shows that a more correct translation would be something like "Woman, get out of my way and let me do my work." To me, this is akin to "Be still and know that I am God." In other words, this was Mary's first sight of Jesus as God, and she responded appropriately, with faith. She told the servants to do whatever Jesus asked. Await his command.
There are other details that come out with study. Wine was always part of Jewish weddings and represented joy. Jesus chose this as his first miracle to show the joy that he couuld bring to peoplle's lives. He had the servants fill the jars so that they could participate in the work.
I was also wrong in my stance on miracles. Don discussed this, saying that John frequently uses the word "signs" instead of miracles, to show that these events are signs of Jesus' authenticity. It took some time for me to understand the significance of this, but apparently some people were following Jesus just to see what rabbit he['d pull out of his hat next. They didn't care about him. How one could see the miracles without wanting to know more I don't know; to me, miracles are a necessary part of life and can't be separated from God's participation in my life. MIracles come from relationship, not the other way around.
Jesus' ministry, in other words, was carefully planned and executed. Each miracle was to illustrate a particular point. That his first one had jars overflowing with wine was a sign for the future.
And yet, words are one thing, acts another. We live in the age of theology. There are more different translations of the bible floating around than ever, and Christians still hide. You pretty much have to search in order to find them, which leads me to believe that there's something missing from all the theology.
Where is this joy? What is joy? I don't think it's going to be found in anything but experimental life. Mainly because our world knows nothing about it, so we have to discover it ourselves. Only the Holy Spirit can turn words into water that fills up the hollow stone, overflowing, and then he can convert it to wine. There are a lot of ambulatory deserts out there.
I can understand this. Our Living God is frightening. He holds the universe in his hand. He could change me into anything. What he wants is to make me Larry in a relationship with Himself. The only way to that is through the living with him. Watching miracles from the sidelines won't do it.
Meeting Notes for 2/3/05
Don started the meeting by asking if any of us has ever attained a Jewish wedding. Of the group, only Don and Larry responded yes. Don pointed out that the Jewish wedding is a joyous time of celebration and to run out of wine is not a good thing. In the Jewish culture, wine represents joy and it is your religious duty to be joyful (
Psalm 104:15 and
Isaiah 55:1). Running out of wine at a wedding, in the Jewish culture, could be cause for a law suit.
We then discussed what Jesus meant by the phase "Dear woman, why do you involve me?" First Don pointed out that the term “woman” was formal and polite. Jesus addressed Mary not as a son talking to his mom but as the Messiah able to bring her salvation. This brought up the next point her blood relation to Jesus would not save her but the blood of Jesus on the cross can only save.
Next we discussed the phase voiced by Jesus "My hour has not yet come" or "My time has not yet come". Don called this a testing of faith question. Jesus commonly test our faith with questions or actions. Mary was quick to understand this and allowed Jesus access to her servants by commanding them to “do what ever He tells you to do”. Many times we tell God how to answer our problems but Mary stated the problem and then submitted to the answer. Don gave a antidotal story about a Naval officer that was instructed to just ask – don’t give instructions, just report for duty.
Thus our call to action – what problems do we need to bring to God?
Next we discussed miracles and how they are signs in the Gospel of John.
The other point that Don brought to the table was how the changing of the water to wine was purification to joyous transformation - the power of a changed life. Jesus offers life more abundant as was the abundance of the wine. (ref
Joel 2:24) – Life without Jesus is like life without joy (wine). If we drink of the worlds wine, that wine will run out, but the joy of Jesus will endure forever.
The best is yet to come!!!
Fine Wine at the Right Time (or something along that line)
I think that the intent of Jesus’ comment was not to reprove Mary. Rather to let her know that Jesus had all things under control. The comment is more like “Don’t be worried or be anxious. I’ll take care of it according to God’s timing”. Besides, some things are better when you wait for them. Hence the best wine was saved for last.
This leads to the next question that Don asks. God’s timing is the same as Jesus’. Now, some have made issue concerning the crucifixion or the suffering of our Lord in this passage. Please note that here there is no suffering happening but rather a celebration or a party. I think it would be inappropriate to bring a downer to this party. It is my belief that Jesus was just informing his contemporaries that the Lord has come and we should rejoice. Further, the wedding feast serves as a backdrop for the Great Wedding Feast that is to come when the Lord meets with us.
This brings us to the concept that F.F. Bruce raises with regards to the “active parable”. Parables are given to us teach us lessons. Here, the lessons as I see them are; we should wait on the Lord; the Lord has all things under His control; we will partake in the great wedding feast with our Lord; the best is yet to come; we should celebrate the arrival of our Lord. We should not forget the concept of wine and the Holy Spirit.
So what is the primary purpose of this passage?
I agree with F.F. Bruce and the active parable concept. We should celebrate the coming of the Lord. Rejoice in the giving of the Holy Spirit. Be comforted knowing that this all happens in God’s timing.
See you Thursday
Mothers Always Mother
"They've run out of wine, son."
"It's not my party."
Jesus stands on a cusp. He knows the future, has known it before he made anything, but this is the moment. From now on, he will be a public figure.
His mother obviously knew what he could do. Her comment was casual, as if she were asking him to pick up a quart of milk on his way home. She expected something, and expected the servants to follow instructions. Her world included no other outcome.
Mothers are like that. No matter how old the children are, Mother Knows Best. Even if the child has proven himself to be God.
My own mother has been a living example of this behavior, and I, frustrated, thought it unusual. Some years ago I saw a friend's father treat her as my mother treated me and began to learn that it was more widespread, and not restricted to mothers. Since then I've learned that it's universal; somehow, parents never see their children as adults. Maybe it's genetic.
Jesus didn't have to get involved. He could have said "Let them drink water. It's healthier anyway." When he chose to get involved he didn't hold back but made wine that impressed everyone with its quality. As usual, it's just about as easy to do a good job as a bad one, and Jesus does nothing by halves.
So he took the step, made wine, and suddenly the invisible carpenter became the Son of God. From that point his life was on rails to an appointment in Jerusalem. He knew what was coming. I wonder if he paused a second before speaking the word that made water into wine, enjoying his last moment of peace. Well, with Mary around, I wonder how much peace he really had. Mothers never change.
Fortunately, Jesus also hasn't changed. He's still in the business of turning common water into extraordinary wine. Each of us a hard stone vessel, hollow until filled with the wine that Jesus sings for us.
