March 1 2026 Lent 2
Genesis 12.1-4a Psalm 121 Romans 4.1-5; 13-17 John 3.1-17
Our gospel this morning contains some elements which, for some, have become ‘proof texts’ for whether you are a ‘true’ Christian. The term ‘born again’ is used in many contexts and by many people, not always in helpful ways. John 3:16 is possibly one of the most well-known verses in the bible, but it too can be used to ‘prove’ you are ‘saved’, and unfortunately it has also been used to ‘prove’ that some are not ‘saved’. I am not going to start justifying or defending any of the stances used with these texts, but I think we need to be aware that, no matter our point of view or ‘take’ on scripture, we can sometimes ‘unintentionally’ cause harm by the way we use it.
This morning I would prefer to focus on the expansive and surprising love of God that this passage invites. And the final verse in today’s gospel is a great place to start. This verse elaborates on the ‘motive’ for God’s sending of Jesus. God sent God’s son, in love, to save. So, while 3:16 may have been used by some to ‘prove’ who are and are not saved, 3:17 tells us all are saved. God’s intent is to love, save, and bless the whole world. And if God’s love is for everyone, then we, who have received that love, are called to see all persons through the lens of that profound love, no matter what their faith or lack of faith.
Nicodemus is the consummate ‘religious insider’, a conscientious Pharisee, a member of the ruling Jewish council, a teacher of Israel, yet Jesus tells him if he wants to ‘enter the kingdom of God’ he must, at some level, repudiate his religiosity. He must be twice-born, once by his earthly mother through water and then by his heavenly Father through the Spirit. Only the free gift of God’s love can do this. Despite Nicodemus’ confusion, Jesus does not try to ‘simplify’ what he has said so that Nicodemus could understand it more easily. We, ourselves, often do that with difficult passages of scripture, we ‘rework’ them so that their message is ‘simpler’ for us to understand, but sometimes by doing that we lose the message. And sometimes, when we ‘simplify’ a text we end up forgetting it, dismissing it, we make it so simple it loses any meaning for us. The scriptures we remember best, and the ones with the deepest meaning for us, are often the ones we are still not sure about, the ones we are still ‘working out’. Just because a passage of scripture is difficult to understand should not mean we ‘discard’ it, or ‘dumb it down’. Nicodemus did not discard it, and Jesus did not dumb it down. Scripture is there for us to ‘chew over’, to ‘wrestle with’, to ‘mull over’ and keep mulling over, letting it ‘seep’ deep down into us and become one with us. As we wrestle and chew and mull over scripture, new insights might emerge, new understandings can be reached, and sometimes a little epiphany occurs when we can finally say ‘I get it’.
And when we look further into John’s gospel we see Nicodemus mentioned twice more – once when he tells his colleagues they should not judge Jesus before hearing what he has to say, and then when he and Joseph of Arimathea tend to Jesus’ body after his death, so it appears that despite Nicodemus’ bewilderment and confusion after this night-time conversation, he was able to accept that free gift of love.
Sometimes John 3:16 gets caught up by that word believe. “So that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life”. If we look at this word believe, we find it comes from the German word ‘belieben’, the German word for love. To believe is not to hold an opinion, it is to give your heart over without reservation; to hold something as beloved; it is to invest something with my love. For Nicodemus, it meant starting afresh, letting go of everything he understood about life and death. It meant being ‘born again’, becoming a newborn, vulnerable, hungry, and ready to receive a new reality in a brand new way. To come out of the darkness and risk the light. The work of trusting Jesus was mind-bending, soul-altering work; it was hard, and it took time; it came with setbacks, fear and disappointment. No wonder Nicodemus walked away confused. Jesus was calling him to fall in love, and stay in love. Belief is important to God because love is important to God. To believe is to be-love.
And God’s love for us is not a ‘theory’, it is specific. It is as real as the incarnation itself. God loves the Samaritan woman, God loves the man born blind at birth, God loves the man paralysed, God loves Jesus’ friend dead in the tomb for four days, God loves Peter who will deny his discipleship, and God loves each and every one of us. And this message is an important one for everyone to hear. It is especially important for our Jewish brothers and sisters who are facing vitriol and abuse; it is important for those who are unsure of their gender identity, or whose gender identity is not the same as the one on their birth certificate; it is important for our Muslim brothers and sisters who are also facing hate and violence because of the actions of people who were not acting out the teachings of their faith; it is important for every one of us to hear, and hear again because life’s challenges often leave us doubting the reality of God’s love and it is so easy to let those challenges overwhelm us.
Let us live this week and the weeks to come living out what it means that God so loved the world and came to save all of us.