“Like the Wind…”

If you are going to ask Jesus questions, come at night. That’s the first thing Nicodemus teaches us this morning. If you have questions for Jesus, if you just can’t quite figure Him out, can’t exactly “get Him”, well, come at night to get straightened out.

Why? Because no one else will see stupid you are, if you come at night. That’s why. If you learn nothing else from Nicodemus’ story but that, it will at least save you embarrassment, and that’s something. You see, Nicodemus was a ruler of the Jews, a chief Pharisee and he had a lot invested in maintaining a reputation for religious scholarship, wisdom, and knowledge of the ways of God and man.

We know the Pharisees as the “bad guys” of the New Testament, but that was just the opposite of the way most Jews (and Romans too) of the first century would have known them. The Pharisees were the moral and religious elite of their day. When God set up the priesthood for Aaron and his sons, through Moses, one of their duties was to teach the people the Torah, the way of God.

But they fell down on the job. Badly. As well as being kind of shaky on offering the sacrifices in the prescribed time and manner they were worse on teaching the Torah. Teaching priests like Ezra were the exception that proved the rule. Dunderheads like Eli, who didn’t teach Samuel the bible because he’d never learned it himself were the norm.

The Pharisees came along after the Old Testament era and tried to make that right. They taught the people. Set up synagogues. Trained rabbis. Set a good example. Prepared for the Christ. And Nicodemus was a leader of this movement. So it wouldn’t do for him to show ignorance in the way or words of God. It simply wouldn’t do at all.

But this Jesus Guy had Nicodemus puzzled. Who is this Guy? A Lamb of God come to take away the sin of the world? A cleanser of God’s temple, clearing out the commercial stuff to make way for the Spiritual? A miracle worker? A preacher saying the kingdom of God is here? What do you make of a Guy like that? It’s not how Nicodemus and the other Pharisees figured the Christ would act when He came. But that was the word among some of the people—that Jesus is the Christ.

Nicodemus doesn’t want to ask his questions in public, about where Jesus came from and what exactly He’s doing. Jesus already had a reputation for a sharp tongue and making the wise look foolish. Nicodemus must keep up his reputation for wisdom and scholarship. Can’t let that go! So he comes, wisely, at night to question Jesus about these strange goings on.

His opening gambit is familiar to anyone who’s spent much time in graduate school. You know those very irritating goody-goody students who read every page of every assignment and just can’t wait to show off their great knowledge? And when the prof asks if anyone has any questions, they shoot up their hand and give this long, windy dissertation designed only to show off their brilliance (and perhaps to correct the prof on a point or two in his lecture) and at the end disguise the whole thing as a question? I hate those guys.

Nicodemus starts off just like one of those guys. “Rabbi, we know that You are a teacher come from God; for no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with Him…” Well, Nicodemus did you come to get straightened out on who Jesus is, or to straighten Him out? Did you come to learn or to teach?

Jesus puts him in his place right away by pulling the cork for him: “Truly, I say to you, unless one is born anew, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” That gets Nicodemus to ask a question, “How can that be?! Can a man be born when he is old, can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born!” It’s outrageous. Jesus has a reputation already for saying weird things, but this is too weird!

And then Jesus answers that unless Nicodemus is born of water and the Spirit, a new birth, from above, he cannot enter the kingdom of God or even see it. Because what is born of the flesh, what we all got from Adam, is flesh. Only what is born of the Spirit is Spirit. And like calls to like. Deep to deep (and shallow to shallow). The flesh cannot grasp the things of God, so it is pointless to answer Nicodemus’ questions until Nicodemus becomes a different person and gets a whole different outlook. Only then will the things Jesus says make any sense to him, because the Spirit is like the wind—He blows where He wills; you hear the sound but don’t know where He comes from or where He goes. So those born of the Spirit are a mystery to others. You don’t know where they come from. You don’t know where they are going. They are like the wind…

Nicodemus flips. “How can this be?” Jesus asks how the teacher of Israel can be such an ignoramus he doesn’t know these things!? And here’s the crux for us:

We often think Christianity is a set of teachings, like geometry. You learn principles and axioms and then put them into practice to solve problems. Simple. But Jesus says His way is not like that at all. No amount of piling up learning or doctrinal propositions will help you get Jesus or His kingdom. To get what Jesus gives, you must become a different person. Your whole life and outlook must be changed by water and the Holy Spirit. Till then it’s pointless to tell you anything.

We chafe at this. It brings us low. Insults us. But at some level, we know it’s true. We are ignorant. We can’t see the kingdom of God. We certainly can’t enter it with the aspirations, ideas, thoughts, and desires we come by naturally. So by the water of Holy Baptism, God drowns, kills the old you and all your pride, greed, lust, pretensions to knowledge, and ambitions. And He raises up, from the old, a new person who blows like the wind, up from the depths of the earth, out of the tomb of Christ, and is swept along after Him to heaven.

You are that person. So was Nicodemus, later when we see him at the cross staking claim to Jesus’ body. God made him, made you, that person who gets Jesus in Baptism. And by the Gospel Word, by the body and blood of Christ going into your mouth, He raises that new person from the depths of your being day by day, by faith. And faith gives not new ideas about Jesus, but bestows Jesus’ very life as your life, so it is not you who live anymore, but Christ who lives in you, for real. Faith is a speeding train onto which Jesus pulls you, taking you someplace new. That’s how you “get” Jesus.

No one else will get you though, when you get Jesus. You will be like the wind to them, blowing in from a place they’ve never been, toward a place they can never imagine. You will seem a stranger from a strange land to those who are not made new too, by Jesus. But it’s okay. You won’t care anymore—what people think or say of you. You’ll care only what Jesus thinks of you; and by then you’ll know you aren’t fooling Him—He knows how empty, how poor you really are…

But that doesn’t matter either! Because, by water and the Spirit, by the Son of Man lifted up, by faith alone, night and day, you have everything from Jesus. Now you know where you come from. Now, you know where you’re going; and the Peace, that surpasses understanding, guards your heart and mind in Christ Jesus. Amen.

 

Rev. Kevin Martin