Text for the Week: The Light that Guides

Scripture: John 3:1-21

There was a Pharisee named Nicodemus, a Jewish leader. ² He came to Jesus at night and said to him, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God, for no one could do these miraculous signs that you do unless God is with him.”

³ Jesus answered, “I assure you, unless someone is born anew, it’s not possible to see God’s kingdom.”

⁴ Nicodemus asked, “How is it possible for an adult to be born? It’s impossible to enter the mother’s womb for a second time and be born, isn’t it?”

⁵ Jesus answered, “I assure you, unless someone is born of water and the Spirit, it’s not possible to enter God’s kingdom. ⁶ Whatever is born of the flesh is flesh, and whatever is born of the Spirit is spirit. ⁷ Don’t be surprised that I said to you, ‘You must be born anew.’ ⁸ God’s Spiritblows wherever it wishes. You hear its sound, but you don’t know where it comes from or where it is going. It’s the same with everyone who is born of the Spirit.”

⁹ Nicodemus said, “How are these things possible?”

¹⁰ “Jesus answered, “You are a teacher of Israel and you don’t know these things? ¹¹ I assure you that we speak about what we know and testify about what we have seen, but you don’t receive our testimony. ¹² If I have told you about earthly things and you don’t believe, how will you believe if I tell you about heavenly things? ¹³ No one has gone up to heaven except the one who came down from heaven, the Human One. ¹⁴ Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so must the Human One be lifted up ¹⁵ so that everyone who believes in him will have eternal life. ¹⁶ God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him won’t perish but will have eternal life. ¹⁷ God didn’t send his Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through him. ¹⁸ Whoever believes in him isn’t judged; whoever doesn’t believe in him is already judged, because they don’t believe in the name of God’s only Son.

¹⁹ “This is the basis for judgment: The light came into the world, and people loved darkness more than the light, for their actions are evil. ²⁰ All who do wicked things hate the light and don’t come to the light for fear that their actions will be exposed to the light. ²¹ Whoever does the truth comes to the light so that it can be seen that their actions were done in God.”

Questions

1. Why is Nicodemus meeting with Jesus is he sincere or is he trying to challenge Jesus, is he trying to learn and grow or is he trying to dispute and belittle?
2. Why is Nicodemus, a man who has studied Scripture from youth, perplexed by Jesus’ words?
3. How are we to understand the idea of judgment in this passage and how does it relate to Jesus’ role as Son and light?

Background

Related Scriptures: Ezekiel John 1:1-18

Nicodemus is possibly a nickname because it is a Greek name meaning “conqueror of the people” and we are likely told his name so that we have an idea of his character as well as his wealth and privilege.

Jesus’ words in v11 are important because they show that Nicodemus has not truly paid attention to what Jesus is doing and so is making hasty claims about him.

For more background you can watch my video here

Reflection

I find one of the most daunting tasks to understanding John’s Gospel is parsing out his metaphors, and John 3 is one of these times when understanding the metaphors makes a difference. The passage opens with Nicodemus coming to Jesus and curiously John gives us the detail that it is “at night”. Light and darkness are a frequent metaphor in John’s Gospel and we should consider whether this note fits into the metaphorical language. It is easy to suppose that Nicodemus was being secretive and coming after dark when his presence was not as detectable. However, the only time in John when the term night is used merely as a literal description is in 21:3 when the disciples led by Peter go fishing (and even there it might show some distance from Jesus). This means that we should associate Nicodemus’ coming with a spiritual darkness rather than a physical night (regardless if historically happened at night). This idea gets more support when we realize that the passage ends with a detailed comment on light and dark, everything about this passage is structured to help us contrast the light of Jesus from the darkness.

Consider Nicodemus’ opening words “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God, for no one could do these miraculous signs that you do unless God is with him.” He represents the Pharisees and Jewish leaders groups who we already know are skeptical of Jesus. Nicodemus is not praising Jesus he is asking Jesus to display his power and prove Nicodemus’ comment a reality, this is a challenge. Nicodemus comes from a position of darkness, a place that rejects who Jesus is and so comes merely to challenge Jesus in an attempt to discredit him. The nature of this challenge is evident when we consider that Nicodemus calls Jesus, “rabbi” (a teacher of the Torah) and Jesus responds to Nicodemus by asking how he can be a teacher of Israel and not understand what Jesus is saying. The question that is up for debate between Jesus and Nicodemus is, which one of them is the true teacher.

Jesus’ responses establish him as the true teacher of Israel and the one who fully understands the nature of God and is worthy of the title that Nicodemus sarcastically opened with. In doing this he points to the fact that because he has come from God he is able to lead humanity to God, he is our true guide unlike Nicodemus and the leaders he represents who are unable to understand the meaning of a new life in God. This exchange serves as a starting point for the rest of the book, Jesus has won the argument about who is the true teacher, it is he the light and this will be demonstrated throughout the rest of the book as Jesus lives up to the themes mentioned here. In referencing Numbers 21 Jesus is saying that he as the true light from God will be both healer and exulted, Further, Jesus himself as the light is the factor in the judgment of the world. These themes played out in Jesus’ life are going to be the witness that Jesus is the true guide and thus the light. Nicodemus comes to Jesus with a sarcastic challenge to Jesus’ position as “teacher send by God” and in the following response we see Jesus answer the challenge and provide evidence for how we can know his claim is true. And it is following him on this journey that we learn what or better who the light is.

              It is not easy to allow Jesus to be our teacher and guide, we often come to Jesus just like Nicodemus, full of our own ideas and not fully understanding what Jesus is saying. It is even possible that Jesus’ ideas will sound confusing or run counter-cultural to our own. It is at this point that we make the commitment of faith that we are going to listen to him as the teacher and lay aside our own ideas to consider his.

Takeaway

Jesus as the true light is humanity’s guide when we walk with him we are able to see and understand where we are headed, but when we turn from him we are hidden and trapped in the darkness.