Daily Lesson for March 13, 2019

Today’s Daily Lesson comes from John chapter 2 verses 1 through 15:

Now there was a Pharisee named Nicodemus, a leader of the Jews. 2He came to Jesus by night and said to him, ‘Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God; for no one can do these signs that you do apart from the presence of God.’ 3Jesus answered him, ‘Very truly, I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above.’ 4Nicodemus said to him, ‘How can anyone be born after having grown old? Can one enter a second time into the mother’s womb and be born?’ 5Jesus answered, ‘Very truly, I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit. 6What is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the Spirit is spirit. 7Do not be astonished that I said to you, “You must be born from above.” 8The wind blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.’ 9Nicodemus said to him, ‘How can these things be?’ 10Jesus answered him, ‘Are you a teacher of Israel, and yet you do not understand these things?

11 ‘Very truly, I tell you, we speak of what we know and testify to what we have seen; yet you do not receive our testimony. 12If I have told you about earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you about heavenly things? 13No one has ascended into heaven except the one who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. 14And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, 15that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.

Nicodemus is afraid. That is why he comes to Jesus at night — “Nic at night” as the old joke goes. He is afraid because, though he is a Pharisee and a part of the religious elite dead set and plotting against Jesus, he has actually begun to listen to and be changed by Jesus. “We know you are from God,” Nicodemus says to Jesus, “for no one can do the signs you do without being sent from God.” Here is his confession — a first step in conversion. 

And yet, Nicodemus is still in the dark. He is not yet willing to come and make himself known as a follower in the light. He is still in hiding. He is still afraid. 

And so, Jesus tells him, he “must be born again”.  Much has been made of this statement both rightly and wrongly. But I take Jesus to mean that Nicodemus must undergo the difficult and painful and very scary process of going from darkness into light, from fear into courage, doubt and hesitation to bold and life-changing faith. 

Of course the fear is very real and there is much for which one can be afraid. Rejection. Ostracism. Revile. These things keep Nicodemus in the dark, his belief in secret. 

Yet Jesus tells him the thing most feared is the thing when once seen in the light will bring salvation. Just as Moses made a bronze snake for the people to gaze upon and it healed them of their own snake-bitten torment, so too will bringing the secret out into the open be the way of salvation for Nicodemus and other secret believers like him.

“What I have told you in secret yell from the rooftops,” Jesus elsewhere said.

It is freedom to be no longer confined.  It is life to be rebirthed from the dark of fear into the light of courage. And it is salvation to face the thing of which we are most terrified and therefore rob it of its life-taking power. 

“You must be born again.”  We must be born again. We must face our own fears again and again and again, as we come out of the darkness of hiding and learn to live in the broad daylight of the courage of our own convictions.