- Born From Above
Being a Christian means being “born from above.” Some older Bible translations say, “born again.”
I think a way we could say it that might be helpful to us is to say that becoming a Christian means starting one’s life over again.
I’ve met some people whose life was headed in a certain direction, when suddenly, something changed. Maybe they had a realization. Maybe they started their recovery. Maybe an event took place that was so traumatic, that their life was forever divided into “before” and “after.”
And they would say something like, “that was the day my life began again. That was my second birth. That was the day I discovered my purpose.”
Something like that.
What they are talking about is a radical change in their lives. Once, they looked at the world a certain way, but then, they look at the world in a whole new way.
For followers of Jesus, when we commit to the way he taught, and when we symbolize our commitment through baptism, we are declaring that though we may have looked at the world the way society looks at the world, now we look at the world through the eyes of God. We see as God sees. We see with new eyes. We hear with new ears. And everything looks different.
- Nic at Night
One night, a Pharisee named Nicodemus goes to Jesus.
Pharisees were people who studied the scriptures and who strived for holiness in their daily living.
They were widely respected.
And because they devoted their lives to prayer and study, they knew well the teachings of God and what God demanded of them.
Nicodemus goes to Jesus at night.
Why at night?
Maybe he is afraid of being seen, going to Jesus. After all, as a Pharisee, he is expected to know everything. He shouldn’t have to go seeking answers from some Galilean from the good-for-nothing town of Nazareth.
What would it look like - how would it appear - to be seen seeking answers to the questions he was wrestling with from this uneducated, traveling preacher?
So he goes at night.
He greets Jesus, and Jesus says, “No one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above.” In other words, only with those new eyes I was talking about, can one see the kingdom of God. Only with those new ears can one hear the kingdom message.
But Nicodemus wants to know what it means to be “born from above.” To be “born again.”
He says to Jesus: “How can anyone be born again? I don’t get it. A person can’t be born twice…”
I’ve always assumed that Nicodemus misses the metaphor, that it goes right over his head… but perhaps I’m not giving Nicodemus enough credit. He is, after all, a Pharisee. He should know.
And maybe he does know.
Maybe he knows exactly what Jesus is talking about, but just doesn’t like it. “What are you saying, Jesus?”
“You know exactly what I’m saying. I’m saying that you live for this world, but you are called to live for another world, another kingdom…”
“But I don’t get it…”
“Yes, you do. You get it perfectly. You understand perfectly well. You just don’t want to accept this teaching, or apply it to your life.”
“But how can these things be?”
“You know. You’re a teacher of the law. You’ve studied the scriptures; you know what is required. No one can enter the kingdom without being born of water and the Spirit.”
- Making Deals with the Devil
It’s not an easy thing, to be born from above. Our feet are planted in this world, but Jesus calls us to live in a new world. We have built lives for ourselves that depend on collaborating with so many of the world’s ways. Our lives are intertwined with so many of what we call, “necessary evils.”
- fossil fuels, for example. A necessary evil.
- investments that depend on the financial success of corporations with questionable morals.
- the endless consumption of goods, and the mountain of products we throw away, filling up landfills, and polluting the oceans with plastic.
- and the way we tolerate racism and prejudice and injustice in our society…
- the way we look the other way when a six year-old black child is taken away in handcuffs for acting up in school…
- the way we incarcerate more people than any other nation on earth…
- the way we deny opportunities to people because of their gender, or their race, or their sexual orientation…
- the way we ignore the poor, the millions of Americans who live in poverty…
- and the way we rely on violence and shows of force for security...
Every day, we’re making deals with the devil!
We would not do this if we were truly born from above, born of water and Spirit.
Perhaps, like Nicodemus, we understand too well what Jesus is talking about, but we pretend that we don’t, because the change to our lifestyle that understanding would require is just too great.
It’s not easy to be born from above. It’s not easy to immerse yourself in God’s kingdom.
- Kingdom Living
Who can truly be born from above? The challenge is too great. Even the apostle Paul said that all people sin and fall short. Even the apostle Paul said that he himself often does the very things that he does not want to do - the evil the he does not want, he finds himself doing.
That makes Paul, who was a Pharisee himself, no better than Nicodemus. And we’re all right there with him…
How can we respond?
Lent reminds us that there are two things we can do.
One, Lent reminds us to examine our lives, and repent from all the evil we are complicit with...in other words, it’s a time when we can focus on changing our hearts and our minds, a time when we can try to see with new eyes and hear with new ears and live fully in God’s kingdom, so that we can see how offensive to God every act of evil is, and so that we can rejoice with God at every sign of the kingdom in our midst.
And because living this way requires us to be nothing less than perfect, and perfection is impossible, Lent is also a time to ponder the grace of God, the love and forgiveness that is offered to all who fall short of God’s desire for their lives.
In baptism, we don’t just commit our lives to a new way of living; in baptism, we simultaneously accept the grace and forgiveness of God that reconciles us to God, keeps us in God’s favor, despite our many shortcomings.
Nicodemus comes to Jesus, hoping to find a loophole, a way out of the call to completely change his life.
Jesus provides no such loophole. Jesus’ message remains consistent. Be born from above. Repent. Completely change your heart and your life, if you want to see the kingdom of God.
Nicodemus knows what Jesus is talking about. He just kinda wishes that he doesn’t.
Because change is hard.
- Life & Salvation
But Jesus has some more teaching to do. Jesus says that “whoever believes in the Son of Man may have eternal life; for God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life. Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.”
This is that grace that I was talking about. Being born from above involves that commitment, that decision to say “yes” to all things holy, to follow God and God’s ways completely… AND it is also the recognition that life in Jesus means no condemnation even when you fail at this. If you sincerely and whole-heartedly commit yourself to the way of Jesus, you will experience life in the kingdom - you will find healing, wholeness, and salvation - despite the difficulty, the impossibility, of living that life perfectly.
That’s what it means to be saved.
You may recall that the Greek word sozo is often translated as “saved,” but it’s a complex word, and it is also sometimes translated as “make well” or “make whole.” In other words, salvation means healing and wholeness.
And the “life” that Jesus talks about - that’s life in the kingdom of God. It’s the life of the ages, the eternal life, a life that we can start living right now, starting from the moment we are born from above, born from water and spirit, baptized into Christ.
We can start living that eternal life right now, as soon as we learn to see with new eyes and hear with new ears.
We can start living that life of healing, wholeness, and salvation, from the moment we commit ourselves to the way of love, the way of Christ, and work to spread that love and that healing and that wholeness to every neighbor we meet. No matter who they are.
We can start living that eternal life of healing, wholeness, and salvation by recommitting ourselves to the vows we made at our baptism, to renounce evil, to repent of our sins, and turn to Christ, and to celebrate the new life given to us by Christ, as members of God’s one, holy, universal church.
It’s not easy. But Nicodemus - he did it. He really did. He appears later in the gospel of John, first defending Jesus before his fellow Pharisees, and later, helping Joseph of Arimathea give Jesus a proper Jewish burial following his crucifixion.
Nicodemus was a believer in Jesus, and I think he continued learning from Jesus, learning how to see with new eyes and hear with new ears - learning how to live that new, born-from-above life.
And by the grace of God, we can, too.
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