Do we really know Jesus? - The 4th Sunday in Lent
Author: Pastor Scott Schul
March 10, 2024
In this digital world of ours, I
fear we’re rapidly losing our ability to form meaningful relationships with
people. We often hear that we’re all
more connected now than ever before, thanks to the Internet and social
media. But those connections are so
carefully curated and so tragically shallow that too often our relationships
are more illusory than real. The ironic
outcome of our so-called “age of interconnection” is that we are less
meaningfully connected than ever before.
I worry that something similar has
impacted our relationship with and
understanding of Jesus in this day
and age. We are awash in words, images,
information, and opinions about Jesus – more than ever in history. But do we really know him? Or has that relationship also
become distorted, shallow, and more illusory than real?
Today’s Gospel invites us to engage
this question very personally as we overhear part of a conversation Jesus is having
with a man named Nicodemus. It’s a meeting
that took place at night, under cover of darkness. After all, Nicodemus was one of the Jewish religious
leaders. His livelihood and his position
of authority and responsibility were all at risk if he were seen spending time
with a man his peers considered a dangerous religious
heretic or a potential political
revolutionary who might upset the delicate peace and quiet they enjoyed
under Roman rule.
On a more symbolic level, the
nighttime visit tells us that Nicodemus was “in the dark” concerning Jesus’s
identity. But to the great credit of
Nicodemus, he recognized his lack of knowledge and decided to make his own
first-hand assessment of Jesus. That
demonstrated wisdom. It took courage. He knew that if you really want to get to
know someone, you have to sit down with them, face-to-face, eye-to-eye. Could that be part of the reason you’re here
today too? You also have heard about Jesus, but you know you need
to get to know him at a deeper level.
So if we’re living in an age of
unprecedented information about Jesus, what’s the problem? Well, two historic movements have distorted our
image and understanding of Jesus. The
first of these movements started about four or five hundred years ago and goes
by a variety of names: The Age of Rationalism, the Age of Reason, and the
Enlightenment. This era unleashed
enormous intellectual and scientific progress, and accomplished a great deal of
good. But it also fundamentally changed our
view of God.
Because God cannot be measured or
examined in a scientific way, this movement trained us to think of God as less real than things we can tangibly
see and touch. We devalued spiritual
matters and invested our trust only in material things. If it didn’t convince us that God was just a
primitive superstition, then it demoted God to a mere creator who set the world
and cosmos in motion and then went away, never to return, like a clockmaker who
builds a watch, sets it ticking, and then walks away.
What’s the consequence of this
clockmaker theology? It fosters the
notion that God is impersonal and distant, a God who is uninvolved and
uninterested in our daily lives. If
that’s how we view God, then it’s natural to feel powerless. The great heavenly machine is ticking. The gears are in motion. Our fate is sealed. We just have to brace ourselves for an
inevitable and unchangeable future. So
why pray or worship? Why invest your
heart in a God who seems so distant and so emotionally cold?
So if this first movement distorted
our image of Jesus by focusing us way too much on material things, the corrective reaction took us way too far in the
opposite direction. That reaction goes
by many names, but it’s probably best known for inspiring people to be “spiritual
but not religious.” This movement takes
a dim view of material things in general and the institutional church in
particular. I can understand why. Churches are as flawed as the people who
attend them. That’s no secret. People sin. Community is inherently messy. But
by distancing faith from a stable community of people and beliefs, the
“spiritual but not religious” movement has turned faith into a purely intellectual and dangerously individual undertaking. Community and creation don’t matter. Our bodies have no inherent sacredness. Material things have no holiness. And so God becomes an impersonal power. For you Star Wars fans, isn’t that what The Force is? Just an energy you manipulate and use for
good or for evil. The contemporary
resurgence of witchcraft is another symptom of this notion.
But what happens when all your
spells and incantations don’t do what you wanted them to do? What happens when your heavenly vending
machine doesn’t respond the way you demand? More likely than not you just stop believing. That’s a big reason why there has been such a
resurgence of prominent atheist speakers and authors these days.
Today’s Gospel invites us to put
these two distortions aside and join Nicodemus in his evening meeting with
Jesus so we can assess Jesus up-close for ourselves. Is he just a fraud? If not, then what kind of God is he? Does he really care about us, know us, and
love us? Or is he that clockmaker –
someone who did something a long time ago, set the wheels in motion, and then
entered into virtual retirement?
The answer begins with this vital
point: it is a non-negotiable article of our faith that Jesus is part of the Holy
Trinity, and so Jesus is God. And so if
you want to know what God is like, look to Jesus. And there we find that in Jesus, all things material and all things spiritual are brought into holy
union. First, Jesus is fully human. He walked the dusty roads of Palestine and sailed
the Sea of Galilee. He felt the sun’s heat
on his face and the chill of a cold desert night on his neck. He smiled and laughed and cried. He took upon himself skin, bones, and blood
so that he could be with us,
perfectly understand us, take upon
himself our every sin and hardship,
and in the process bring sanctity and holiness to all things material. All of
creation is worthy of our respect because it bears his sacred fingerprints.
At the same time, Jesus is fully
divine. He is not just a wise
teacher, skillful magician, or an ancient version of a Jedi Knight. He is the Son
of God, the creator of everything, with the power to judge, bless, condemn,
forgive, and stand above any and all things. He is entitled to our worship
and awe. We do not manipulate him or
dictate to him.
And yet with his unmatched power
and authority, today’s Gospel states that Jesus willingly became small and ascended the cross so that
“everyone who believes in him may not perish but have eternal life.” Jesus didn’t come to us to punish us, scare
us, or control us like puppets. At the
dawn of time he did not arbitrarily decide who will be saved and who will be forsaken. He came here to heal us from the distortions of sin, proclaim that God’s mercy is bigger than any sin we can commit; and infuse us with hope so that we might
daily adjust our course to walk with him and receive his grace-filled gift of
eternal life. Why? Love. Love is his only motivation.
Whatever became of Nicodemus? Well, as the Gospel unfolds, we see him gradually
become bolder in his association with Jesus. He even brings the spices to anoint Jesus’s body in the tomb. Tradition tells us that Nicodemus was
eventually baptized by Peter. Because
once Nicodemus really knew Jesus, our
Lord’s love was irresistible. Nicodemus believed and obediently followed. It altered the course of his life and his
eternity. As you begin to know Jesus
better, how will he change your life
and eternity?
Gospel
Text: John 3:14-21
[Jesus said:] 14“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.
16“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.
17“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. 18Those who believe in him are not condemned; but
those who do not believe are condemned already, because they have not believed
in the name of the only Son of God. 19And this is the judgment,
that the light has come into the world, and people loved darkness rather than
light because their deeds were evil. 20For all who do evil hate
the light and do not come to the light, so that their deeds may not be
exposed. 21But those who do what is true come to the light, so
that it may be clearly seen that their deeds have been done in God.”
Copyright Rev. Scott E. Schul, 2024 All rights reserved. May not be reproduced in whole or in part without written permission.
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