One day at recess, when I was in the
fourth-grade, several classmates came up and asked me if I was a “born
again” Christian? They informed me that, according to the Bible,
only people who have been “born again” are truly saved and going to heaven. People might think that they were Christians,
faithfully following Jesus, but if they had not been born again, then they were
just fooling themselves and God would judge them harshly.
In the small southern town where I grew up, to be “born again” usually
meant that the individual had experienced a dramatic, spiritual and emotional
conversion, in which they heard Jesus calling them to repentance and
rebirth. Most of the “born again”
Christians around me could identify the exact moment when they “truly accepted
Jesus into their lives, gave Jesus their hearts, and promised to follow in his
footsteps as one of his disciples for the rest of their lives.” Frequently, these intense moments of
conversion occurred at the end of a Christian Revival service, when the
individual responded to a preacher’s “altar call” by sliding out of their pews,
walking down the aisle of the church, and then kneeling at the altar as the
preacher prayed for them.
After further questioning, I determined that the church which my
fourth-grade friends and their families attended was having a Revival that
week. At the revival service, my friends
had responded to an “altar call” and “given their lives to Jesus,” as the
revival preacher prayed and they knelt, crying uncontrollably. Although I should have been happy for my
fourth-grade friends’ spiritual awakening, I was actually annoyed—and, a little
terrified. You see, now that they were “real
Christians,” my friends became somewhat arrogant and downright judgmental. They kept telling me that if I did not have a
single moment of conversion and become “born again,” then I was not really a
Christian and I was not really saved.
I grew up as a Methodist preacher’s kid in North Carolina. I was baptized as an infant, and I had been
raised as a Christian all of my life. I
could not identify a transformative moment when I was “born again.” I had always been raised in the faith; always
been growing in the faith. I distinctly remember thinking to myself that God
was not very fair, if it was true you had to have a dramatic “born again” experience. Since I believed that God was ultimately fair, I began to doubt what my fourth grade friends had heard in their church during that revival.
Then, several months later, as I continued to think about not being “born
again,” it occurred to me that nothing had really changed in the lives of my “born
again” fourth-grade classmates. While
they were different for a few days, before long they begin to return to their
old selves. Now, after several months,
you could not really tell that they had ever been “born again” Christians.
The Christian concept of being “born
again” comes from our scripture reading for this weekend, John 3: 1-21.
The story begins with Nicodemus who was a Pharisee and a leader of the
Jews in his community. The Pharisees
were very devout in their faith and very rigorous in following Jewish law and customs. Representing the Jewish leaders of his town, Nicodemus
seeks Jesus out at night, under the cover of darkness. John, the Gospel writer, makes a point of
emphasizing that Nicodemus approaches Jesus at night because for John, darkness
suggests a separation (or, alienation) from God.
Nicodemus begins by affirming
Jesus. He refers to Jesus as a “Rabbi,”
a title of honor and he further affirms that Jesus must be “a teacher who has come from
God.” Unfortunately, at this point, Nicodemus
stumbles in his approach to Jesus, by confirming that Jesus must be a great
teacher because “no one can do these signs that you do apart from the presence
of God.” Earlier, in John 2, the Gospel
writer has told us that Jesus does not trust those believers whose faith is
based upon the miraculous signs that he does (2:23-25).
As a result, Jesus responds to
Nicodemus 3:3 by challenging him with a word puzzle: “Very truly, I tell you, no one can see the
kingdom of God without being born again.”
This, of course, is the verse that grounds the claim that “true
Christians” must be “born again” Christians.
However, this is one of those cases when the words say more than they
appear to say. The Gospel of John was
written in Greek and the phrase looks like this in Greek: “to be born άυωθευ”. Now, άυωθευ
has a double meaning in Greek, which cannot be captured in English. The word can mean either, “again,” a reference to time or “from above,” a reference to the Divine.
It’s clear that in the story,
Nicodemus interprets άυωθευ as
meaning to be “born again.” Nicodemus
responds by asking “How can anyone be born after having grown old? Can one enter a second time into the mother’s
womb and be born?”
However, in understanding this
passage, we must take into account both meanings. The Gospel writer clearly wants us to
understand that in his word puzzle for Nicodemus, Jesus is talking about being both
being born again and from
above. Jesus says, “Very truly, I tell
you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and
Spirit.” As Christians, we normally
associate “water” with baptism. But,
here, we need to remember that Nicodemus is not yet a Christian. Rather, he is a Jewish Pharisee. So, for Nicodemus, being “born of water” is a
metaphor for physical birth from the womb.
In other words, as a Pharisee, Nicodemus would have understood Jesus to
mean that one must be born physically and
spiritually.
This realization prompts a cry
of disbelief from Nicodemus, “How can these things be?” At this point, the dialogue between Nicodemus
and Jesus ends. The remainder of the
passage, 3:11-21, is a monologue by Jesus, as he tries to explain what he means
by being born again and from
above.
Jesus begins his explanation by
foreshadowing his future crucifixion on the cross. He explains that “the Son of Man must be
lifted up.” John, the Gospel writer,
understands Jesus’ crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension as one continuous
event in which Jesus of Nazareth is revealed as the Messiah—or, Son of God. Thus, at the crucifixion, Jesus is physically
lifted up on the Cross and crucified, but in so doing, Jesus is also lifted up
and exalted as the Messiah.
This leads to what the
Protestant Reformer Martin Luther believed to be the very essence of the
Christian Gospel, John 3:16, “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.”
In the remaining verses, 3:17-21, Jesus elaborates on the meaning of John
3:16. The key to interpreting these
final five verses is to recognize that the verb tense is present—not future. So, verse 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.” Present tense—not future. The verb tense is important here because it
signals what theologians refer to as a “realized eschatology.”
The term, “realized eschatology” is just a fancy way of saying that in
this verse God’s judgment and salvation of the world is underway now, in the
present, initiated with Jesus’ first coming into the world. God is not waiting for some future, cosmic
end-of-the-world moment to redeem the world, although as Christians we look
forward to that cosmic event, as well. In
a realized eschatology, the word “eternal,” means more than just a never ending
existence. It means more than simply
living “to infinity—and beyond,” to quote the movie, Toy Story.
No. In a realized eschatology, “eternal life” describes a life lived in God’s
unlimited presence and glory. God sends
the Son into the world in love to save the world here, now, in the present,
today. We respond to that love by living
our lives in God’s Presence here, now, in this present moment, in this present
world, knowing that God is already with us through the life, ministry, death,
and resurrection of Jesus Christ, our
Messiah.
Unfortunately, this “eternal life” is too much for us as broken, finite,
sinful human persons. Using Jesus’
metaphor of light and darkness, the light is too bright and we slip back into a
grayness that is both light and dark.
Or, as my fourth grade classmates who had been “born again,” we slip
back into the familiar routine of our daily lives, unchanged by God’s realized eschatology.
In the Christian year, we are currently in the season of Lent, that 40
day period of spiritual preparation leading up to Easter. It is a time of penance, remorse, confession,
and self-sacrifice. It is a time to take
stock of our lives and acknowledge how far we can slipped from the light of
Jesus, back into the darkness and separation from God. It is time to reclaim God’s realized
eschatology and to be born once again.
Come, join us this Sunday, March 15th, as we explore further the story
of Jesus and Nicodemus. Our
church is located at the corner of Main and Dawson Streets in Meriden,
Kansas. Our classic worship service
starts at 10 am on Sunday mornings.
Everyone is welcome and accepted because
God loves us all.
