Ok...finish with John 3

after a hiatus ... back to finish John 3

Ok...Jesus has had a "let me tell you what is in your heart, and let me tell you who I Am" chat with Nicodemus. As I have said, I think for me the only way that the beginning of John 3 makes sense is to read it with some OT scriptures...ones that I think were on Nic's heart, ones that I think Jesus used to reveal 1) the state of Nic's heart, 2) the dynamic need for the Holy Spirit (ruach) of God, not just perfection in religious practice, and 3) that he, Jesus, is telling Nic that he is Messiah, and God. It is, it seems, all too too much for Nic to deal with. His question, (John 3:9) "How can this be?" Nicodemus asked. (NIV) to me reveals a man whose carefully crafted world view has just been shattered. He cannot deny what Jesus has revealed...but...what does he do? He KNOWS KNOWS that the Pharisees are not merely out to win a philosophical/theological debate. They are out for blood. Can he jump? It seems as the story closes that ... he cannot. The last thing Jesus tells him is, for me, both revelation and prophecy.

John 3:10-15
"You are Israel's teacher," said Jesus, "and do you not understand these things? I tell you the truth, we speak of what we know, and we testify to what we have seen, but still you people do not accept our testimony. I have spoken to you of earthly things and you do not believe; how then will you believe if I speak of heavenly things? No one has ever gone into heaven except the one who came from heaven-the Son of Man. Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life. NIV

The underlined portion (my underline, obviously, by the way) comes from a story in the OT (Numbers 21:4-9) where the Jews are in the wilderness on their way to the promised land. Scripture says that Israel grew IMPATIENT, and spoke against God and Moses. God sent 'fiery serpents.' {see my blog from a couple weeks ago about the fiery serpent/seraphim connection. } God has Moses make a bronze serpent, and put it on a pole and lift it up. Anyone who looked up at it would be healed. Looking was, I believe, an act of repentance. Saying in action, "I deserved this but I am sorry and I repent. I want to be healed and so I will obey You, God." The metaphoric tie that Jesus makes is pretty clear. You must look to him and "believe", repent, and let his death be your complete answer for healing: spiritual, mental, physical...complete salvation. And at that point I think Nic walked out the door. The next part of John 3 seems to me to be clearly editorial from John, author of the Gospel, a continuation of dialog between Jesus and Nicodemus. (Without regard to the fact that in many Red-letter Bibles, it is in RED, and therefore in the eyes of those particular translators, the words of Jesus.) If we follow Nic's story throughout the Gospel we find him again in John 7 trying timidly to stand up to the council of the Pharisees who are hatching a plot to have Jesus arrested and "dealt with" as it were. Nicodemus is summarily shouted down. John 7:52 They replied, "Are you from Galilee, too? Look into it, and you will find that a prophet does not come out of Galilee." (NIV) The next time we see him, Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea are requesting the body of Jesus and spending a King's ransom (yeah, literally) in spices and burying Jesus' body. That is a pretty out-there, public thing to do. Looks like Nic...well...jumped. He is "all in". How did he get from the timid almost-confrontation with the Pharisees to "all-in"? I suspect he was there when the woman was "caught" in adultery and thrown at Jesus' feet. I suspect he was one of the men who threw down any rocks they held and skulked away -- aware of their own sin : being complicit in the plan to use this woman, and likely the plan included having her stoned to DEATH, just to get the crowd to turn on Jesus so the Pharisees could have him arrested and killed....as well as a host of other sins stirred to conviction in the presence of Jesus. I think the torment that drove him in the night to Jesus' door (John 3) haunted and continued to drive him. I think he went to the crucifixion. I think Jesus words reverberated in his spirit as he saw Jesus hanging there: John 3:14-15 Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, 15 that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life. (NIV) I think there ... then ... he believed, repented and JUMPED.

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