When Stephen was a kid he always wished he knew how to ice skate. There was something about the faces of the kids out on the ice. They seemed so full of joy. Sometimes the skaters raced around the rink. At other times they glided slowly and silently as if pondering something weighty.
But not Stephen. He sat in the bleachers with a couple of other kids who were equally frightened at the prospect of defying physics by placing the full weight of a human body on a couple of sharpened steel rails a few millimeters wide.
Most of the time the skaters were oblivious to the bleacher-bound crowd. They were skaters, after all. If you had to ask, then you obviously wouldn't understand. Stephen used to think, "If I knew how to skate, I would never be like them. I would teach other non-skaters how to lace up their skates and conquer their fears." And that's how life was for Stephen. Year after year. Outside looking in.
And then one day Stephen conquered his own fears. He noticed a pair of skates lying in the bleachers, left behind by someone who must have hurried out and forgotten them. He tried them on. They fit.
His first steps onto the ice were tentative. Comical even. He held tightly to the rail, struggling to keep his ankles from turning in and then out and then in again.
Occasionally someone would slow down and offer him some advice, but mostly he just mimicked what he saw the other skaters doing. He eventually let go of the rail and soon he was vertical more than horizontal. He was doing it. He was skating.
He left the rink that day a changed person. Having carefully tucked the borrowed skates beneath the bleacher where he found them - he wasn't a thief after all - his first stop was at a sporting goods store to buy a pair of his own. That night at home he stayed up late watching how-to-skate videos on YouTube. He weekly trips to the rink took on new purpose as he tried out what he was learning. Slowly, he became a skater.
He immersed himself in the culture. He studied skating. It's origins and history. The various forms. Hockey with its frenetic pace and violent collisions. Figure skating with its precision and attention to detail. The artistry of ice dancing. He loved them all. Each was different, but all had the blade and the ice. Water formed from steel encountering ice, creating a microscopic layer of frictionless freedom.
Finding other enthusiasts like himself, he joined a skating club. They talked about skating. They argued over their favorite professional skaters. They traveled to other rinks and met other enthusiasts. He got involved with YES - Young Energetic Skaters - at his home rink - a program designed to teach the children of the club's skaters so their craft was passed on from one generation to the next.
Before long Stephen was thoroughly, passionately, hopelessly immersed in the world of skating.
So much so that he never noticed the guy just on the other side of the glass.
Sitting alone on the bleachers.
Wishing he knew how to skate.
John 3:1-21
Its funny. At the beginning of these commitments to journal through Scripture, I have these grand ideas that I’ll be able to sit down and fire things off in no time. Then, once I get a few steps in, I realize I am in way over my head and that the commitment I made, while being completed, is going to be done very slowly. Like today, for example. I need to blog on Chapter 3. I read and study a bit on chapter 3 and realize, there is no way this is all going in one blog post. So, our pace slows even more. I don’t think you mind. I haven’t gotten any hate mail because I’m not writing fast enough.
Up to this point in our journey through John we’ve seen our writer proclaim Jesus as part of creation, paralleling Genesis. He’s stated that Jesus is the Messiah–the one coming to restore Israel to God’s intentions AND called him Lamb. We’ve read the story about Jesus turning the water into wine and seen him cleanse the temple, both of which to me seem to show Jesus establishing this new Light, the Light that will overcome the darkness.
It is interesting to me that following all of this, the writer has a leader of the Jews come to Jesus at night to ask questions. Why a leader of the Jews? Certainly they would have been upset and chastised by the cleansing of the temple. They were partly in control of that system. Has Nicodemus come to set Jesus straight? As we read we see that he has come because Jesus has intrigued him with what he has said and the miracles he has done. He needs to know more.
The exchange between Jesus and Nicodemus tells us a bunch. Nicodemus calls Jesus, “Rabbi.” That was a title of honor. Nicodemus is acknowledging that Jesus knows the Torah. He must have heard him teaching or something before this. He wouldn’t have called him that unless there was merit to do so. He says to him, “We know 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.”
We? Is Nicodemus coming with others behind him that John is not telling us about? Or is he coming as a spokesperson for the Jews, inquiring more about this Jesus? Or, did Nicodemus say “we” to hide or soften his own intrigue? “It’s not just me who wants to know more of who you are, Jesus.” I think it is a combo of the latter two. Nicodemus acknowledges more good in Jesus because of the “signs” he has done. This would mean miracles. What Jesus is doing is well beyond what anyone else could do without the power of God. That being said, there seems to be some skepticism here in Nicodemus. Scholars say that if there was more belief and trust, he would have called Jesus a prophet.
Jesus’ response to this subversive, inquiring greeting is that no one can see the Kingdom of God without being born again or born from above. Obviously, by Nicodemus’ response, this confused him again. He makes a pretty funny statement in my opinion about the impossibility of being born again. Jesus clarifies, “No one can enter the Kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit.”
We need to stop a minute and unpack some things. Kingdom of God refers to the Jewish perception that when the Messiah comes, he will restore the earth and the Jewish people by bringing the Kingdom of God where the son of David, the Messiah, would reign. Jesus in his statement to Nicodemus is saying one can’t get to there without new birth. If we think about who he is talking to, a Jewish Leader, there is some weight to this little sentence. Its not by simply knowing Torah and living the Law that gets you to be present in the Kingdom of God. There is a born again that needs to happen. One that involves water and spirit–divine remaking, a rebirth from God.
Jesus continues on to say, “What is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the Spirit is spirit.” Time to pause again. Lets think for a moment in terms of light and dark. The world before Jesus comes was in darkness, so to speak. He is the light coming into the darkness. Nicodemus comes to Jesus in the night. Maybe our writer is signifying something more than just the time of day here. This light called Jesus has intrigued him and he wants more. Even more, from what I see Jesus saying, the only way to fully know the light is through water and the spirit. Flesh gives birth to flesh–darkness gives birth do darkness. Yet, Spirit gives birth to spirit–light brings about light. There is transformation that needs to happen in man as he comes to know the Light–a spiritual rebirth.
Then Jesus say, “The 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.” The wind means Spirit. In the Old Testament, the word for wind/spirit/breath is ruach. Its pretty much interchangeable, depending on the context it is used. Its interesting to me that Jesus says, the wind blows where it wants and you hear it. To me, Jesus is acknowledging to Nicodemus that he has seen the light. He’s heard the wind–the coming of this light into the neighborhood. But, he does’ know where it comes from or where it is going. Jesus jabs at him pretty good following this by saying, “Are you a teacher of Israel, and yet you do not understand these things?” You are one of the teachers, one of the smart people who should understand what the Old Testament is saying and how it is pointing to the Messiah, yet you do not.
Jesus continues on pushing at the unbelief of Nicodemus. “We speak,” probably referring to his disciples who are possibly at this meeting, “of what we know and testify to what we have seen; yet y’all do not receive our testimony.” We–Jesus and his followers/entourage– see and testify, yet, y’all–the Jewish leaders/teachers of the Law–while seeing it and hearing it, don’t accept it. Pretty tough words. Jesus even goes as far to say if I showed you earthly stuff or heavenly stuff, you wouldn’t get it either way. “Even more, you haven’t ascended into heaven an been born of heaven, like me.”
I can’t help to think about what is going through Nicodemus’ mind at this point. “I shouldn’t have come here. He’s putting me in my place! I’m drawn in even more by what he is saying–I want to know more!” So many possibilities.
The conversation builds to Jesus proclaiming his need to be lifted up for all to see as in the crucifixion, paralleling that with an OT story from Numbers 21 where a bronze serpent was used to rescue the Israelites. In that story, the people of Israel were bad mouthing Moses and God again, asking why he had brought them into the wilderness to die. God sent poisonous snakes upon the people. They cried out to Moses for help. A bronze serpent was made and put on a pole. Israel could look to it and be saved from the dying from the snake bites. Jesus is going to be a new antidote, so to speak. He is the light that is coming to cleanse the world of darkness.
I find it very intriguing that this story about Numbers 21 comes right before one of the most famous of all scriptures, John 3:16. God’s righteousness calls for holiness, which man cannot do on his own, so God sends his son so that all who believe–who look on him, see what he is doing and accepts it, which is what Nicodemus just got called out for not doing–will be saved and have eternal life–life in the kingdom of God where God will reign. Jesus doesn’t come to condemn and break down. He comes to save.
John 2
Ok. I said that I was going to blog through John. We see how well that has worked so far. I made it through John 1, then crickets--the chirping kind that make noise in the quiet, still of night. I'm ready to do chapter 2. At this pace we will see the end of John by Christmas.
In John 1, the writer is setting the stage. He parallels his gospel with Genesis and creation. This Jesus, the Word, is with God, and all things are created through him. That creation in Genesis turned from God, chasing after darkness. Jesus, the Word, is coming into the world to establish a new light--he's "moving into the neighborhood" as Eugene Peterson puts it in The Message-John 1:14. The world is going to be much different with him here.
Chapter 2 begins in an interesting place--a wedding. Weddings in that day lasted for a week. Think of it. You plan this big party and you run out of wine on the third day. That is a problem. Even more of a problem in my opinion is Mary coming to Jesus and telling him to make more wine. There is so much backstory here that we don't know. What is Jesus and Mary's relation to the bride and bridegroom? Have they been asked to provide some of the supplies for the wedding (which wouldn't have been unheard of in that day and age.)? How does Mary know that Jesus can turn water into wine? Has she seen him do other miracles before this?
We can get really crazy trying to fill in all the cracks here. What we do know is this. Mary sees a problem and knows that Jesus can fix it. The way he goes about it seems even more telling to me. He has the servants fill up six jars with water. These aren't simply your run of the mill jars, these were used for Jewish purification ceremonies. They are like the special fine china that you never use...or they are like the communion table at church that really should be treated extra special and only used for the communion.
Jesus has the servants fill them up with water and then sample what is in them. Should be water, one would think. But, its not. Its wine. Good wine, from what the writer tells us. So good that the steward, the master of ceremonies, compliments the bridegroom on saving the better wine for the second half of the party--the wedding.
The next story we get in Chapter 2 is Jesus cleansing the temple. He is frustrated with the Jewish system that is in place here. It has become something that it is not supposed to be--a marketplace that probably is laced with crooked practices where God is not the focus. Jesus drives out the animals and the moneychangers. Needless to say, this causes some struggle between he and those that run the temple, the Jews. Their exchange is telling. They ask Jesus to give them a sign so they know by what authority he has to cleanse the temple. He chimes back at them, "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up." The text is quick to tell us the Jews were thinking of the physical stone temple they were standing in at the moment, while Jesus is talking about his own being, body, spirit, and such.
I can't help but see the parallels in both of these stories. John 1 tells us this light that is moving into the neighborhood is going to outshine the darkness. We hear the Jews asking John the Baptist about this Messiah that he is proclaiming. Jesus is going to cause some tension.
In the wedding story, Jesus takes the ritual jars for Jewish cleansing and uses them for something else. He makes wine to help carry on the wedding. (I wonder what connection there is to this story at the beginning of this Gospel to the concept that Jesus is the Bridegroom and the church is the Bride.) The wine was better than the first bit of wine for the wedding. Is this all a parallel that this Jesus is something better that is coming out of Judaism? What statement is this story making about how Jesus is turning Jewish ritual life on its end? So many questions...
What about the clearing of the temple? I think the writer is making a statement to his readers that the Jewish life has been tied to ritual and to the temple and in doing so, has lost the focus of what it is to be about. This Jesus is going to give a new focus, where its not fully about a building or the Law (ritual). Its about something more--being the light in the darkness.