Broken Confidence

The Second Sunday in Lent
St. John's Lutheran Church, Alexandria, VA
John 3:1-17

“Restored in Christ: Broken Confidence”

Science can be pretty cool. As a boy back in 1980, I was excited to become one of the charter subscribers to Discover magazine. I remember seeing the ads on TV before the magazine was published and asking my parents if they would sign me up. The magazine – which is still in publication – explored different topics in science in a way which was accessible for a wide audience. Seven-year-old me would pour through each issue when it arrived, reading articles about how the world around me worked. That’s what science does: taking a look at some aspect of our universe, science provides a framework for testing out assumptions of how things work until a certain level of confidence in the resulting conclusions has been reached. You come up with a theory and test it again and again. And even when it seems like you’ve got something figured out, some new evidence might call your conclusion into question. What was once assumed gets reevaluated. That process can go on and on; really, it never stops. Science keeps going, spanning both what we know and what we think we know about how the world works.

This past Sunday, Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey debuted simultaneously across multiple networks. This miniseries is a “reboot” of another popular science touchstone that originated in 1980: Cosmos, a program hosted by astronomer, writer, and science educator Carl Sagan. The new version of the series, hosted by astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson, follows in the footsteps of its predecessor while updating it with the knowledge gained over the past three-and-a-half decades. Thanks to advances in technology, the program brings viewers a better glimpse at the universe around us, depicting the majesty of God’s creation from the vast stretches of nebulae and superclusters of galaxies to the smallest subatomic structures. Science can be pretty cool! While Neil deGrasse Tyson could be described as agnostic, the Cosmos series does touch on concepts like the theory of evolution and the “big bang” theory of how our universe was created, theories which commonly distance or eliminate God from the picture. Based on science, and restricted by the limitations of science, this series seeks to confidently communicate how the world works – as far as humanity’s got it figured out, that is.

Nicodemus thought he had it figured out. Even if he didn’t know how the world worked from a scientific perspective, he believed he knew how God worked. Nicodemus came from the party of the Pharisees, men who scrupulously followed the law-codes of Judaism. They believed that doing so was the only way to be righteous before God, to be the people that He had called Israel to be. Beyond that, Nicodemus was also a distinguished teacher in Judaism, concerned not only about his own conduct but also for the people of Israel. More so than most, Nicodemus would have been an authority on the Scriptures, what Christians call the Old Testament, having studied them for years as a part of his training. Based on his understanding of what it meant to be righteous, he should have had confidence in how to be in good standing with God.

Nicodemus comes to Jesus at night, both in physical and spiritual darkness. He, along with others of the Pharisees, has seen and heard of the great signs that Jesus has been doing in Jerusalem. Even though he does not know who Jesus is, Nicodemus sees these signs pointing to Jesus as someone who has a special connection with God, like Moses. Even though he himself was a well-known teacher, he addresses Jesus as “rabbi,” acknowledging that this man from Galilee has something to say that’s worth hearing. When Nicodemus speaks in the third person, saying “we know,” it’s on behalf of others like him – some of those people who the evangelist describes right before this passage at the close of chapter 2 – people who have seen the great signs and want to know just who Jesus is, not comprehending that those signs point to Jesus as the Son of God. They haven’t figured Jesus out, so Nicodemus goes to him to learn more.

Jesus begins by answering Nicodemus’ question even before he asks it. Jesus tells him that a person must be born again in order to see (that is, experience) the kingdom (reigning) of God. When the evangelist’s writing is translated into English, we see it as born “again;” however, the original Greek there also means “from above.” John intentionally selected the word with its two uses, but Nicodemus jumps on the first one. Born again? That doesn’t make any sense to Nicodemus from the physical perspective, so Jesus explains what it means. This birth is of water and the spirit. Nicodemus understands water. Throughout the Scriptures and in the life of the people, water was used to make clean that which has been unclean. Jesus is pointing to more, though: new life coming from above, from God, and a transformation of heart that comes along with it.

It’s easier to understand Jesus’ disappointment in Nicodemus as a teacher of the people of Israel when you think about what the Pharisee should have known. His understanding of how the world – and his relationship with God – should work says that you’ve got to live a certain way to be connected with God. Nicodemus’ confidence rested in what he had done to make things right with God. But God called Abram (and renamed him Abraham) as an act of grace towards our world and not because of what the man had done, as Paul reminds us in Romans 4. God reached down and made a covenant to Abraham and his offspring so that they would be a blessing to the nations, not to give humanity a checklist for righteousness. As Jesus points his visitor to the experience of God’s reign that comes from above and not from human works, it’s almost like you can hear Nicodemus’ confidence breaking apart. “How can these things happen?” he wonders.

Science can be pretty cool. It’s a great gift from God to be able to explore the world around us. But some treat science as a religion and make it a foundation for their view of how the universe works – and if God is even a part of that universe. Science only tells us so much; it can only see so far. It changes as it goes when new revelations come along, even sometimes reversing long-held assumptions or conclusions. When watching Cosmos or anything that seeks to explore and explain the universe, then, know that there’s more to the story.

“Confidence” is just another way of saying where your faith is founded. What are the foundations of your world? What holds you up? Is it your family and their well-being? Is it your career path or your retirement fund? Is it your health or physical ability? Your popularity? If that’s the case, when any of those would-be foundations fall away, you’ll see your life go with it. Where is your confidence?

Jesus continues talking to Nicodemus, revealing to him that this new life which comes from above isn’t based in some scrupulous following of the Law in order to make things right with God. You can’t earn it from below. Like the wind, it’s something that comes to you. It’s God who’s the one transforming hearts and minds, giving a new identity. God gives faith, that confidence which opens eyes to see His kingdom at work. Jesus can tell Nicodemus this with authority because he is the only one who has come down from eternity, from God: the Son of Man who would be lifted up for the sake of the whole world. And while Nicodemus would certainly have known the significance of that bronze serpent God had Moses lift up before the people of Israel to save them from death in the wilderness, he could not have comprehended that Jesus was pointing ahead to the source of our confidence, his cross.

Here in John 3, we have what’s often called the “Gospel in a nutshell,” usually translated as “For God so loved the world…” The better translation, though, is “In this way God loved the world…” God’s love predicated the cross, because the foundations that we build fall apart. Out of love for you and me, the Son of God came into our world as one of us to take our place – to lay the foundation of a right relationship with God and the new, eternal life from above that each of us needed. In this way God loved the world.

We know that Nicodemus would later defend Jesus as the Pharisees sought to have Jesus arrested (John 7:50), and even assisted in transporting Jesus’ lifeless body from the cross and preparing him for burial. It’s entirely possible that Nicodemus finally came to know the life from above and transformation of heart that he heard about from Jesus on that night they first spoke.

You can have confidence in God’s Word, through which He gives that new life and transformation, even though everything else fall away. You can have confidence in the words of forgiveness that God speaks through a pastor or another Christian when you confess your sin and seek absolution. You can have confidence in Jesus’ promise that he is with you as you eat and drink his body and blood in Holy Communion.

I don’t have a magazine subscription to sell you today. But what I do have is the promise of Jesus, the Son of Man who was lifted up on the cross, showing God’s love for you and me by giving Himself for us. Look to him this Lent. Look to him to discover how to experience the reign of God as He has given you new life from above. Look to him to discover what it means to have a transformed heart, even as he changes yours. Look to him to discover confidence restored in Christ.

Amen.