Holy Trinity – Sunday 4 June A✠D 2023
✠ Psalmody: Psalm 8:1-2a, 3-5;Daniel 3:26
✠ Lection: Isaiah 6:1-7;Romans 11:33-36;St. John 3:1-15
In the Name of the Father and of the ✠ Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
How can these things be? Nicodemus asked this after the Lord Jesus told him one of the very basics of the Christian faith. At first, the man had played dumb, but by this point in the conversation, maybe he truly was dumbfounded by how both profound and how simple it was what Jesus was saying. It’s not all that hard to be overwhelmed by the infinite truths about Almighty God; to echo St. Paul and exclaim Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and His ways past finding out! “For who has known the mind of the LORD? Or who has become His counselor?” “Or who has first given to Him and it shall be repaid to him?” The good news is that we don’t have to try to know everything about God, mainly because we are not able to with our finite, sin-laden minds, but also because He has revealed but a limited amount about Himself. Albeit, what He has revealed is full and plenty sufficient for salvation, alleluia! What He has chosen not to reveal to us, we need not wear ourselves down trying to figure out. Let us take time to think about and consider what He has given to us with which to do so, because God tells us earthly things of eternal value to trust by faith, therefore it’s a fool’s errand to play dumb with Him regarding what He says.
Nicodemus is introduced to us quite early in St. John’s Gospel and his interaction with the Son of Man is recorded for us to learn and believe how one is to be born again. We get to watch this man’s faith materialize throughout this Gospel, though not without some struggle before he finally shows up faithfully and fearlessly with Joseph of Arimathea to take Jesus’ lifeless body and place it in the tomb. But entering into this night in chapter three, it is clear that neither he nor those among whom he counts himself understand Jesus to be more than a Rabbi or a Teacher come from God instead of God Himself in the flesh of man. Such discounting or incomprehension of our Lord’s true identity shows that Nicodemus needs to be born again, just as all do who enter into this world under the curse of sin by birth of flesh alone. But this man is no unlearned, heathen fool. He’s a pharisee, and more than that, a ruler of the Jews. He has much Old Testament knowledge that we could only dream of engrained into his mind and heart, which goes to show that his question to Jesus is just him playing dumb with God.
After he addresses Christ as Rabbi and Teacher, the Lord immediately teaches the man clearly about seeing the Kingdom of God, that is, about living eternally in God’s reign of righteousness, innocence, and blessedness as part of that everlasting kingdom. He tells Nicodemus that this is obtained in only one way: unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. There are multiple points to make about this one phrase alone. First, when the day comes for a pregnant woman to deliver her baby, remember just how much the child contributes to his being born. Nothing at all. He is entirely at the mercy of God, the mother’s body, and the midwife. Being born is passive for the one coming to enjoy the newness of life. The same goes for the birth of which Jesus tells Nicodemus, which brings up this other point about the words used. From the original, our English Bibles translate a particular Greek word as “again”, as in born again. Indeed, it can mean this in its simplest form, and in comparison, to one’s natural birth that has already taken place, any other birth would be it happening again. But the original word has a much deeper meaning, the true one to which Jesus is showing Nicodemus, for the word also means “from above”. But instead of following Jesus’ lead in learning this revealed truth about God, the man plays dumb and asks some weird question about entering his mother’s womb a second time. That’s the route the flesh tries to take when given the choice, especially when encountering God’s commandments and teachings. It doesn’t take a nighttime rendezvous with the God-Man to see the flesh try these shenanigans. An easy past example from my own life proves how sin seeks to dishonor God and those to whom He has given authority. When I was, say about Asher’s age, my mother would kindly wash my stinky laundry. After bringing it up clean from the laundry room and sorting it out from the others, she’d tell me to take my laundry to my room. What did she mean by that? Take it to my room and put every single clean piece of laundry where it belongs, be it in the closet or in a dresser drawer. But what did I do once I got one foot inside my room? Find the first place where I could just plop the pile. I literally took my laundry to my room, but I was playing dumb, in this case, for the sake of laziness; a trait that I will neither confirm nor deny that I have passed on to my son. Similarly, it would be foolish of a husband to treat his wife’s request for help with dinner as if she means for him to help her eat what she, all by herself, cooks.
Nicodemus knew that Jesus wasn’t talking about one climbing back into his mother’s belly again. The Lord was obviously saying unless one is born from above, he cannot see the kingdom of God. So now, we must consider what Nicodemus wasn’t willing to at first and not play dumb with God with this saying, or with anything else that He says, lest we flirt with the sin of unbelief by denying God and His Word and thus condemn ourselves.
If God says you shall have no other gods, we cannot be foolish and say to ourselves that He won’t notice that we love things of this world more than Him, or maybe He didn’t mean it to be against that possession, entertainment, or activity that makes us happy. If God says remember the Sabbath Day by keeping it holy, we cannot be foolish and act like there are only 8-to-10 of them each year and that all the other Sundays aren’t ones to which He is referring. Beloved in the Lord, beware of how deceptive your own flesh is when it comes to what God speaks.
Also, realize that it is unnecessary even to play dumb with Him. He does not expect you to muster up your own perfect merit or worthiness, nor does He expect you to be born again by your own doing, for He knows that you can do neither. This is why He means that one must be born from above. And what is above? None other than the Holy Lord of Sabaoth, the Lord of Hosts, the Almighty One, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, the Blessed Holy Trinity Who is undivided Unity. That is Who is above. The Gracious One is mighty to save and He desires that all be saved. It is only those who reject Him who remain spiritually blind, who play dumb and risk their faith, but those who receive Him He gives the right to become children of God, born from above.
Know that such a miracle from God isn’t one of those hidden heavenly things about Him that are too grand for us to be told or to comprehend. The very act of being born from above is actually an earthly thing, and here’s why. Who and what does it involve and where and when does it happen? First, to be clear, being born from above is to be born of water and the Spirit as Jesus goes on to explain. This is clearly Holy Baptism where with God’s Word water becomes life-giving through the work of the life-Giver, the Holy Spirit, for those waters are rich in grace and a washing of the new birth in the Holy Spirit, as St. Paul says in Titus chapter three: He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit Whom He poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior; so that, having been justified by His grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life. This is a trustworthy saying. Thus, Holy Baptism involves the one being baptized and the One doing the baptizing, meaning not the pastor, but God Himself. It is only in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit that plain water is no longer just plain water, but a true washing away of sins and a bestowal of life everlasting. That priceless gift is from above. That is the new birth.
All this takes place here, upon the earth, at a specific place, at a specific time; more reminder of how gracious the Almighty is in coming to us where we are so that we may ultimately be where He is. There’s a reason to be completely confident that Jesus clearly meant His words as born from above, because St. John the Baptist is quoted using the exact same word later in this chapter to tell you from whence your help comes and Who has the authority and power to save you in this way. In verse 31 we hear, “He who comes from above is above all … He who comes from heaven is above all.” If He is above all, then He is God Who can and has won a kingdom in which you may dwell forever. Therefore, being born from above in the waters of Holy Baptism is the earthly thing, the earthly event, about which Jesus is teaching Nicodemus and by his playing dumb with God, we learn both what not to do and what God does for us from above to bring us to see and to enter His kingdom. Whether standing with Him face-to-face like Nicodemus, or sitting alone in a secluded place in your home, you need not make yourself out to be a fool before the face of He Who sees and knows everything that you think, say, and do, yet Who still came from above to die for you while you were still a sinner.
In ✠ Jesus’ Name. Amen.
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