How Can These Things Be

John’s Gospel begins with the beautiful ode “In the beginning was The Word,” setting up a Gospel-long metaphor of God’s Realm as light, and the Realm of those opposing God as darkness.  In the second chapter of John, Jesus turns water into wine at Canaas he celebrates the beginning of his ministry, and then Jesus cleanses the temple.  John places the cleansing of the Templeat the beginning of Jesus’ ministry because John sees Jesus cleansing and bringing the light of God to the world.  Then, chapter 3 opens with our story of Nicodemus.  Nicodemus is drawn powerfully to Jesus, declaring that he sees the works and wonders of God in Jesus’ actions and teachings.  Nicodemus comes at night and has an amazing dialogue with Jesus.  And after Jesus teaches, Nicodemus asks, “How can these things be?”

Will you pray with me?  “Dear God of mystery and grace, how indeed, can these things be?  We know you are greater than our ability to fully comprehend, and today we humbly listen and ask that you to teach us about you and your realm.  Amen.”

I have always been drawn to the story of Nicodemus as told by John.  Here we find a leader of the Jews who goes to Jesus at night.  We learned in chapter 1 what darkness means in John’s Gospel, so we know that Nicodemus is not yet in the light with Jesus, but we also see that he is seeking.  Jesus honors Nicodemus’ seeking question, “How Can These Things Be?” with a metaphor about the spiritual life.  Nicodemus interprets the metaphor literally, thereby missing the grand vision of Jesus’ deep teaching.

The Nicodemus Problem is not unique to Nicodemus.  There are no words for the glory and magnificence of the eternal living God.  Whenever we use finite words and physical concepts to describe infinite God, we have limited what is unlimited, bounded the infinite, and placed a fence where there are no boundaries.  All descriptions of God and God’s Realm are limited and fall short, so as humans talk about God, we must figure out ways to use limited human language to describe the infinite and unlimited God.  Jesus used parables, metaphors and simile to describe God in different ways than his tradition—Jesus did not contradict his tradition, but added expanded concepts to open people’s thinking about of God.  So here, Jesus offers Nicodemus an expanded view of new birth into God’s Realm, and Nicodemus gets stuck in the details of the metaphor and can’t lift his vision above the horizon of his pre-conceived notions about God.

Here in the United Church of Christ, we say that we take the Bible too seriously to take it literally, and that is exactly what Jesus tells Nicodemus here.  Stretch Nicodemus!  Let go of your pre-conceived notions about God and listen deeper—listen with your heart.  Whenever someone tells me a literal interpretation of the Bible, I follow Jesus’ teaching here.  First, Jesus responds that there is a difference between earthly things and spiritual things. “What is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the spirit is spirit.”  Did you hear that?  Two different separate realms.  And then Jesus says that the spiritual realm is full of wonder and mystery, full of unknow-able things.  “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.”

One of my favorite thinkers also had something to say about Nicodemus’ question of How Can These Things Be, and Jesus’ answer about the physical and spiritual realm of the universe.  Listen to this beautiful reflection from Albert Einstein.   “There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle….

A hundred times every day I remind myself that my inner and outer life are based on the labors of other [people], living and dead, and that I must exert myself in order to give in the same measure as I have received and am still receiving.

A human being is part of the whole…"Universe," [but we are a part that is] limited in time and space. [A Human] experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings, as something separated from the rest -a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to …a few persons nearest us.

Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circles of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.”

Einstein concludes, “Only a life lived for others is worth living.”

So to the question “How Can These Things Be?”, Einstein answered Community and Compassion, a universe beyond the knowable universe.  But our friend Nicodemus asked, “How can these things be?”  He could have responded, “Jesus, you are wrong!” Or “The Scripture doesn’t say that.” But instead, Nicodemus reveals that he is a seeker by asking a question.  Like Einstein, Nicodemus asked, “How can this be?  Help me understand.”  Jesus goes on to tell Nicodemus his testimony about the reality of the spiritual realm, and closes by saying that those who believe in the spiritual realm can see beyond the horizon of physical death into life eternal.  Jesus and Einstein said life, is in fact, our seeking of unseen miracle in an unseen world beyond the knowable…

Now, it just so happens that the question of eternal life that Jesus brings up here was the hot topic of Jewish culture during the time when John was written in about 125 CE.  The question about eternal life was the debate in the Templeand in the streets everywhere.  The Pharisee Jewish leaders believed in eternal life.  Other Jewish leaders, the Sadducees, did not believe in life after death.  Because Nicodemus was a Pharisee, we know he believed in eternal life, but Jesus teaches Nicodemus that a new spiritual birth brings the reality of eternal life into our lives right now.  And having introduced the reality of eternal life now, Nicodemus disappears from our story—that is, for awhile…

Although Nicodemus disappears here, he reappears later in John 7.  And by the time chapter 7 comes along, Jesus has gathered quite a following among the Jews.  He has also gathered quite a few enemies, especially the Jewish Temple leaders, who interpret his teachings as very threatening to their comfortable position and livelihood.  The crowds sympathize with Jesus, and their presence keeps the Jewish leaders from arresting Jesus.  But when the Jewish leaders plan to arrest Jesus in secret, Nicodemus steps forward and says, “We must give Jesus a hearing according to Jewish law.”  Those who were against Jesus immediately accused Nicodemus of being a Jesus supporter, and accused him of being from Galilee.  Then they say the scriptures never talk about a prophet coming from Galilee.  At this point, almost all of the Jewish leaders had pre-judged Jesus.  They stopped listening to anything he said, because they already knew their pre-set answer.  Jesus was a despicable lowly Galilean, and anything he said was trouble.  And anyone who dared to speak up for justice of behalf of this dangerous Galilean was also suspect.  But Nicodemus, the seeker, was still searching for the truth.  He was still trying to faithfully observe justice and mercy by treating one another according to Jewish law.

The pre-judgment described in this passage is also rampant today.   People who have already pre-decided an issue no longer listen respectfully to one another.  Labels are applied, and judgments are made.  Categories are set.   Pre-judgment is prejudice.  Pre-deciding the outcome is prejudice.  Pre-judging or prejudice destroys free open dialogue and discernment.  Here, Nicodemus is merely saying Jesus deserves a fair trial, but Nicodemus is immediately accused of being a despised Galilean, just like Jesus.  Prejudice disregards anything that does not reinforce the prejudice.  And as Jesus taught, the blind lead the blind into the pit.

Now, does anyone remember when Nicodemus shows up the third time in John’s Gospel?  That’s right!  At the end of the Gospel, after Jesus is crucified, Nicodemus defied great personal danger and came out to anoint and bury Jesus’ body.  Nicodemus, the Seeker, buried Jesus in the Jewish custom, giving him a proper burial when even the disciples had abandoned Jesus.  The seeker who first asked, “How can this be?” then sought justice for Jesus, and then sought out Jesus’ body for a proper Jewish burial.  We do not know whether Nicodemus became a Christ-follower.  Instead, we are told what Nicodemus did.  He asked.  He sought.  He demanded justice and mercy for one who was downcast.  And at the end, in broad daylight (remember John’s metaphor about light and darkness!), Nicodemus honored Jesus with a proper burial.  Nicodemus testified with his life that he trusted Jesus’ testimony. 

Nicodemus’ seeking changed his life: he was indeed reborn again of spirit and action.  Nicodemus did not always have the right answers.  But he was a seeker, searching for God and the way of God in the world.  Nicodemus kept seeking, even while risking losing his colleagues and friends.  Nicodemus kept seeking, and in the end, he found heaven on earth, reborn anew into the Spirit, just as Jesus had promised.

And what about you?  How do you answer Nicodemus’ question, “How Can These Things Be?”  Do you pre-judge others and hold on to old pre-conceptions about humanity or God or the Bible?  Do you have pre-conceived answers to the tough questions of your life, or, are you seeking and listening for God’s voice?

This is how we at Spring Glen Church answer Nicodemus’ question, “How can these things be?”  For us, God is still speaking, and so we, like Nicodemus, are still listening and seeking.   Amen.