THERE IS HOPE IN THESE NUMBERS – 3:16 ‘AND GOD….’

By Dr. Eric C. Stumpf, Senior Pastor

St. Paul’s Ev. Lutheran Church – Munster, IN

6 Feb 2008 + Ash Wednesday -- Lenten Series + John 3:16

Inspired by 3:16 The Numbers of Hope by Max Lucado

             Nic was standing in the shadows along a street waiting for the sun to set.  He kept out of sight.  He was not a thief or a mugger or a mischief maker.  He was a man who thought about God, an expert in the Sacred Scripture.  He was recognized as an authority.  People came to him for his judgment, his direction, and his pronouncements.  And he was curious about a young teacher who had come to his attention.

            Ah, this young man who seemed more interested in the happy hour crowd than the scholars.  He banished demons, gave sight to the blind, hearing to the deaf, even raised the dead.  He purged the temple of dealers of sacrifices and money changers.  He was dangerous.  So Nic was out in the night when people generally hunkered down at home, so no one would see him go to the young teacher.  He steped to the door and knocked.

            The door opened and he saw the young Rabbi.  As people do he began with a little chit-chat, a compliment to let the young teacher know that he was interested in him.  “Rabbi, we know you are a teacher from God.”  So the conversation went, but Jesus said nothing, only, “Unless one is born again, he can not see the Kingdom of God.” (3:3) Seemed a little abrupt.  What did he mean?  It was a great wall, an insurmountable division.  On one side Nicodemus lived in the land of good efforts, hard work, where you gave God your best, and expected to be rewarded.  Nicodemus lived in the land of earning God’s love and blessings.  On the other side was the young teacher.  In that land your best was not good enough, it won’t do, unless -- you were born again, otherwise you weren’t near God at all.

            Nic scratched his beard in his best professorial manner, “Born again?  How can a man be born again?” (3:4) A rewind, a start all over, a reboot, it’s all impossible.  What a nice idea though.  A do over, a reload, a mulligan, a maternity ward recall, but it’s all out of the question.  Then Jesus said “Unless one is born of water and the Spirit, you can not enter the Kingdom of God,” (3:5) there was that fence again.  Nicodemus lived in the land of the self-fix; Jesus lived in the land of work done by God.

Born Again

            Being born is a passive action.  No one praises the baby for being born.  No one says, “Great job there little one!”  No, the accolades and compliments go to the mother for all she has gone through.  Babies can’t do anything.  They can’t even breathe without umbilical help.  Their kicking and struggling during the birth process is not because they want to help Mom, they don’t like the change that’s taking place.  So too with spiritual rebirth, it needs a parent, not an able infant.

            Consider the little word “again” for insight into God’s truth.  Jesus said, “Unless one is born again….”  In Greek there is the word palin, which means “again,” repetition, a redo.  But there is another word, which is used in John 3:16, anothen.  Anothen also means repeat, but it requires the original source to do it.  The one who did it first, must be the one who does it again. 

On one vacation Linda and I visited the Louvre in Paris.  This great art museum has thousands of famous paintings.  In one hall I saw an artists who set up his easel and was painting in the hall.  He was painting a copy of a master.  I’m not trained as an artist, but even my eyes could see that he was not even close to doing a good copy.  In anothen if you wanted to do the Mona Lisa again, you would need Leonardo Di Vinci himself to do it.  Anothen is not a replica, a second generation attempt, a well meaning imitation.   The original Creator recreates his creation.  Nicodemus said, “How can this be?” (3:9) Then Jesus told him, 3:16.  It is the Hope Diamond of the Bible.

            Twenty-six words a parade of hope.  If you know nothing, start here.  If you know everything, return here.  The heart of the human problem is the heart of the human. 

God loved, God gave, we believe, we live. 

What the Mississippi River is to America, John 3:16 is to the Bible.  It is the entry into the heartland.  It is the Alphabet of grace, the table of contents to Christian hope, each word is a safe-deposit box of jewels.

            This is what Martin Luther said about John 3:16 – My best prescription for head and heart is that God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. (p. 10-11) Nicodemus took the medicine, he believed, he was changed.  When Jesus was crucified Nicodemus, now openly, went with his friend Joseph of Arimathea to claim the body from Pontius Pilate and placed it in a new tomb.  This was no small thing to be seen identified with the dead Jesus.  But then on the third day Jesus rose from the dead, the city of Jerusalem was stirred up, the guards told others what they had seen and heard, the bewildered crucifiers shrinking into the darkness, and Nicodemus perhaps thinking to himself, “Born again?  Who would have thought he’d start with himself?”

And God….

            We begin exploring this verse with “And God….”  Who is God?  Look around and you will see his fingerprints.  The universe – His creation -- is so vast that if you had a car that could go 150 miles an hour and if you could drive to the Sun, it would take you 70 years.  The nearest star?  Try 15 million years.  Indeed, “The heavens declare the glory of God.” Psalm 19:1.

            Carl Sagan, after a life time studying the universe said, “Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark.  In our obscurity, in all this vastness, there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves.” (p. 20)  That is why our Heavenly Father doesn’t expect us to “discover” him, but reveals himself by his words – “And God so loved the world….” 

            God’s perfection is something we scarcely can see, much less fathom.  God demands perfection from us too, but we are the least perfect of all.  Yet, what does he give to this world, to you and to me?  He gives us the very best – His Son, His only begotten Son.  He pledges to give to us all Christ has won for us in words as water pours over your head – baptized in the name of the Triune God.  In the vastness of the universe God comes to a little baby in the arms of its sponsor and claims that child as his for all time.  “Help of the helpless, O abide with me.”  And God does.  “My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus’ blood and righteousness.”  There is hope in these numbers, 3:1

SDG