Sermon for St Edward’s, 1/3/26, Lent 2. Readings: Psalm 121, John 3:1-17
I think the theme of my sermon this week is to ‘Look Up’ this Lent.
In our readings we hear the same movement again and again —
looking to the heavens,
looking to Jesus,
looking up to the cross,
as the Israelites looked at the serpent lifted on a pole,
as the Psalmist lifts his eyes…
I lift up my eyes to the hills — from where will my help come? My help comes from the Lord, the maker of heaven and earth.
Psalm 121:1-2
Looking up changes our perspective.
As you all know I love the outdoors, nature, hiking being a particular passion. And when you are on a long trek sometimes you can get bogged down in what is in front of you, literally sometimes! especially when going up a steep incline and you are focussed on one step in front of the other. But when you lift your head, everything changes. You see where you are. You see how far you’ve come. You see the view. Or you can be walking in the woods and it’s grown up and it’s a bit dark, you can only see your path, and then you look up and above the tree canopy the sun is still shining.
I think perhaps that is what Jesus is saying to Nicodemus here, get your head out of your books, your knowledge, and your navel gazing and look up! Look to God, change your perspective.
Nicodmeus, we read, is a Pharisee, a member of the Jewish ruling council and he comes to Jesus at night, usually people say this is so that he wouldn’t be seen, he didn’t want his pharisee colleagues to see or hear him seeking Jesus out. But John loves a bit of symbolism and he might also be pointing to Nicodemus being in the dark spiritually so he goes to Jesus, light of the world, for answers.
Nicodemus is like:
ok I get that you must be from God, so tell me: What? Who? How? and Jesus does some explaining,
& Nico responds: born again? You what now?
you can almost hear Jesus sigh… ‘but you’re the teacher mate, and you don’t understand?’
We might sympathise with Nicodemus here, Jesus isn’t making it easy, is he? v3 he says you need to be born again…
Very truly, I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above.
John 3:3
This verse has often been used to insist on a dramatic conversion experience. I was chatting to a cab driver recently who asked me exactly that. He said a friend had told him he wasn’t a real Christian unless he’d had a specific ‘born again’ charismatic moment.
So I asked him, ‘Do you believe in Jesus?’
He said yes.
I said, ‘Ok then.’
Because elsewhere Scripture actually makes it beautifully simple. In Acts 16 where Paul miraculously gets out of prison the jailor says what must I do to be saved?, and Paul says very simply Acts 16:31:
Believe on the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household
and in Romans 10
if you confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
Yes — repentance follows. Baptism follows. Growth follows. But first: believe, It’s as simple as that.
To be ‘born from above’ is the work of the Holy Spirit opening our eyes to see who Jesus truly is. Nicodemus needed to look up, not deeper into his books, not further into analysis, but up to God.
Perhaps Jesus realises he is being a little OTT as he seems to soften a little as he explains the gospel to Nico, and he starts with an example from Jewish scriptures – to place it all in the context Nico would understand. And then he nails it with the heart of the gospel. Ok Nicodemus, you want to know? Here’s the crux of it…
For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life
John 3:16
At some point in all this Nicodemus began to look up, and saw the truth, and we know it had a big impact on him because later on, we read in John 7:51 Nicodemus stands up for Jesus saying:
Does our law condemn a man without first hearing him to find out what he has been doing?
And in John 19: 38-40 we see him with Joseph of Arimathea taking down Jesus’ body from the cross and wrapping it for burial and action that would probably have been costly for him in both money and in his reputation…
Later, Joseph of Arimathea asked Pilate for the body of Jesus. Now Joseph was a disciple of Jesus, but secretly because he feared the Jewish leaders. With Pilate’s permission, he came and took the body away. He was accompanied by Nicodemus, the man who earlier had visited Jesus at night. Nicodemus brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about seventy-five pounds. Taking Jesus’ body, the two of them wrapped it, with the spices, in strips of linen. This was in accordance with Jewish burial customs
John 19:38-40
So these words Jesus spoke to Nicodemus had impact. They spoke to his heart, they share the truth of who Jesus is in a few lines, showing him as the fulfilment of Jewish scriptures. And pointing to a God who loves so abundantly, that this love is there for all, not just Israel. As David says, ‘I lift up my eyes to the hills, from where will my help come? My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth.’
Now I just want to go back to John 3:16. Is this perhaps the most famous (or one of) bible verses? The gospel in a sentence. I mean did John actually have some kind of prophetic insight into how much of a soundbite this line would be, years after he recorded it? This verse has been used for signs in sports games, tattoos, inspirational graphics/memes, and there’s even a so called ‘John 3:16 day’ – which is coming up, 16 March! 3rd month 16th day.
But here’s the interesting thing, we read it in modern translations as: God so loved the world – ie: God loved the world this much so that God gave… But actually in the Greek – the adjective houtos means ‘this’, and the related adverb, means ‘in this way’
So we should actually read this line more as:
in this way, God loved the world… or God loved the world like this… which follows on from the verses before, 14-15…
Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him. It’s like this that God loves the world… (paraphrase v 16)
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And in these verses 14-15, Jesus is referencing a story that Nicodemus would understand from Jewish scriptures which you can find it in Numbers 21. Where yet again the Israelites are moaning and whining, complaining about God
they spoke against God and against Moses, and said, “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? There is no bread! There is no water! And we detest this miserable food!”
Numbers 21:5
and God gets a bit fed up to be honest, and so sends poisonous snakes among them and many Israelites died as a result. But then the people realise they did wrong, they repent and pray, and God says to Moses to make a bronze snake and put it on a pole and anyone who was bitten could look upon this snake and live. Always a section people find troubling. But here’s the explanation and why we read the OT through the lens of the NT:
So Jesus says here to Nicodemus: look God did this thing with a snake and a pole, and people were saved from death, well he’s doing exactly the same now, this son of God (who we know will also hang on a tree) and will bring life to those who would have died. In a way the serpent too hangs on the tree with Jesus as he takes all the sin of the world, the devil, the power of death is overcome in that moment.
And the key here is that, God’s motivation is love! God did it because of love. God loved the world, and wanted people to walk in all the fullness of life on offer. To all those trapped in darkness, in the way of death. So whereas the snakes in Numbers were a condemnation of the people, and we don’t read much love in thatpassage, but Jesus says now, look here is God’s motivation, not judgement but LOVE!
For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned…
John 3:17-18
And again these words seem to follow on from the reference to the snake story – Jesus is not here to condemn or to bring punishment, as the snakes were sent, but to bring life!
Condemnation is gone, replaced by love, punishment taken from the people, by God in Jesus. He is sowing Nico that he is the fulfilment of the Jewish scriptures. This thing that brought death – the snake, the cross – now brings life. This thing that brought judgement upon the people now brings salvation. In both cases, they are to look up – on the snake on a pole, or to Jesus, as God, soon to be on the cross.
So how does this help us focus this Lent, well the last few weeks I’ve been talking about hope. This is our ultimate hope.
Sometimes we can feel like we just have our heads down, putting one step in front of the other, just trying to keep on going. We might feel spiritually in the dark, but… all we need to do is call on the name of the Lord. Perhaps Jesus is saying to us this Lent, look up. Look to the cross, as a sign of my love and hope for a different future. And when we look up we might see that God looks down on us in overwhelming love. Not judgement or condemnation, but pure love.
Amen
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