Daily Devotion – May 27, 2021 – Dr. Pat Taylor Ellison

John 3:1-17
3:1 Now there was a Pharisee named Nicodemus, a leader of the Jews.
3:2 He came to Jesus by night and said to him, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God; for no one can do these signs that you do apart from the presence of God.”
3:3 Jesus answered him, “Very truly, I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above.”
3:4 Nicodemus said to him, “How can anyone be born after having grown old? Can one enter a second time into the mother’s womb and be born?”
3:5 Jesus answered, “Very truly, I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit.
3:6 What is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the Spirit is spirit.
3:7 Do not be astonished that I said to you, ‘You must be born from above.’
3:8 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.”
3:9 Nicodemus said to him, “How can these things be?”
3:10 Jesus answered him, “Are you a teacher of Israel, and yet you do not understand these things?
3:11 “Very truly, I tell you, we speak of what we know and testify to what we have seen; yet you do not receive our testimony.
3:12 If I have told you about earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you about heavenly things?
3:13 No one has ascended into heaven except the one who descended from heaven, the Son of Man.
3:14 And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up,
3:15 that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.
3:16 “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.
3:17 “Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.

Now here is a familiar story to many of us – Nicodemus coming by night to talk with Jesus, so that he wouldn’t be seen by his religious colleagues who wanted to condemn Jesus. Jesus wants to commend Nicodemus and even reassure him that his curiosity and tenderness toward Jesus is exactly what the Kingdom of God is all about. At the same time Jesus wants him to know that the rest of the religious leaders have got him all wrong, have got the relationship with God all wrong, and their teachings will lead their followers away from eternal life instead of toward it.

How does Jesus accomplish this 2-fold mission? He tenderly tells Nicodemus from the start that Nicodemus, in his seeking Jesus, already realizes the Kingdom of God is coming near. Nicodemus has in fact already been born from above or else Nicodemus wouldn’t care who Jesus was or why he was sent. And just because Nicodemus doesn’t understand how these things can be, Jesus speaks to him as if he were already a true follower, a disciple. He goes back through scriptures Nicodemus knows well and shows which prophesies Jesus would be fulfilling. Nicodemus cannot believe that he and his teaching friends haven’t picked up on these things! And now Jesus is almost at the END of his ministry. What a missed opportunity.

To reassure him yet again, Jesus tells him about the deep love of God for all the world. He tells him how the Messiah is not coming to condemn or conquer, but to love and save. Nicodemus drinks it all in, still shaking his head, probably mostly kicking himself for not realizing who this man was sooner. Jesus is not shy about saying the Pharisees have gotten it wrong, but he is kindly making sure Nicodemus knows his tenderness will save him – tenderness and compassion are Jesus’s ways of bringing the Kingdom near.

Gracious God, Thank you for loving us. Thank you for being tender and gentle with us, always.   Amen.