Our Spiritual Metamorphosis: Step 1 – Conversion
John 3: 1-10a; 16-17
As you may recall, I began last week’s message with a Poem entitled “Metamorphosis.” I would like to use a portion of the opening, as well as the closing stanzas of that poem again this week as both a reminder of some of the poem’s words and phrases, but also to draw us into our sharing of this week’s theme: conversion.
In a world filled with sweet scents and blue sky,
Lives the gentle, uplifting butterfly,
Whose metamorphosis has this truth to teach:
Our aspirations are within our reach.
… Of caterpillars becoming butterflies,
Bring real hope of the possibility
Of total transformation of me!
Like the caterpillar that crawls the Earth,
We are destined for a divine rebirth.
PRAYER
Nicodemus came to Jesus privately sometime in the darkness of night. We all speculate as to why this leader among the Sanhedrin, a Pharisee, would have chosen this particular time to seek out this extraordinary rabbi. This morning we are not going to delve into that arena of thought. There is not enough time for us to go into great details about either the Sanhedrin or the pharisitical sect of Judaism either. Our main focus this morning is going to be about Jesus’ dialogue with Nicodemus, particularly the part about “rebirth.”
Why would this subject matter be of such great importance to chisel out of this entire story and dialog just these few thoughts and phrases? In looking at the questions that Nicodemus had for Jesus, do they preempt similar questions you and I may have? Are Jesus’ responses really that difficult for us to understand? After all Nicodemus, a Jewish leader, was puzzled, so are we?
I can see why Nicodemus may have been baffled by Jesus’ statement: “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” When he had approached Jesus the first statement that Nicodemus had made had nothing to do with such a response. Instead, as far as I am concerned, he had just made a very profound declaration about Jesus’ standing with God the Father. I’m sure Nicodemus was kind of blown away with such rhetoric.
Of course I am sure that Jesus wanted to point out that what Nicodemus had just announced came from the heart only half baked. Yes, Nicodemus had it just about half right; Jesus was a great teacher and he did have the heavenly Father with him. But what Jesus had expected from this religious leader was a bit more. A man of such learning of the Law and the Prophets should know from the wondrous signs that Jesus had been executing, he would have been more than just a common rabbi and miracle worker that had the touch of God. He should have had no trouble seeing Jesus for who he really was, the long awaited Messiah.
So, here is a man of a deep religious conviction that has been doing all he has been able to do to live according to Commandments and the Law that Moses had received from God. This had been the entirety of his life. As a young child he had been trained by his pious father in the Law and the Prophets and then encouraged by the local rabbi to dig deeper into the faith. At the age of accountability he had completed his religious training and gone through his bar mitzvah and along with that a rite of passage into adulthood. He had risen early many mornings to wrap his arm and head with his phylacteries, cover his head first with his kippah and then his prayer shawl and pray to begin his day. He had dedicated himself to the study, the understanding and the execution of the Talmud’s instruction in his daily life. He was a devout Jewish man of great standing in his community.
Jesus wanted Nicodemus not only to recognize by whose authority he spoke and whose empowerment he performed the miracles, he wanted Nicodemus to ratify a new found faith in him as the Only Begotten Son of the Father. But in order for that to transpire in Nicodemus’ life he had to be reborn – go through a conversion experience.
Let’s break away from our story for a few minutes and look deeper into this thing called “conversion.” Within the Christian faith, conversion is intended to involve more than a simple change in religious identity. In fact, the Latin word conversio, translating the Greek metanoia, literally means "going the other way." The convert, therefore, is expected to renounce his or her present way of thinking and thus living and personally commit to a life of righteousness as defined and exemplified by the Christ.
In this line of thinking, that would mean that Nicodemus would have to be willing to forego his present religious philosophies and practices and transform completely in the ways of the teachings of the Christ and not that of the religious community. One problem: it is hard to teach an old dog new tricks! Nicodemus is so steeped in his religious traditions and repetitive practices that changing in such a way is an extreme modification for him to make after years of living his rhythmic life of Judaism.
Now Nicodemus is entirely confused. He immediately thinks Jesus is speaking of a natural rebirth; reentering his mother’s womb and going through the birth processes once again. So he questions Jesus as to how that is possible: “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?”
Now it is easy for us to point our fingers at this religious man. Aren’t there times we become so engulfed into being a deep religious people that we tend to forget the spiritual application of God’s Word? We, too, seem to redirect our energies away from being led by God’s Holy Spirit and try to live our Christian walk from a natural perspective of our religious traditions, too. We try our best to apply the natural order of things into the biblical principles and teachings of the Christ. We, too, have our way of being pharisitical at times, thinking that if we just follow our religious background our lives will be right. We, too, are not much unlike Nicodemus in the fact that we are in positions of leadership and think that our stature in the community of faith is of prominent importance.
Like Nicodemus, we feel that Jesus is a great person. We will acknowledge that all that he taught had to be of God, for found in his words are peace and love. From whom else would such teachings come? We, too, recognize Jesus performed many great wonders and signs, but yet feel that since he is “of God” that he should be able to do such. But the question is this: Are we just like Nicodemus that we, too, are caught up in our religiosity that we just move along day-to-day living in the natural and losing sight of the spiritual?
Please remember, Jesus is not conversing here with some corrupt tax collector or pervert-ed harlot or some derelict off the street; he is having a discussion with a self-proclaimed, religious extremist who has been rooted deeply into the beliefs and traditions of his pharisitical religious practices. I find this an interesting fact that Jesus is telling a pious Jew that he has to “go the other way.” In other words, he has to let go of his preconceived sacred routines and change completely into another way of thinking and living.
Sometimes we are so engrossed in our Brethren and Protestant traditions and practices that we, too, stifle the movement of God’s Holy Spirit in our lives. We seem at times to have a “cookie cutter” religion where we stamp out religious clones of our systematic spiritual dogma. We, too, get caught up in our religiosity that we fail to hear the call of the Christ to turn away from such foolishness and to become his devout followers; unwilling to let go of our churchy traditions and our robotic practices.
Jesus wants us to change! He wants us to be just like Gloria the caterpillar from last week’s message to allow ourselves to begin to make that C-L-I-M-B to new ways of thinking. And it all begins with the decision to change our way of thinking and living. We, even as religious individuals must begin again by allowing ourselves to be reborn spiritually. We must rid ourselves of the fleshly life of just living by means of the traditions of our denomination or religious sects. For living a life that does not lend itself to the teachings of the Christ is null and void of any personal relationship with Jesus. Rebirth, metamorphosis, conversion, change are all synonymous.
What Jesus has to say to Nicodemus is very profound and to the point. It is these same words that he speaks to you and me in the midst of our walk with him: “"I tell you the truth, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit. Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. You should not be surprised at my saying, ’You must be born again.’”
Where do you and I begin this process of spiritual metamorphosis?
We start with changing our direction. We have to let go of our preconceived notions that going to church, praying and reading our Bible each day is all it takes to be a follower of the Christ. We have to forego our ideologies of perfection based upon our Brethren and Protestant practices and beliefs for that is a falsehood and not only deceitful to ourselves but also others who observe our acts of pietism. We have to arrive at a personal relationship with the Christ from a completely different approach than as prescribed by man’s interpretation of Jesus’ teachings.
Anyone wanting to go through this process of conversion can do it only one way. Walking the aisle and taking the pastor’s hand is not the way. Entering the waters of baptism and joining a local fellowship of Christians is not the way, either. It begins with a personal choice to be willing to let go of one’s religious traditions and to instead invite the Lord Jesus, the Christ, to take control. Once that has been done all of one’s predetermined processes of the Christian walk must die and be reborn in a way that will bring the truth of the Gospel and the teachings of the Christ to life.
Part of our programmed mindset as Christians is that the conversion experience is only for those who have had no religious background and are lost and are headed for eternal damnation. That is partially true. But conversion is also necessary even after one has accepted Jesus as his or her personal Savior. The conversion we are speaking about today is available to all of us, the local church, and the entire body of the Christ. We, too, must be reborn anew by the Holy Spirit to let go and to let God. Let God, through his Holy Spirit; regenerate our aptitude and our attitude. WE then must allow him the right to cleanse from our life everything that would keep us from becoming a true saint of God’s kingdom; a genuine follower of the Christ.
Are you and I ready to do that? Are we prepared to let go and let God? Do we want to become a true saint of God’s kingdom? Are we willing to become a genuine follower of the Christ and his teachings as put forth in the Gospels?
Only I can answer those questions for myself and only you can do the same for yourself, too. But there is one final question for us all: When are we going to start our C-L-I-M-B?
Amen and amen!
