March 9, 2022
Hope Lutheran Church
Rev. Mary Erickson
John 3:1-21
Seeking Truth
Friends, may grace and peace be yours in abundance in the knowledge of God and Christ Jesus our Lord.
Our theme this year for our Wednesday evening Lenten services is “Seekers.” Many people in the gospels sought out Jesus.
They sought him then; we still seek him today. There are many different reasons for seeking him out. During Lent we’ll consider some of the people who were seeking Jesus and why. Tonight we’ll meditate on our first theme, Seeking Truth.
I was a psychology major in college, and so it comes as no surprise that I totally LOVED the book "The Road Less Travelled" by M. Scott Peck.
A psychiatrist, in the book Peck shares traits that lead towards personal and spiritual development.
One of them is seeking truth. Our view of reality is like a road map, says Peck. We aren’t born with knowing the truth. We have to discover truth and what it means for us. We develop something of an internal map to help us make sense out of the world around us. That map directs us how to move about to get where we want to go.
It takes a lot of effort to develop these internal road maps of truth. At some point, most of us reach the sense that our roadmaps are sufficiently developed. We feel that our understanding of the world will adequately steer us through life. We stop seeking to develop it any further.
Peck writes: “Only a relative and fortunate few continue until the moment of death exploring the mystery of reality, ever enlarging and refining and redefining their understanding of the world and what is true.”
As we build these internal road maps of reality, what we’re doing is seeking after truth. Truth seeking contains a good share of curiosity. Those who keep building and honing their roadmaps have a vibrant sense of curiosity.
Enter our friend Nicodemus. Nicodemus was a highly regarded man. He was devout in his faith, a Pharisee. Nicodemus had dedicated his life to seeking the truth about God. He knew that apart from God, there is no truth.
So when he heard about Jesus, it captured his curiosity. He wants to know more. He says, “We know that no one can do these signs that you do apart from the presence of God. You are a teacher who has come from God.”
Nicodemus has come seeking divine truth from Jesus. But when Jesus begins to share these higher truths with him, Nicodemus doesn’t get it. Jesus is adding new, unexplored sections to his road map.
Jesus speaks about new life, being born again. Nicodemus has never heard this kind of talk before, and he doesn’t know how to interpret it. His mind takes him to literal places. He sees someone stuffed inside his mother’s womb.
Nicodemus is confused. He has come to Jesus in the middle of the night. The dark night symbolizes that he’s literally “in the dark.” Nicodemus is hearing about something completely new.
Here is a man who has developed a highly detailed religious road map. He’s studied the scriptures, he’s memorized it. He’s devout in his faith. But Jesus’ words are uncharted territory. “How is it,” Jesus asks him, “How can you be a teacher of Israel, and yet you don’t understand these things?”
Here’s a truth: for each one of us there’s a whole lot more that we DON’T know than what we DO know. We may think our road map for life is quite developed and accurate, but we all have a lot more to discover. This is where Nicodemus finds himself. He’s confronted by the things he doesn’t understand. What will he do?
M. Scott Peck asks this same question:
“What happens when one has striven long and hard to develop a working view of the world, a seemingly useful, workable map, and then is confronted with new information suggesting that the view is wrong and the map needs to be largely redrawn? The painful effort required seems frightening, almost overwhelming.”
When we encounter information that doesn’t jive with our already established notion of the truth, our first instinct is to ignore it or even reject it. It takes a lot of effort to adjust our world view. It requires courage to step into uncharted territory.
But Nicodemus is a seeker of truth. Although he can’t make sense of what Jesus is saying, it doesn’t scare him away. He keeps listening.
Jesus unloads the full truth on Nicodemus. He reveals himself as the divine Son of Man. Jesus will be lifted up – crucified – so that he can deliver eternal life. Jesus reveals the portrait of a loving God who loves the world. God chooses life over death, salvation over condemnation. The truth about God is rooted in love.
This is the first time we’ll encounter Nicodemus in John’s gospel. He’ll show up two more times. And each time, Nicodemus’ actions reveal that his faith in Jesus is growing. The final time we meet him, he’s no longer lurking about in the dark. In broad daylight, he very publicly helps to bury Jesus’ body. He has seen Jesus lifted up on the cross and he believes.
As each of us journeys through the course of our days, may we continue to be seekers of truth. May we remain as curious and open to the new depths of divine truth, ready to enter uncharted territories.
Our faith continues to expand and mature through life. St. Paul wrote, “When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became an adult, I put an end to childish ways.”
As seekers of God’s truth, our faith develops to equip us through each season of life. And as we mature, we come to view and understand God’s timeless truths in new ways. That truth may lead us to revise our established road maps. But we journey onward into God’s light, for we TRUST. We trust that God is there guiding us each step of the way.
God’s truth is vast and profound. God patiently leads us forward from light into light. May we be seekers of God’s truth, open and curious, all the days of our lives.
