In Jesus Holy Name Lent IV March 10, 2024
Text: John 3:17,18a
“All the Light We Cannot See”
All The Light We Cannot See is a 2014 novel by American author Anthony Doerr. The novel is set during World War II in the French town of Saint-Malo. It is also a movie on Netflix. It revolves around Marie-Laure LeBlanc, a blind teenage French girl who takes refuge in her great-uncle's house in Saint-Malo after having to leave Paris when it was invaded by Nazi Germany.
The story has all the classics; A violent enemy who is seeking a precious stone that he believes will cure is terminal illness. The other main character is Werner Pfennig, a bright German boy who had been accepted into a German military school because of his skills in radio technology. Late in the war, he has been sent to Saint- Malo to help find people in the resistance who are using short wave radio.
Marie LeBlanc went blind at the age of six in 1934. Daniel, her father is helping her adapt to her blindness by creating a wooden model of the town of Saint-Malo. Each day he takes her hand and walks her through the village, she then can visualize, then navigate through the village when he is not present. Eventually he is arrested, and she is on her own.
Each night she reads a braille version of the science fiction novel “Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas”. She did not know that her reading over the short wave radio was sending information to the Allies regarding German positions for upcoming bombing raids. Her uncle was using various pages as a way of sending coded messages to the allies through the reading of “Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas”.
Nicodemus reminds me of Marie LeBlanc. He is blind to the “light” of Jesus. He hears the words of Jesus. He wonders if the words and miracles of Jesus are a form of “code” from God? Nicodemus had been reading the scriptures but was blind to the hidden message of God’s light.
Like the Germans searching for the short wave radio signals of Marie Nicodemus was searching for an answer. He makes a decision to visit Jesus in secret. He knew that the Pharisees had investigated John the Baptist and was now building a case against Jesus. Nicodemus, had questions. He wondered if Jesus was really the long awaited Messiah.
(some thoughts from Max Lucado and “All the Light We Cannot See)
Nicodemus was an incredibly good man. He was honest to the core. He was a Pharisee. Pharisees were extremely serious about keeping the rules and he was very, very good. Now understand I’m not talking about just keeping the Ten Commandments. No, the Pharisees didn’t worry about keeping them because over the years they also added another 633 rules to enable them to keep those Ten Commandments. You see, the Pharisees were serious about their goodness.
For example: they wanted to know how far one could walk on the Sabbath without breaking the Sabbath. How far could one walk before it was considered work? What could you carry without it being considered work? They arrived at this answer: “You could walk 2000 yards but not one step more. That would be considered work. You could not lift a pot nor light a fire on the Sabbath, so food would have to be prepared the day before and eaten cold. Yet Jesus reminded them that they broke their own rules and could save a donkey if it fell into a well on the Sabbath.
. Nicodemus was doing his level best to keep the rules as a Pharisee. He was depending on his goodness, his Jewish genetics, his blood connection to Abraham to earn God’s favor and a place in heaven.
He was doing a pretty good job. He had religious credentials. He worked for the Jewish high council;’ He spoke the correct religious language. Good enough to be a card carrying member of the Jewish ruling council. He was one of the 70 special elders of the Jewish nation. Further more, he was a Teacher of Israel. He had the credentials to interpret and teach others what the Holy Scriptures were saying, but he could not see the “light” right in front of him, but a flicker of light brought him to Jesus one night.
Last week I noted that John has a theological message about replacing Jewish rules with Himself., His life and message. That’s why John began his Gospel with the miracle of changing water into wine at the Wedding at Cana. John follows that miracle with this conversation Nicodemus had with Jesus. It is about Nicodemus seeking the light of truth.
At the wedding of Cana when the family ran out of wine Jesus took Jewish jars of water that were meant for the right of purification (another Jewish rule) and filled them with wine. The pure water, now turned to new wine made them utterly worthless for the Jewish right of purification. Jesus becomes the replacement for all things the Jewish religion was using in order to have God accept their “goodness”. They wanted the rules They believed that their own goodness would open the doors to heaven.
Nicodemus came to Jesus at night… He came at night because he did not want others to know his anxiety, his insecurity. Nicodemus knew his broken rules could not be forgotten.
This is basically the conversation: “Good Teacher, Rabbi… we know you are a teacher who has come from God…., I have kept all of the rules and forms and rituals of our faith. Jesus interrupts and turns to Nicodemus: “You must be born again.” Well, what does that really mean?
Nicodemus: “Can I start life over as a baby?“
Jesus: “What I’m talking about is that you can not rely on your family history, your goodness, your Jewishness to open the doors to heaven. I’m the replacement….In the future heaven’s doors are opened by the Spirit giving faith in me as the Savior.”
You must be born again. “Born Again”; This is a term not used by Lutherans but it is heard a lot. So what does it mean? For some Christian denominations the words “Born again” means that there was a moment in time in which, like Nicodemus, you were blind to the light and truth of Jesus as your Savior, and then there was an event or emotional moment when you made a decision that Jesus was the answer and the darkness in your life was shattered.
As a Lutheran I would answer: “Who enabled you to make that decision? The answer is simple. The Holy Spirit. “I believe that I can not by my own reason or strength believe….but the Holy Spirit has called me by the gospel…”
(the definition to the 3rd article of the Apostles Creed. Small catechism)
What "born again" means is that either in your baptism or through some other experience the Holy Spirit enables you to believe that Jesus is your personal Savior, that His grace, His forgiveness, His promise of eternal life, is a gift.
God always acts first either providing the Holy Spirit in baptism or through some event later in a person’s life. We can only respond to the Holy Spirit’s invitation to the “light”, that I once could not see.
The one who is “born again”: can say: “Now I see”. To be born again is to wipe the slate of one’s past, clean. It is to cancel your old mortgage, your past dependence on your own righteousness and the Holy Spirit has given you “new joy”, “new assurance in forgiveness and eternal life”,
As the conversation comes to a conclusion Jesus states what might be the most important verse in the New Testament. “Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert” (Numbers 21:8,9)… and all who looked at it were healed from the deadly poisonous bites that brought death. So also, “when I, the Son of Man is lifted up on a cross, anyone who believes in me will have eternal life.” “For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through Him…. Whoever believes is not condemned…..” (John 3:15,17)
In some ways, verse 17 suffers from understandable neglect, coming as it does on the heels of what Martin Luther called “the heart of the Bible” and “the gospel in miniature.” John 3:16 “For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son so that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.”
Many people still miss the Savior’s point. People get so wrapped up in the words “being born again” that they get confused as did Nicodemus. Unfortunately many people today have the same mindset as Nicodemus. People think that without any outside assistance, if we are “good enough” God will say: “Wow! You really do deserve my grace. You really are a good person. I am so overwhelmed by the way you’ve lived your life, I’m going to invite you into heaven.”
Nicodemus, really believed that heaven was his birthright because he was a descendant of Abraham, and he was keeping all the Jewish rules. Jesus is replacing that false theology with Himself.
While Jesus was 100 percent human, He was also 100 percent God; and as God, He loved Nicodemus and tried to give all the Pharisees a gift - a message that might change their lives and eternity. He knew they weren't going to listen, but He went. God so loved the world that He gave His holy Son.
Jesus knew the self-righteous Pharisees wouldn't hear what He had to say, but Jesus still tried to reach out to them. He knew the crowds wanted bread and not salvation, but He offered them the Word which would nourish their souls for eternity. He knew that He would die in Jerusalem, but still He set His feet on the path which would end His earthly life and guarantee our eternity.
He knew He would receive the sins of the entire world when He knelt in the Garden of Gethsemane, but still He went there in obedience to His Father's plan of love. He knew His disciples would fall asleep, but He asked them to watch with Him. He knew Judas was betraying Him with a kiss, but He spoke to that disciple and sincerely called him "friend." (sermon Rev Ken Klaus February 2008)
Because Jesus loves you, He endured, He suffered, He sacrificed, and He died. Because He loved you, He gave Himself over to the whip, the thorns, the blows, the nails, and the cross. Because Jesus loved you, He gave Himself as the ransom that would give forgiveness and salvation to all who believe on Him. And with His resurrection from the dead, we know God's gift has been given, His love is revealed and all who believe on the Christ as their suffering substitute and victorious Redeemer have eternal life.
