“Spiritual Rebirth”

John 3:1-10

Nicodemus was a well-established rabbi – teacher – and Pharisee, who was also a member of the Sanhedrin. As such he was a person of substance, reputation, and power, both theological and political. Yet when he approached Jesus, an untrained preacher from Galilee, he complimented him in words that, according to Archbishop Temple, “We taste their diplomatic flavor.” As any good politician would, Nicodemus was trying to establish a positive rapport with Jesus.

But his deference to Jesus wasn’t totally political. As a great teacher he recognized the teaching abilities of Jesus; he saw in him a kindred spirit. So he spoke to him rabbi to rabbi. The surprising part of all this is that Nicodemus, an older and better established rabbi, showed such deference to a much younger man who had no formal theological training. In that culture it should have been the other way around. Jesus should have shown deference to Nicodemus.

Be that as it may, Nicodemus recognized something special in Jesus and felt compelled to meet with him. As William Barclay so well puts it, “Nicodemus [was] up against the eternal problem, [that] of the man who wants to be changed and who cannot change himself.” Nicodemus knew deep in his soul that he needed something more. He had it all in terms of power, position, and prestige, but that wasn’t enough.

They met at night. Why? Although there are more esoteric interpretations of Nicodemus’ timing, it was essentially a matter of tradition and convenience. Night time was when rabbis got together to discuss Scripture. It was the normal thing to do. It was also the convenient thing to do. At night Jesus and Nicodemus had the time and the space they needed for serious discourse.

From the get-go John’s Gospel makes it clear that this wasn’t going to be a typical meeting between two rabbis. First of all, Jesus did not return, as cultural mores demanded, Nicodemus’ compliments with some of his own. Instead Jesus said, “Very truly I tell you, no one can see the Kingdom of God without being born again.” To which Nicodemus was probably tempted to say, “Huh?” That’s because Jesus was speaking at a highly spiritual and metaphoric level while Nicodemus was hearing at a very literal level. “Be born again,” he sputtered, “I can’t go back in time, be conceived, and pop out of my mother’s womb again. What is this nonsense?”

Jesus went on to explain what he meant by being born again or born from above - the Greek word can be translated either way. Jumping ahead to verse 10, Jesus asked Nicodemus the following question, “Are you a teacher of Israel, and yet you do not understand these things?” Jesus hadn’t pulled those words about being born again out of thin air. The Hebrew Scriptures, most notably, today’s text from Genesis, spoke of people who responded to God by undergoing a radical transformation.

Jesus was talking about a transformation experience that creates a new person altogether. That’s what the Apostle Paul was describing in II Corinthians 5:17: “So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation; everything old has passed away, see, everything has become new.”

Years ago I wrote a sermon based on today’s text that was centered around the death of a good friend, an alcoholic whose drinking indirectly led to his death. I titled that sermon “Repossessed,” because spiritual rebirth is as much as anything else a process of allowing the Holy Spirit to cast demons like alcoholism and other addictions from our lives and replace them with Christ. When we are born again we are repossessed by Jesus.

Being born again or being saved isn’t some one-time emotional experience at a revival or conference. Being born again is a radical process that involves turning ourselves over completely to the will of God. Or as William Barclay so much more eloquently states it in his commentary:

“It is through Jesus Christ that we are reborn; it is when he enters into possession of our hearts and lives that the change comes… When that happens we are born of water and the Spirit. There are two thoughts there. Water is the symbol of cleansing. When Jesus takes possession of our lives, when we love him with all our heart, the sins of the past are forgiven and forgotten. The Spirit is a symbol of power. When Jesus takes possession of our lives it is not only that the past is forgotten and forgiven; if that were all, we might well proceed to make the same mess of life all over again; but into life there enters a new power that enables us to be what by ourselves we could never be and to do what by ourselves we could never do. Water and the Spirit stand for the cleansing and strengthening power of Christ, which wipes out the past and gives victory in the future.”

Call it being born again or born from above, call it being saved or repossessed; we’re talking about something so radically life-changing that only God can do it. To quote some other commentaries: in The Interpreter’s Bible Arthur John Gossip wrote, “… if the new life is ever to be lived there must be a new creature, wholly new, built up in a new way…” and Robert Obach and Albert Kirk, “… by natural birth we are human beings, but by spiritual birth we become the children of God. This spiritual birth is the only way a human being can traverse the infinite distance that separates the Kingdom of God from the human condition. Only God can give the gift of eternal life.” They go on to describe the role of the Holy Spirit, “Jesus points out that just as people hear the mysterious wind, some people will also hear the “sound”, that is, the “voice” of the Holy Spirit.”

After we’ve heard and listened to the voice of the Spirit, after we’ve been repossessed by Jesus, after we’ve been born again or born from above, after we’ve been saved: then what? Well, we become different people, what Paul was referring to when he spoke of a person being a new creation. Our attitudes, behaviors, and lifestyles are marked by noticeable changes. We view the world and the people around us differently. Our ethics and morals begin conforming to God’s will instead of our wants. Like Abraham was led and enabled to leave the land of his fathers, we will be led and enabled by God to leave behind anything and everything that comes between us and Jesus.

Being born again is serious stuff, not some passing fancy. Not too many years ago everybody and their brother was claiming to have been born again. Movie stars, rock stars, and famous athletes were jumping on the born again bandwagon. It was the thing to do. Some of those folks really did have a powerful encounter with God that led them to truly be born again. They became different people.

But some of these claims were suspect. Two come to mind: Bob Dylan’s and Larry Flynt’s. Although Bob recorded a Christian based album, the last I heard was that he had dropped away from Christianity and reclaimed his roots in Judaism. All that’s well and good, but Judaism is not Christianity. In it Christ is not recognized as Lord and Savior. Bob Dylan experienced something. If that something didn’t result in Jesus Christ being his ultimate Lord and Savior, then it wasn’t spiritual rebirth.

As for Larry Flynt being born again, now that’s another story. Larry Flynt was and is the publisher of the crude pornographic magazine Hustler. For all of his supposed reborn-ness, he never stopped publishing pornography. People who have totally given themselves to God do not keep pumping out filth. Pornography and Christianity are mutually exclusive. How can someone be a born again Christian while at the same time making millions of dollars as the head of a business that is at odds with the will of God? Larry Flynt’s salvation is ultimately a matter left to God, but based on the evidence of Larry’s life he’s skating on some pretty thin ice.

So much for Bob Dylan, Larry Flynt, and even Nicodemus. Instead of pondering their reborn-ness, we need to consider our own. We each need to be ask ourselves the following questions: “Am I born again? Have I been repossessed by Jesus? Have I heeded the voice of the Spirit? Does my life reflect the reality of having been born again? Do I cultivate the fruit of the Spirit? Have I experienced and am I experiencing the Kingdom of God? Am I truly a new creation?”

In this season of Lent – this season of self-examination - those are questions worth pondering. Being born again may very well be a once in a lifetime event, but living a born again life is a daily endeavor. Letting Jesus come into our lives and displace the demonic parts of who we are is an ongoing experience. We have to be on guard against proceeding to make the same mess of our lives over and over again, and learning to more and more see the world through the eyes of Jesus. Being, as Apostle Paul put it in Romans, “transformed by the renewing of our minds, so that we may discern what is the will of God – what is good and acceptable and perfect.” And once we have discerned it, doing it. That’s what being born again is truly about. Amen.