What we have in this passage is a fascinating clandestine
encounter with a Pharisee by the name of Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews, and
Jesus, taking place in an unknown location in Jerusalem under the cover of
night (cf. Jn 2:23; 3:2). This meeting took place within the city proper (cf.
Jn 3:22). Though Jerusalem is a part of Judea, this phrase, the
land of Judea (v22), naturally has
reference to rural Judea.
Instead of laying down tracks with an outline of this familiar
conversation Jesus had with Nicodemus, I will simply allow things to unfold
without intentionally directing any train of thought except for an employed
metaphor. To be sure, there’s not a destination to be had with fare and
schedule! It is more a setting aside of restrictive, interpretive borders for
an anointing, a fresh oil approach if you please (Psa 92:10). There is nothing
wrong with outlines, per se, but sometimes it’s good to get away from manmade
fences and feel and realize the freedom we truly have in Christ, free
indeed (cf. Jn 8:36)!
Naturally, we are free to roam throughout the vast pasture of
God’s will, but there is a defined perimeter called the context of Scripture
that is Holy Spirit-made, not by man. Choice, based on love (agape) and
chastening, promote staying within the pasture, but it does not prevent us from
crossing over the fence into a darkened landscape. The evil one would only draw
our attention to the perimeter, not the seemingly unending grazing land.
It was the serpent that convinced Eve to intently focus on the
tree of the knowledge of good and evil to the exclusion of everything else
found within the Garden of Eden and buy into the idea that God was keeping
something from them; He was; it was called sin. She willingly crossed over
being deceived (1 Tim 2:14; Gn 3:4, 6, 12-13; 2 Cor 11:3). Nobody is a victim
to sin when rebelling against God, knowingly or unknowingly.
No one is going to argue that John 3:16 is one of the great
summits of Scripture. This let out to pasture approach here in our passage
under consideration is being presented as taking a climbing expedition with
friends who have a passion for ascending summits of breathtaking spiritual
truths as found on the Summit of St. John 3:16. This is the teaser, the rush, the
challenge, and the satisfaction of our passage to make that ascent.
We will hang around basecamp for a while (vs. 1-13); then our
thoughts will make a rapid ascent beginning in vs.14 when Jesus pivots to being
elevated, and we finally reach the summit in vs.16. From that vantage point, if
the weather is clear (predicated on where we are at spiritually when we arrive
there), we should see things in vs.17-21 from a different perspective that
cannot be seen at lower elevations, figuratively speaking. The absence of an
outline does not mean there is no direction! We do have to go up, yes? If you
are thinking this is in itself an outline for argument’s sake, try and think of
it as more of a metaphorical map to get us to the top, our spiritual Sherpa,
who goes by the name of Metaphor; go figure.
I might need to mention that once we reach the top of the
summit, the atmosphere, the air, and the view are marvelous, indeed, but there
is one particular viewpoint that is deeply disturbing! Looking south (poetic
license), we will see the valley of the shadow of death and the behavior of its
inhabitants according to Jesus. On my many visits to this summit, I never allow
that dark reality down in the valley to deter me from my time spent on the Summit of St. John 3:16.
It helps me keep things in perspective with the relentless
spiritual warfare raging throughout the earth and reminds me of the devil, the
world system, and the flesh that war against my soul and the need for God to be
in the forefront of my thoughts, tongue, and actions! Oh, if sin was limited to
only that valley below, but it is merely metaphorical to the world at large.
Notwithstanding, the ripple effect of the fall of man must run its course to
its final conclusion.
When I am on this summit, I am reminded of the admixture of joy
and suffering, peace and turmoil, rest and struggle, life and death. Not to
overshadow the joy of being on higher ground, but when we reach vs.15, we will
find a preamble of the great resolution of mankind’s predicament with sin on
our way to the top that remedies that once for all. It is that great solution
that brings me back up here time and time again. I love to pay this summit a
visit in spite of the evil in the world. It causes me to ponder on the great
love (agape) God the Father had/has for mankind and the great sacrifice
of His Son on our behalf to make salvation available to whoever
believes. It refreshes my resolve to worship and serve Him the more in
spite of the dreaded effects of sin all around us!
Should you choose to start this journey with me, you have to
watch out for those deep and perilous crevasses of ailing attitudes: no need to
climb, knowing everything, nothing of value here, non-committal, been there
done that, lack of discipline, offended easily, unteachable spirit, and
arrogance. Those attitudes never truly help anyone reach the top; they are
suddenly swallowed up by the earth. If you are tethered to those kinds of folk,
they usually take you with them! I make it a practice to maintain a spirit
of learning from all walks of life, young and old. The good thing is we do not
have to lug any O2 bottles during
our ascent, if the Holy Spirit lives within the heart, that is. If He doesn’t,
O2 bottles will not help you anyway (1 Cor
2:14)!
Before gearing up at basecamp, when we add up all of the
recorded words of this conversation between Jesus and Nicodemus from the NKJV
translation, the tallies are these: Nicodemus (54, 14.6%) and Jesus (315,
85.4%).1 Naturally,
the conversation between Jesus and Nicodemus was not limited to only these
amount of words, but what we have is the gist of it. The Bible is large enough
as it is that most people will not read it from cover to cover. If all were
included, it would be certain that the Bible would never be read in its
entirety by the masses (cf. Jn 20:30; 21:25), but up against this backdrop,
what has been written is sufficient for all who would know of its contents (cf.
Jn 20:31).
Jesus dominated the conversation, which was the point of this word count.
Nicodemus comes across as having questions that expose the spiritual condition
of his soul, but it also reveals a man ready to listen because the miracles
Jesus was performing were compelling (authenticating Jesus as truly the
long-awaited Messiah as prophesied by the OT prophets) and could not be
dismissed if one is intellectually honest. Nick was unaware that God the Father
was drawing him to His Son (cf. Jn 6:44). It is wiser for us to listen to Jesus
more rather than being heard, yes? If we listen more and read more Scripture, we
might just learn something on this hike up to the Summit of St. John
3:16?
Because Nicodemus was a Pharisee (Jn 3:1), I want to provide you
with some general info on the two religious factions making up
the Sanhedrin, the supreme judicial and religious authority of Israel in Jesus’
day: the Pharisees and the Sadducees; the latter is not mentioned in our
passage. This is rather academic and straightforward, but it will provide a
better understanding of Nicodemus’ world and his theological bent before
going to base camp. In some sense, you can say that the Pharisees were the conservative arm of the Sanhedrin, and the Sadducees were the liberal
counterpart.
The Pharisees
1. Though they were in the minority in the Sanhedrin, the
Pharisees held greater sway with the people; they were of a middle
businessmen status and mingled among the people, unlike the Sadducees.
2. The Scripture records conversions of the Pharisees (Jn 3:1;
Acts 9:15; 15:5).
3. They believed that all of our OT was inspired by God
(Genesis-Malachi), but also they treated their centuries-old oral
traditions with equal authority with the Scriptures, claiming it was
rooted in Moses, which, by the way, is a clear violation of Deut 4:2. Jesus
accused them of rejecting and nullifying the commandments of God by the keeping
of their tradition (Mk 7:9, 13); they didn’t like that. Here are a few
examples below pertaining to the Sabbath.
A.
Some of them held that a woman should not look into the mirror on the sabbath
for fear that she might be tempted to pluck a gray hair from her head and be
guilty of working on the sabbath day (BNTC on John 3).
B.
Allowed to swallow vinegar for a sore throat, but not allowed to gargle for
that would be deemed as working on the sabbath (Ibid).
C.
An egg laid on the sabbath could only be eaten if the hen was killed (Ibid).
D.
Read John 5:9-10. There is a word for it, unbelievable! Jesus revealed the
right interpretation of the sabbath; it was made for man, not man for the
sabbath (Mk 2:27). They didn’t take too kindly to the Messiah’s interpretation
of the Sabbath.
4. They externalized their religion through the observances of
rules, rituals, ceremonies, outward conformity to the law, hypocritical public
exhibitions, holier-than-thou attitudes (Mt 5:20; 16:6, 11-12; 23:1-39; Lk
18:9-14), and honoring God with the lips but the heart was far removed. They
took hypocrisy to a level lower than thought possible. They were so painstaking
in publicizing their religiosity that their fastidiousness became
hyper-fastidiousness to supersonic scrupulosity. Don’t ask me to translate
that! They were, in two words, self-righteous retentive.
5. Believed in the resurrection of the dead (Acts 23:6).
6. Believed in rewards and punishments in the afterlife.
7. They were more religious than political.
8. Produced Gamaliel, Saul (later Paul), and Josephus
(first-century historian).
The Sadducees
This was the other sectarian group that comprised the majority
of the seats of the Sanhedrin. This faction tended to be from the upper class
and occupied powerful positions as chief priest and high priest. They were
more concerned with politics than religion, particularly in maintaining the Pax
Romana (Latin for Roman peace) in order to maintain their wealth and status in
Israel. They were, figuratively speaking, in bed with the Romans, the bread and
butter of their lifestyle.
Some other characteristics and beliefs of Sadducees are these.
1. They lived a life independent of God which is generally
typical of wealthy people.
2. They denied any resurrection of the dead, spiritual or
physical (Mt 22:23; Mk 12:18; Acts 23:8).
3. They denied the spirit world of angels and demons; these guys
were not supernaturalists by any stretch of the imagination (Acts 23:8).
4. They accepted the Pentateuch as only inspired by God, not the
writings or the prophets (our Joshua through Malachi) or oral traditions.
5. Sadly, the Scriptures record no conversions of any Sadducees
(Is this so surprising in light of Mt 19:24?).
6. They denied the afterlife and believed that the soul perished
at death.
7. Their only concern with Jesus seemed to be their fear of
Jesus disturbing the apple cart, if you please, causing a revolt and violating
the Pax Romana (Roman Peace), Jn 11:48-50.
Are you ready to gear up at base camp before tackling the summit?2 <><
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1.
Note: the NJKV is the default translation for M-G. I didn’t want to get into a
word-count comparison between Received Text versus Majority Text or other
translations. This was merely intended to be a simple observation.
2.
Articles are determined by the constraint of size (ideally 1,500 words), not by
any natural division, unless convenient. If comments on a verse or passage
exceed the ideal, I will make parts of them though it is under the umbrella of
John 3:1-21. For instance, should I have, say, 4,500 words on John 3:16, I
would make it into three parts though there may be multiple articles on John
3:1-21 without parts. At times, I run into no man’s land, having no choice but
to have a lengthier article rather than dividing. By the way, the main
body of the first article is over 1,900 words. I mention this because
some complain my articles are too long. Have they not read my FYI page that M-G
is not designed for the 5-minute Christian?! If thy right arm offends thee, cut
it off! : )-
Making
use of the Archive is handy in keeping track and having quick access. Only
those articles designated with parts will be published daily without
interruption. I’m in no hurry; so, all other articles without parts are
published at the author’s whim. Hey, being retired and having home projects and
honey-do lists growing are infringing on my writing! It’s a jungle out there!
I strongly recommend going to the Camel
icon on the Home page and subscribing through Google Feedburner in order to receive
posting notifications consistently and hassle-free, as well as, reading M-G
from a laptop, a larger iPad, or a declining desktop. The atmosphere is better,
and there is a more natural feel interfacing with the website. “It’s just
prettier and easier than viewing and reading from a smartphone,” one
internet analyst told me! In the past ten years, I have had no one complain of
being abused by me, but I will take you any way I can get you: subscribed or
unsubscribed! Both are considered part of the M-G family.
Thank
you for considering the M-G project worthy of your time. It is all for the
glory of God; I can assure you. I receive no remuneration for this labor of
love; there is no expectation. My MO is freely given freely give. It does, however, cost me very precious time; I am not getting any younger. But what I know is this; any investment into the will of God is a privilege and far exceedingly worth more than any investiture on earth. Financially, out-of-pocket for Camel Lips Ministry is
minimal, less than $100 per year!
