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Love God. Love others.
C
onnection Spring 2016
Sunday Worship Services: 9:00 a.m. (Blended) 10:30 a.m. (Contemporary)
Straight Answers by James Jones In John 3, a religious leader named Nicodemus came to Jesus at night. The point of the visit is a bit diffi-
cult to decipher. Nicodemus opens the conversation by laying out what he and the other religious leaders had decided about Jesus. They had seen the things that Jesus had done, and they had determined that Jesus had been sent from God. It almost feels like Nicodemus wanted to ask some kind of question, but his words just trailed off. But Jesus had a response. It had little to do with Nicodemus’ comment, but it was what he needed to hear. (John 3:3 NIV) Jesus replied, “Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again.” Huh? Nicodemus wasn’t talking about the kingdom or trying to enter it, but Jesus knew that Nicodemus wasn’t worried about entering the kingdom of God, because he thought he was an insider. Nicodemus was a Pharisee, a religious expert, a teacher, a member of the Sanhedrin, a ruler. If anyone was on the inside, it was this man. He had everything going for him. But Jesus said to Nicodemus that he was so far from what God was doing that he needed to start over. He was so messed up that there was no fixing him. The only thing to do was to start over. But here again, Nicodemus was confused. The word that Jesus used for “again,” could also mean “from above,” so Nicodemus wanted to know whether Jesus meant that he should be born again, which was impossible, or whether this was some spiritual truth that he wasn’t grasping. Jesus’ response? He told Nicodemus that he needed to be born of water and the spirit, and then Jesus said these words: (John 3:7-8 NIV) “You should not be surprised at my saying, ‘You must be born again.’ The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.” The wind blows where it pleases? Again, Jesus’ language confuses Nicodemus because “sprit” and “wind” were the same word. Nicodemus is left trying to figure out what Jesus wanted. We like straight answers. In this political season, it is a compliment to say that this candidate or that gives “straight answers.” But Jesus didn’t always give straight answers, and it was often because Jesus wanted people to grapple with his teachings and come to the truth on their own. He wanted Nicodemus, this man who considered himself an expert on matters religious, to be forced to work through all that he was saying, hoping that he would finally realize that what Jesus wanted him to do was start over with God. Sometimes, we want God to give us the straight answers, and we get frustrated when we don’t get them. We want to know why bad things happen, and we want to know why we have to face death. We want to know which job to take or whether it’s time to go back to school. We want a straight answer, but sometimes the answer comes back to us, “The wind blows wherever it pleases,” and we have to grapple with the truth that our all-powerful, always-loving God wants us to do a little of the hard work on our own.