Lent 2A 2023-- "What's Your Problem?"

Text: “3 Jesus answered him, 'Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.’” (John 3:3)

What’s the Problem?

Albert Einstein is quoted as saying, once, that if he were facing a life or death problem that he only had an hour to solve, he would spend the first 55 minutes clarifying what the problem was. That’s a very surprising statement unless you’ve spent any amount of time working on trying to solve a problem. It’s very easy to waste a lot of time working, only to find that your solution doesn’t work because it doesn’t actually address the problem.

Perhaps that’s why Jesus jumped in and took over the conversation with Nicodemus that night. The conversation that is recorded for us in John 3 was a conversation that Nicodemus initiated— he had come to Jesus that night, not the other way around— but the conversation seems to have gone in a very different direction than he expected. I’m speculating a bit here, but perhaps Jesus jumped in and directed the topic of conversation in order to keep Nicodemus from wasting their time.

Whatever Nicodemus had come to discuss, it was going to be a pointless discussion because Nicodemus had a very fundamental detail wrong.

It seemed that Nicodemus didn’t really understand the problem: it was necessary to be born again. Until he understood that basic point, any religious discussion would have been a waste of time.

In Nicodemus’ defense, he’s right that it’s an absurd the statement. If you haven’t heard that phrase before, then it’s not going to make any sense. He needed to be born? That’s sort of a pre-requisite for being there. For that matter, it’s a pre-requisite for being. It really doesn’t make sense until it’s explained to you.

But, for Nicodemus, there is an additional stumbling block— there’s an additional reason why it doesn’t make sense: He was a descendant of Abraham!

Not only was Nicodemus pretty sure: 1) that he had been born and 2) that the experience had done what it needed to do for him, his birth was something that he took at least a little bit of pride in. He was a descendant of Abraham.

He was born under the promise of Genesis 12 that you heard in our Old Testament reading. He appeared to be one of the descendants God promised Abraham. He seemed to have been born into the “Great Nation” that God promised would come from Abraham— even though Abraham was, at the time, childless.

Imagine Nicodemus’ shock when Jesus told him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you are born again you cannot see the kingdom of God.”

“Unless you are born again you cannot see the Kingdom of God.” Cannot see it? He was born in the Promised Land. It was the very first thing he saw when he first opened his eyes as a little child?

Go through the three things that God promised Abraham in Genesis 12. That was, literally, his birthright. He and his countrymen had been born into it. Except now his birth wasn’t actually good enough. Not any of them.

What more could Nicodemus have asked for in his birth? But now, his birth was not good enough for him to enter the Kingdom of God. He needed to be born again.

It would really be interesting to know what Nicodemus had come to discuss. Was he curious about some finer application of the law— what, exactly, did the law of Moses require in a particular situation? Did he want to better understand what a certain passage of the Old Testament really meant? But it seems that, whatever it was, the conversation would have been a waste of time because Nicodemus didn’t actually understand the problem.

So what was Nicodemus missing? He was missing the fact that, as a child of Abraham, he was still a child of Adam, as well.

It was supposed to mean something to be born as a child of Adam. Adam and Eve were given dominion over this creation. Adam’s very first job was to give names to the animals that God created. All of it was created for them. All of it was to serve them. There was only one tree in the garden that was reserved and off limits to them. Otherwise, this entire world was created for them, for their use and their benefit.

And this is not some backwater corner of the universe that God gave them dominion over. This was His garden. This was the place where He would come and walk in the cool of the day. And when He did, they were able to visit with Him. It was supposed to mean something to be born a son or daughter of Adam.

The reality, though, is that to be born as a child of Adam means to be born under the curse of sin. Sin came into the world through Adam, and death through sin, and so death spread to all descendants of Adam because all sinned (Rom. 5:12).

In the moment that Adam and Eve looked at the fruit of the forbidden tree and decided that it was to be desired in order to make one “like God,” it stopped meaning what it once did to be born as a child of Adam.

Not only does every child of Adam have to plead guilty, before God, of all kinds of sins— even those he or she is not aware of— he or she also confesses that he or she is, by nature, sinful and unclean. As David wrote: “5  Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me” (Psalm 51:5)— not because his mother was engaged in sin when he was conceived, but because he was sinful from the very moment he was conceived. Just like every descendant of Adam, he carry the guilt of Adam from the very beginning.

The sin that keeps every descendant of Adam outside of the kingdom of God is not something outside of him that he can rid himself of by understanding the rules more clearly and following them more carefully. It is within you. You’re not a sinner because you have sinned. You sin because you’re a sinner. The inborn guilt of Adam is continually giving birth to actual sins, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death (James 1:15).

Until Nicodemus understood that— understood the real problem— whatever theological discussion he came to have would be a waste of time.

What’s Your Problem?

So we come to a question that I never expected to ask you. I can honestly say that I’ve never felt the need to ask, even. What’s your problem?

You hear a lot from me, week after week. One sermon after the next— now twice a week. There are many other conversations in different contexts. But let’s stop for a moment and clarify the problem that we need to be concerned with addressing. It is, in fact, a problem that your life depends upon. Let’s make sure that you’re not wasting your time here.

In order to avoid taking Einstein’s 55 minutes to do it,

Let’s cut right to the chase: You must be born again if you hope to see the Kingdom of God.

That’s where you and I have to start. You have to acknowledge the problem. You have to acknowledge the problem because you live in a world that knows there’s something wrong, but doesn’t know what, so it is desperately seeking solutions. And, worse yet,

You, along with this world, are desperately seeking solutions that are a complete waste of time.

If there’s any question whether that’s true or not, let me prove my case with one word: ‘affirming’. Without doubt, ‘affirming’ people is the ‘Gospel’ of our culture. To refuse to affirm a person’s identity is the greatest form of blasphemy in our day.

I want to be very careful here. This idea is really challenging to push back against, isn’t it? It’s really challenging because it is a good thing to try to make sure that the children of our country do not hear the message that they’re worthless. Too many of them are buying the devil’s lie that this world would be better off without them in it. It is a good thing for them to know their worth, their value, as individuals, not to mention the skills they have and everything that they’re able to contribute. (Not just kids, by the way. Whatever age you are, that is a good thing. Period.)

At the same time, the mantra of the modern world is “We’re all ok.”

"We’re all ok” is the best solution that our world can come up with to this problem that they know is out there but that they really can’t solve. But it’s doomed to fail.

The hard reality is that we can all chant “We’re all ok” until we’re blue in the face, but saying it again and again to each other won’t make it true.

So we end up wasting so much time in our lives, not to mention our conversations. We argue over what Jesus’ immigration policy would be. We argue over whether or not Jesus would be in favor of the welfare state. We argue over whether Jesus would be a capitalist or a socialist or something else, entirely. But none of that will fix the problem.

Do you think that picking the right immigration policy will turn this world into paradise? Do you think that the right social welfare system will bring the Kingdom of God to this earth? Do you think Jesus came to teach you a better economic system in order to make this the Promised Land?

You know you have a problem. Whether or not anyone else sees you as valuable, it’s hard for you to see yourself that way. So you embrace the gospel of “Self care.” Here, too— self care is necessary, it is good, it’s healthy. But self care won’t fix you.

You know you have a problem. And, deep down, you know that we need to find a solution. So you and I distract ourselves with all kinds of entertainment. But the problem is still there.

You can prance around like modern day pharisees all you want, praying for all the world to hear: “God, I thank you that I’m not like those Democrats/Republicans and their evil ways.” But that’s not going to make you a Child of Abraham.

You need to be born again. Not only do you, like every child of Adam, have to plead guilty before God of all kinds of sins— even those he or she is not aware of— you also must confesses that you are, by nature, sinful and unclean. As David wrote: “5  [You were] brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did [your] mother conceive [you]” (Psalm 51:5)— not because [your] mother was engaged in sin when [you were] conceived, but because [you were] sinful from the very moment [you were] conceived. Just like every descendant of Adam, [you] carry the guilt of Adam from the very beginning. “Sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to [you] because all sinned...” (Rom. 5:12).

The Perfect Solution

Let’s go back to the quote I mentioned at the beginning about spending 55 minutes clarifying the problem. The point of that clarifying was to find the solution. That’s certainly Jesus’ point, as well.

Your birth was not good enough for you to see the Kingdom of God. But Jesus’ birth was.

He is the eternal Son of God. He is the Son of Man, descended from heaven. And He has chosen to be born as one of you.

“[T]hough he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men” (Philippians 2:6-7). He was made like you in every respect (Heb. 2:17); He, Himself, chose to share in flesh and blood. He became a son of Adam, yet without sin.

He was made like you so that, “through death, he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery” (Heb. 2:14-15).

He took on flesh and blood for the express purpose of dealing with the root of the problem. He took on flesh and blood for the express purpose of giving that body into death for you and shedding that blood for you as the ultimate sacrifice for sin. “4 [W]hen the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, 5 to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons” (Gal. 4:4-5). Only in the wisdom of God would it make sense that, to redeem a slave, He would give His son. And that is precisely what He has done in Jesus Christ. He loved the world in this way: by giving His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.

“If many died through one man’s trespass, much more have the grace of God and the free gift [of eternal life] by the grace of that one man Jesus Christ abounded for many” (Rom. 5:15)

The Kingdom of God was opened to you just as the heavens were opened at Jesus’ baptism.

Just as by one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s obedience the many were made righteous” (Rom. 5:19).

Your Perfect Solution

He has, in fact, caused you to be born again by water and the Spirit— born not just into His Kingdom, but into His family.

He died and rose so that you could be born again. So that, in the water of baptism, you could be joined to Him in His death and raised with Him in His resurrection. Here at the font you were born again by water and the Spirit.

“12 [T]o all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, 13 who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.” (John 1:12-13)

“6 And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into [y]our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” 7 So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God.” (Gal. 4:4-7)

“3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused [you] to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, 5 who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.” (1 Peter 1:3-5)

We do face serious issues in this world. There are many who are suffering, many who are in need. We can’t fix this world. But you, the children of God, have the opportunity to comfort and help at least a few and trying to make a genuine contribution to finding solutions.

We can’t fix this world, but you live in the confidence that, not only has He given you new birth in baptism, but that He is making all things new.

Not only will you see the Kingdom of Heaven, you will see God just as Adam and Eve did as they walked and talked with Him in the garden in the cool of the day.

“3 Jesus answered him, 'Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.’” (John 3:3)

If you want to truly understand the problem, you can look to the cross. There you also see the solution: the Son of Man lifted up “that whoever believes in him may have eternal life” (John 3:15).