Jn 3: Quit Trying to Keep it All together

If you’ve ever watched a sporting event, you probably know that John 3:16 is an important Bible verse.  “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” (NIV)

You may not know the cultural context and the rest of the story. It is incredible!

Summary of John 3:1-21

I encourage you to read the whole story here: John 3 (Since no one ever listens to me, I will sum it up below:)

In this passage, a Pharisee named Nicodemus came to visit Jesus at night to ask him questions about how to follow God. Jesus explained to Nicodemus that no one could truly follow God unless they were “born again”. Nicodemus was as confused as a middle school boy reading poetry in English class. (Sorry. Flashback!)

He asked Jesus how it was possible to literally be born again.  With more patience than I had with students who didn’t understand figurative language, Jesus explained to Nicodemus that he was referring to being spiritually born again. In other words, if we aren’t renewed and transformed by God’s presence in our lives, we can’t experience the kingdom of God.

The AH-MAZING news for us!

For you and me, this passage is AH-MAZING.  Whatever you have going on in your life with all of this corona virus, quarantine struggles, this passage gives you permission to quit striving so hard to “keep it together” and deny what you are really feeling. Trust me! It really does.

The Cultural Context Makes the Story Even Cooler!

See, Nicodemus wasn’t just any Pharisee.  Nicodemus was a member of the Sanhedrin. According to the Jewish Virtual Library, the Sanhedrin was the court system for the ancient Jews. The local Sanhedrins were similar to local courts. Nicodemus was in the Great Sanhedrin which ruled over all the local Sanhedrins and made official rulings on religious issues

So, you wanna talk about “having it together” from human effort! Nicodemus was a religious leader, who sat around with 70 other dudes talking about religious rules all day.

 Yet, Nicodemus still wasn’t satisfied. He was longing for something more. When he snuck out to meet Jesus, he risked everything, hoping Jesus could show him how to truly have peace with God.

As a member of the Great Sanhedrin, Nicodemus could have been put to death for going against them in their decision to oppose Jesus. The Great Sanhedrin was supposed to be the wisest of the wise in Israel. They couldn’t admit to being human, to having doubts, fears, and questions.

The story in John 3, is of Nicodemus secretively beginning to explore if just maybe the religious system was wrong. Maybe they didn’t have all the answers. Maybe there was more to following God than “keeping it all together” by whatever moral standard we understand.

Jesus started with the idea of being “born again” to show Nicodemus that he needed to go through a spiritual transformation. In other words, there is a mystical, mysterious, part of following God that does not come from our own efforts but from a willingness to be changed and transformed. It is not something we can control or manipulate or even completely explain, BECAUSE IT IS FROM GOD!

Freed from being a weirdo!

To be completely honest, the “being transformed” part of the story makes me uneasy. It brings up pictures of freaky people doing really crazy stuff like throwing snakes around (and I ain’t about that!) or uptight judgmental people wearing denim jumpers with hand embroidery on them, telling everyone else they are going to hell. 

But those examples of weirdos who I don’t want to be like are examples of human logic (really weird human logic) dictating what it means to be “transformed by God”. Let’s all be honest. If someone says they are a “born again Christian”, do you immediately think of someone you want to be like? I doubt it. That’s because we have a whole weird American version of Christianity based on trying to “keep it together” by our own efforts.

Thankfully, Jesus taught something way better. It’s right there in the rest of the story.

Jesus explained how much God loves people and wants to have a relationship with anyone who follows him.

John 3:17-21

 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.  Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son. This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil.  Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed.  But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God. John 3:17-21.

The application for you as you struggle

When we just read John 3:16, we don’t get the whole picture. The rest of the story is actually quite scary, yet completely awesome! It frees us from the trap of “keeping it together”. When we follow Jesus, we step into the light. Light reveals our true motivation. Light reveals the deepest darkest parts of our soul. Light reveals our selfishness. Light reveals when our religious activity is based on a selfish desire for control. Light shows if we are truly transformed.

In other words, there’s no room for BS in the light. We don’t have to stuff all of those hard emotions and put on a happy face for God. He sees all of us. Even the parts we can’t admit to ourselves. He loves us and he gives us the ability to actually deal with each part as we bring them to him.

Let’s be really real: That’s freak-out worthy stuff. Allowing God to see the parts of myself I don’t even want to see, is the stuff of nightmares. Except, he already sees all of our stuff, and he loves you and me anyway. He wants to help us deal with it. Shame grows in darkness. Freedom grows in the light. Jesus is OK with every break down you have in these trying times. He cares about every fear. He wants to sit with you in the light and help you with all of them. The transformation this brings into our lives is beyond words. It releases us from the trap of trying to keep it all together. We have the presence of God in our lives helping with all our mess. Even the parts we can’t admit to. We know someday they will be dealt with and that’s AH-MAZING.

So, my friends, I guess I’m telling you to go have a breakdown with Jesus. Cry, vent, and whine if you need to. He already knows. He wants to transform all of your mess into something beautiful!

Praying for your peace and hope in all of this!

Cindy