The Loving Christ
Scripture Reading: John 3:1-21
Meditation
Nicodemus, is a bright man and yet he’s spiritually in the dark.
He’s a man of the Pharisees and a member of the Jewish ruling council, Israel’s teacher and yet he’s looking for the truth. The number of his years makes him cautious but the number of Jesus’ miracles makes him curious.
“He came to Jesus at night and said, ‘Rabbi, we know you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the miraculous signs you are doing if God were not with him.’
In reply Jesus declared, ‘I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again.’ ”
Born again?
For a settled, old Pharisee this is an unsettling, new proposition. Physically, it’s inconceivable. Spiritually, it’s incomprehensible. Practically, it’s impossible.
Though he breathes in the air he can’t see, and he does it without laboring or thinking, yet Nicodemus can’t seem to inhale this new wind of life. The very thought of a second birth takes his breath away.
Conceived in divine love, that’s a miracle.
Born of God, that’s a mystery.
Delivered and called a child of God, that’s amazing.
How can this be?
“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.
‘How can this be?’ Nicodemus asked.”
His question is both practical and personal.
“How does it happen? Why does it occur? When? Where?”
But between the words, in the subtext, dwelling beneath his question is a deeper question. He’s wondering,
“Could this second birth be for me? Does God love me?”
It’s a personal question and yet the Loving Christ gives Nicodemus a universal answer. He gives a universal answer because it’s a universal question. The whole world wonders,
“Does God love me?”
Nicodemus isn’t the only one who is in the dark. To all of those who have loved and lost, or never loved at all, the Loving Christ opens his heart and says:
“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. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.”
In Jesus, divinity shows His love for humanity. The Word made flesh covers his Beloved with extravagant acts of love. His love is selfless, sacrificial, but not overly sentimental. Everything he does is an expression of an otherworldly love. It’s a love of another kind, from another place, for another reason.
He comes to rescue his Beloved. The condemnation that she deserves, He takes upon Himself. To a sleeping beauty, dead in her sin but alive in his heart, his love brings the kiss of life. As she wakes, he—the Lover—promises his Beloved that they will live, not just happily ever after, but eternally ever after. To thief hanging beside him he says,
“Today, you will be with me in Paradise!”
For Nicodemus, this is no fairy tale.
This love story is real. This love story is for him. The Loving Christ said that he loved the whole world. Now Nicodemus knew that the Loving Christ couldn’t possibly do that without loving him, too.
Later, on the darkest day of history—the day the world killed the Loving Christ—Nicodemus stepped out of the shadows and shined his own light of love.
“Later, Joseph of Arimathea asked Pilate for the body of Jesus. Now Joseph was a disciple of Jesus, but secretly because he feared the Jews. With Pilate’s permission, he came and took the body away. He was accompanied by Nicodemus, the man who earlier had visited Jesus at night. Nicodemus brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about seventy-five pounds.” (John 19:38-39)
For one who was once in the dark, the love of Nicodemus for his Savior now burns bright. He comes and cradles Jesus. He carries the extinguished Light of the World to the tomb. He anoints the Loving Christ with a mixture of myrrh and aloes. Every action, every step, every word is a testimony of his love. It’s a newborn love. It flames and says to a dark world,
“This man loved and died for me!”
Prayer
Father,
Your Son, the Word made flesh, is a poem of love.
From eternity, you sent Poetry into motion, out of heaven and down to earth. The virgin conceived your Verse of love; she enveloped him in flesh and delivered him to the world. At the proper time, the envelope was opened, the contents read, and the courtship began.
The poem started,
“Beloved,
For God so loved the world …”
They were the words of a salvation song: a sonnet.
Through a redemptive rhyme scheme, the Lover wooed, romanced, and pursued his Beloved. But she resisted, rejected, and rebuffed his love. And so to prove his love authentic and his intentions pure, he climbed the highest hill, opened his arms wide, and cried from a cross,
“Father, forgive!”
In love, he finished the sonnet, breathed his last, and signed his name with the red rose of his blood,
“It is finished!”
During this day, I want to know that the Loving Christ not only loves the world but that he loves me. Let me hear the redemptive rhyme, the poetry, the verse, and the sonnet of his salvation.
I pray this as the Beloved who longs for the Lover. Amen.
Reflection
Are there any shadows that you are hiding in? Are you afraid to be seen with Jesus or afraid that Jesus might see you?
Describe life …in the shadows/out of the shadows in the light/in the darkness.
What does it mean to be “born again”? How does it happen?
According to John 3:16-17, for what purpose did God send the Loving Christ into the world?
All Scripture references in the meditation are marked by italics and are taken from the Gospel reading for the day (John 3:1-21). Those verses quoted outside of the chosen reading for the day are noted in parenthesis. All Scripture quoted on this site is taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
