Daily Reading Reflection: John 3:1-21

I have spoken to you of earthly things and you do not believe; how then will you believe if I speak of heavenly things? (John 3:12)

Let's imagine for a moment that tomorrow you move to a foreign country. And let's make it very dramatic. This is a new country with very different laws from your own country, a completely different form of government, a completely new currency, and a very different culture. Beyond this, a new country means there are new expectations about how you drive, how you buy things, what rules people expect you to follow. We are so impacted by the culture and customs of the country that we were raised in that going to a new place means changing almost everything about the way we live.

In the passage today, Jesus is talking to Nicodemus who was devoted to the keeping of the law, and a member of the Jewish ruling council. Nicodemus is someone who understands God's law as it is being taught. When he approaches Jesus to talk to him, Jesus immediately starts talking about being born from above in order to enter the Kingdom of God. Nicodemus gets hung up on the picture Jesus is painting which gives Jesus more time to speak about the Kingdom of God.

We can easily get caught up in two popular pictures of what we think is God's kingdom. One is that we need only accept Jesus as our Savior and then we are automatically in the kingdom. Maybe we change a little bit but mostly it's just because of what Jesus does. The second picture says that Jesus doesn't ask us to change very much about ourselves in order to be prepared for God's kingdom. We really just need to be a bit nicer and give a little more and then we're okay.

In this exchange, Jesus sets expectations for how different it will be to join in God's kingdom. We are not just talking about learning a few new customs. Jesus says we have to be born all over again. We have to learn how to walk and talk and eat and sleep and all sorts of things. We enter into a completely new life. While I don't believe he's trying to tell us exactly what we have to do, I do believe he sets our expectations for what we need to be prepared for. God's kingdom is a new place. Everything we have learned from our world teaches us how to live at home. Jesus says we need to be born again in order to be ready for the incredible upside-down world of God's kingdom. That is a far cry from either accepting and then staying mostly put, and a far cry from making small changes to our lives. When Jesus comes he proclaims a kingdom which will disrupt our lives. If we're not prepared for how dramatic that will be then maybe we're not ready to receive it at all.