A few years ago I read a story about teenage pregnancies. Some reporters discovered that girls as young as thirteen had become pregnant ……intentionally. When asked why they would have children so young, one girl said, “I just wanted someone to love. Is that so hard to understand?” Imagine the heartache and the loneliness which pushes a young teenage girl to pregnancy as a way to find love. Yet in our own way we are all looking for love and often in the wrong places. Nicodemus was known as the teacher of Israel and had worked his way up the highest levels of the religious ladder. But he sought God’s love based on his religious achievements. As a Pharisee he would have focused on external rules to attain righteousness. For instance, God commanded the people to rest on Saturday, the Sabbath. So Pharisees came up with thirty-nine forbidden Sabbath activities to ensure they did not “work.” They could not pull one hair from their beards or heads, they could not cut their fingernails, and on and on. This was just for the Sabbath day, not to mention the hundreds of other laws they developed. It would not be a stretch for Nicodemus to define himself by his track record. Jesus described God’s love to Nicodemus in a radical way. We’ve seen these words held up in the crowd at football games and quoted on billboards. We get desensitized to them and miss the amazing message. Try to suspend the familiarity and read this passage out loud, inserting your name: “For God so loved ________ 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 ________ , but to save ________ through him” (John 3:16-17). Did you read it out loud? Was it awkward to insert your name? Do you feel uncomfortable getting that personal with something God did for the world? After all, you’re just one person among billions. But Jesus meant these words for Nicodemus and he means them for you, too. Paul calls Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross an “indescribable gift” (2 Cor. 9:15). Has it become too describable for you? Or are you still blown away by his radical love?
Posted on: Mon, 29 Jul 2013 10:51:43 +0000
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