After Jesus explains his responses in John 3:5-8, Nicodemus asks a follow-up question, which Jesus answers further in John 3:9-13. Here, Jesus questions how a teacher of Israel (like Nicodemus) would not understand these things, and Jesus attests that He has come from Heaven, so He can speak of heavenly things.
Still, I don’t think that we should be too harsh on Nicodemus. After all, I don’t know about you, but I don’t always get things right away the first time I hear them. It was a concern that Israel’s teachers didn’t understand these truths, but rather than giving up on His people, Jesus offers more teaching.
Although Jesus uses the term, “the Son of Man”, to refer to Himself here almost “indirectly”, make no mistake: Jesus can speak of spiritual truth that He knows to be true. This is not just because He has learned it, heard it, or figured it out. Instead, Jesus can speak to heavenly truth because He’s witnessed it, He’s experienced it, and He’s lived it. In fact, He is the Truth. Whether or not others accept His factual testimony, Jesus’ teachings about heavenly things come from His experiences in that realm.
None of Israel’s other teachers can provide this teaching from the perspective of a first-hand witness – and participant – in these heavenly matters.
Jesus continues in verses 14-15:
Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him.”
John 3:14-15 NIV
Jesus is giving the exact definition of what will happen. With the benefit of recorded history about what did happen, along with insight provided by the Holy Spirit, we know what He meant. He would be lifted up on a cross to die for the sins of the world, and all who believe in Him could be saved from the penalty of their wrongdoing. (More on this in the next article.) However, during this night-time conversation with Nicodemus, this may have been a new concept to most first-century Jewish teachers (including Nicodemus).
Having said that, I suspect that Nicodemus knew the account from the book of Numbers (Numbers 21:4-9) where the Israelite people complained, snakes were sent to bite them, and then – when the people asked for help – God had Moses set up a figure of a snake on a pole. Whoever was bitten and looked at the snake didn’t die from the poison.
By Jesus connecting something that Nicodemus already knew to what would happen when Jesus gave His life on a cross, hopefully Nicodemus could start to bring the pieces together. In fact, I wonder if Nicodemus remembered this statement of Jesus when he and Joseph of Arimathea were taking Jesus’ body down from the cross.
In the same way, sometimes we know facts before we understand them. This doesn’t make the facts useless, but let’s always be looking out for ways that God shows us how His truth applies in this world, so that we can move from just knowing to actually understanding what He means.
From Sunday School lesson prepared for December 10, 2023
References:
- The Lookout, December 10, 2023, © 2023 Christian Standard Media.
- Scripture taken from the Holy Bible, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
- The College Press NIV Commentary – John, by Beauford H. Bryant and Mark S. Krause. © 1998 College Press Publishing Co.
Those Who Sin Differently 