The Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you … So Abram went, as the Lord had told him; and Lot went with him. – Genesis 12:1-4a

There was a Pharisee named Nicodemus, a leader of the Jews. He came to Jesus by night and said to him, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God; for no one can do these signs that you do apart from the presence of God.” Jesus answered him, “Very truly, I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above.” Nicodemus said to him, “How can anyone be born after having grown old? Can one enter a second time into the mother’s womb and be born? – John 3:1-4

Devotion:

The Scriptures above bring Abraham, the father of the tribe of Israel, alongside Nicodemus, the Pharisee who visited Jesus under the cover of darkness. The similarities are clear. Both appear to have been men of accomplishment and status in their respective cultures. Both had an encounter with God that was life-changing and beautifully echoed the mysterious cycle of life, death, and transformation into new life, that is traditionally referred to as the “Paschal Mystery.”

Abraham was called by God to pack up his childless wife and his servants and leave his comfortable life in Haran and head out to parts unknown—the Lord did not immediately tell him the destination. 

What God did say was that he would make Abraham into a great nation. Any dream Abraham and his wife might have had on their own for a generational legacy had died long before. Still childless at the age of seventy-five—Sarah was only ten years younger—the idea of being a great nation seemed laughable. In Genesis 17:17 and 18:12, we see that they did laugh—literally the first instance of “rolling on the floor laughing” recorded in the Bible. Sarah’s reaction was more LOL than ROFL, but they both laughed. God also understood the humor in the situation and told them to name the baby “Isaac,” which means “laughter.” 

They laughed, but they still chose to trust God. By answering the call of the Lord, they were allowing themselves to let the past go and allowing the Lord to gift them with a new life and a new, even better, legacy. They placed their trust in the one who made the promise, the only God “who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist” (Romans 4:17).

In his book, The Holy Longing, Ronald Rolheiser describes two kinds of death. The first, terminal death, ends life and ends possibilities. The second, paschal death, is as real as terminal death. “However, paschal death, while ending one kind of life, opens the person undergoing it to receive a deeper and richer form of life.” 

Nicodemus has an encounter with God that places a call on him as profound as God’s call on Abraham. Secretly meeting with Jesus— ‘rabbi to rabbi’— Nicodemus starts by saying, “We know that no one can do the signs that you do apart from the presence of God.” Jesus, as he often did because he knows men’s hearts, revealed the real reason the Pharisee was there in the first place by answering a question Nicodemus didn’t even ask. “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” The answer? “No one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again.” 

Wait. What? 

Jesus’ response seems as odd to us as it did to Nicodemus. Despite the endless volumes written on “born again” theology, we still wonder what exactly that means. Why? Because, as the learned teacher of Israel understood, from a strictly human perspective, the idea is as laughable as telling a ninety-nine-year-old man and his ninety-year-old wife that they are about to become parents. 

To accept Jesus’ words required far more of Nicodemus than risking his stature in the community, his position in the Sanhedrin, or his wealth. It would require him to walk away from his religion. Eternal life, as Jesus graciously explained at the close of their encounter, comes only as a gift of God, through the “lifting up” of God’s only son. The Pharisee’s belief in earning salvation through right behavior must have died that evening. 

But it was a paschal death. Nicodemus’ religious understanding, like a grain of wheat falling to the ground, was only a few hours from revealing a deeper, more glorious reality, resurrected along with the Messiah. 

PRAYER

Father, show me those things in my life that need to die, knowing that as painful as that may be, it will be a death that leads to a new and better life. 

Skip McKinstry
Crossings Spiritual Formation Team

Skip McKinstry is an artist, graphic designer, long-time CareSeries facilitator, and part of Crossings' nascent spiritual formation team.

Artwork: “Out of Egypt” by Skip McKinstry, the artist who created the collection of art featured in our 2023 Lent devotions.

Spritual Exercises for the Lenten Season:

As you practice the various fasts of Lent, value the temptation that you face. Think of it as preparation for receiving your life from God, a gift that is yours, not because you pass a test, but because he did.

Reflections for this week:

• Prayerfully reflect on your own faith. Consider what it has/may cost you to be a follower of Jesus.
• Are you trusting in good behavior or right doctrine for your salvation or the finished work of Christ on the Cross?

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