Description
Meditation –
2nd Sunday in Lent Year A
Salvation by ritual?
John 3: 1-17
It was all beyond me!
I thought I understood; I’ve studied the scriptures all my life, I’ve taught others how to interpret them,
I’ve shown them what God requires and how they should live; but when I saw Jesus in the Temple the other day he not only threw over the money changers’ tables, and threw the traders out of the temple, he also threw me into total confusion.
I shouldn’t have been surprised. I’ve met him before; it was a long time ago, about twenty years, he was just a boy then; he came to the Temple with his family for Passover, and we sat and talked for days; what an inspiration he was! I’ve never forgotten the wisdom that came from one so young. Often over the past twenty years when I’ve struggled with an interpretation, I’ve longed to hear what that twelve year old boy would have to say!
And now I needed to hear it more than ever;
I needed Jesus to explain why our practices of providing for sacrifices in the Temple were so unacceptable to him.
He said the Temple should be a House of Prayer, but surely sacrifice is the highest from of prayer, an expression of our penitence, devotion, thanksgiving; a kind of sharing in a meal, a communion with God, after all, this is what God commanded us to do, and this is the main function of the Temple.
So I needed to talk with Jesus; I was eager to ask him what he meant when he overturned centuries of ritual and tradition?
How can we be saved if the old traditions are not acceptable?
I never got chance to ask the question, he was so eager to tell me…
His answer took me completely by surprise.
He introduced a completely new concept to me.
He said I had to be born again to enter the kingdom of God!
‘How can I be born again’ I said, ‘now that I’m old?
I can’t re-enter my mother’s womb.’ He smiled.
‘You’ve been born of the flesh already’ he said, ‘you don’t need to do that again!
But you also need to be born of the spirit.’
Always thinking outside the box, age had not wearied Jesus;
He was still challenging every preconceived notion I ever had!
I wanted to understand but he cut me short;
‘The wind blows and we don’t know where it comes from or goes to.
So it is with people who are reborn of the Holy Spirit.’
‘How can we be born of the spirit if we don’t understand’, I asked.
‘You don’t need to understand, just believe in me; anyone who believes in me will have eternal life, just like anyone who believed in the bronze snake was saved.
God doesn’t want offerings, even of a thousand rams, or rivers of olive oil; he wants to put his spirit within you, to create a new heart within you, a new desire to act justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with him. If you believe me, Nicodemus, you will walk in the light!’
A meditation by David Middleton
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