In the Holy Name of Jesus Lent IV March 14, 2021
Text: John 3:17,18a
“Nicodemus wears a white hat”
Who wears white hats? In the old days of silent movies, you always knew who the good cowboys were. They wore white hats. Bad cowboys wore rear hats. That way you always knew who the good cowboys were.
On October 12, 1940, newspapers reported that Tom Mix, the movie cowboy who had starred in 370 movies, had been killed while driving to Phoenix. Arizona Mix was behind the wheel of his custom-built Cord Phaeton, a flashy roadster with radiator-mounted long horns. He was almost airborne when he reached a hill and saw a road crew directly in front of him. Mix literally slammed on the brakes to avoid killing the crew that was working on a broken bridge.
His car went into a ravine where his heavy aluminum suitcase flew forward and hit him in the back of the head. and broke his neck. Mix got out of his car, walked a few steps and fell dead. Surprisingly, the newspapers, which reported the story, also felt it was his duty to add of him, and I quote: “Mix was wearing his trademark ten-gallon white Stetson hat.” (This day in history October 12, 1940)
Why did they bother to report that? Of course, Mix was wearing a white hat. He was a movie cowboy. He was one of the good guys. Everyone knows that movie cowboys play by certain rules.
“A man must have a code, a creed to live by, no matter what his job” John Wayne
1. Never steal another man’s horse, A horse thief pays with his life.
2. Stand up for yourself when necessary. Always be honest.
3. Take off your weapons before sitting down at the table.
4. No matter how tired and hungry you are after a long day in the saddle, always attend to your horse’s needs before your own.
5. Curse all you want, but only around men and horses.
6. Never order anything smoother than whiskey.
Just a few rules to live by…
Nicodemus was a white hat guy. Nicodemus was an incredibly good man. He was honest to the core. He was a Pharisee. The Pharisees made it their business to keep the rules and be very, very, very good. Now understand that I’m not just talking about keeping the Ten Commandments. No, the Pharisee hardly cared about them. Over the years, he also added 633 other Old Testament rules. You see, the Pharisees took their kindness seriously. Nicodemus was trying his best to be the best “white hat” Pharisee. She depended on his goodness, on his Jewish genetics to earn God’s favor.
He was doing a pretty good job. Good enough to carry a card
member of the Jewish governing council He was one of the 70 special elders of the Jewish nation. Furthermore, he was a teacher of Israel. He had the credentials to interpret and teach others what the Holy Scriptures said. He was a good boy #1. If anyone was qualified to wear a white hat, he had to be Nicodemus.
Last week I noticed that John has a theological message about replacing the Jewish rules with Himself. His life and his message. That is why John began his Gospel with the miracle of turning water into wine at the Wedding at Cana. John follows up that miracle with this conversation that Nicodemus had with Jesus. This is Nicodemus trusting his white hat.
At the wedding in Cana, when the family ran out of wine, Jesus took Jewish jars of water that were for the right of purification and filled them with wine. The pure water, now turned into new wine, made them completely useless for the Jewish right of purification. Jesus becomes the replacement for all the things the Jewish religion was using in order for God to accept “goodness” from him. They wanted to keep the rules. It allowed them to judge themselves better than others. They believed that his own goodness would open the gates to heaven.
Nicodemus came to Jesus at night…because he wasn’t sure his “white hat” rules were enough. Nicodemus had been taught all his life that his “Jewish blood,” his special connection to Abraham, was enough to earn God’s blessings, favor, and entrance into heaven.
He came at night because he didn’t love the others. know your anxiety, your insecurity. She was thinking that his “white hat” had turned dull gray or solid black. Nicodemus knew that his broken rules could not be forgotten. In his heart he felt like Martin Luther, who, centuries later, wrote these words:
“Death hung darkly over me, sin was my torment night and day,…
I left nothing but death to be my part; The pains of hell I suffered.”
This is basically the conversation: “Good Teacher, Rabbi… we know that you are a teacher who has come from God…., I have kept all the rules and forms and rituals of our faith. Jesus interrupts and addresses Nicodemus: “You have to be born again.” Well, what does that really mean? Nicodemus: “Can I start life again as a baby?” Jesus…. “What I am talking about is that you cannot rely on your family history, your kindness, your Judaism to open the gates of heaven. I am the replacement… In the future, the gates of heaven are opened by the Spirit giving faith in me as the Savior.”
You must be born again. What “born again” literally means to start all over again, to have a second birth, a second chance. The one who is born again does not suddenly become a super Christian. To be born again is to re-enter the process of spiritual growth. It is to make a clean slate of one’s past. It’s paying off your old mortgage and starting over.
As the conversation draws to a close, Jesus declares what might be the most important verse in the New Testament. “Just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert” (Numbers 21:8,9)…and all who looked at it were healed from the bites of the deadly poison that brought death. So too, “when I, the Son of Man, am lifted up on a cross, everyone who believes in me will have eternal life.” “For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him…. He who believes, he is not condemned…” (John 3:15,17)
In some ways, verse 17 suffers from an understandable oversight, since it comes hand in hand with what Martin Luther called “the heart of the Bible” and “the gospel in miniature.” John 3:16 “For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but have eternal life.”
Many people still do not understand the Savior’s point. People get so wrapped up in the words “born again” that they get confused like Nicodemus. Unfortunately, many people today have the same mentality as Nicodemus. We think our hats are white, not dull gray, and certainly not black. People think that without any outside help, if we are “good enough” God will say, “Wow! You really deserve to wear a white hat. You really are a good person. I am so overwhelmed by the way you have lived your life that I am going to invite you to heaven.”
Nicodemus truly believed that heaven was his birthright because he was a descendant of Abraham, and he was keeping all the Jewish rules. Jesus is replacing that false theology.
You may be thinking, I don’t know anyone who believes that their “goodness” is enough to open the gates of heaven. (My comment.) Yes, you do. Almost every religion in the world says that you have to do this or that to get to God. Look at the Hindu who pierces his flesh to show his god that she is sad for the mistakes he has made. Look at the faithful follower of Islam who is commanded to obey the five pillars of faith if he expects to be accepted by Allah. There is no guarantee, just a hope. Go to the temples of the world and watch the sacrifices and offerings made by pilgrims trying to earn their god’s approval. They are all trying to earn their white hat.
Americans have fallen into the same trap. Many believe that our Judeo-Christian work ethic, our doing good deeds will outweigh our faults, failures, and broken commandments. I will call it our “American theology.” Go to any funeral and the eulogy will list all the “good things” the individual did… But we Americans have found that this viewpoint doesn’t really bring peace to our souls. So our new American theology is simply: “all religions are just different paths to heaven.”
When Chuck Colson received the Templeton Prize for Progress in Religion in 1993, he spoke to an audience at the University of Chicago on The Lasting Revolution. Describing the plight of modern society, he mentions four myths that define our time: “the four horsemen of the present apocalypse.” The first myth is the goodness of man.
This myth misleads people into thinking that they are always victims, never villains; always private, never depraved. Our new American theology dismisses our responsibility (to God) as the teaching of a darker age. You can excuse any crime, because you can always blame something or someone else: a disease of our society or a disease of the mind.
We are all sinners who desperately need God’s grace. We are all in the same boat, and the boat is sinking. If God does not do something, the entire human race will fall to destruction.
Jesus said: “the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost”. by Jacob’s well. He came looking for fishermen, politicians, doctors, tax collectors, rich men at the top of the heap and lepers no one else wanted to touch. He sought out prostitutes and drunkards, and they loved him for it. When he was dying, he came looking for one hanging on a cross next to him. There is only one way to heaven. Jesus said: “I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6).
That verse is not popular with many people because it sounds too narrow in these politically correct times. American theology would feel more comfortable if Jesus said, “I am a way, but not the way.”
Every major world religion has had a “master” who prescribed codes of behavior… which, if followed, would allow one to enter the ultimate paradise beyond death. Even the “New Age” religions that mix Hinduism, Buddhism, and Christianity will tell you that Jesus was a man whose lifestyle should be copied. The difference is that Jesus said: “I am the way, the truth and the life…”. Jesus did not say “I am “one” path among many. No. Only those who look at the cross, at the savior with the crown of thorns, will…