Meditation 300
John 3: 1-17
Imagine that you are Nicodemus on that night that he went to talk to Jesus. It is getting dark, and you see the people of the village lighting lamps in their homes, and some of the people going up on their roofs to sleep in the cool night air. Even though most people are getting ready to settle down for the night, you step outside and you walk to the house where Jesus is staying. As you walk you notice the stars shining in the night sky, and you wonder what Jesus will say when you show up. As you approach the house where Jesus is staying you wonder if he will be surprised to see you, and you wonder what he will say.
As you reach the door of the house you see Jesus sitting inside and he invites you in. You tell him that you have many questions to ask him. You say “Jesus, I have so many questions to ask you! I know that you are a teacher of God’s love. I would like to learn more about what it means to live in God’s way.”
Jesus smiles and says “Then let’s start. What do you want to know?” You take a deep breath, and then you begin to ask Jesus about the things that you want to know. There were so many things to learn! And Jesus answers every question, and sometimes Jesus asks you questions, too.
If you were able to bring your own questions to Jesus, what might they be? Maybe it would go something like this: “Jesus, here I sit by you – the night around us and I find myself shaping many questions about my life and my times and my living in this world. You say I cannot enter your realm without being born anew. Yet I confess the ways I cling to the habits and the patterns that keep me from living and sharing my life to the full. I hear your words: “What is born of flesh is flesh and what is born of spirit is spirit.” Hear me, my Saviour, as I confess the ways I live by the flesh, and turn away from your Spirit, following the ways of the world, rather than the greater truth of your way.
I hear your words that God loved this word so much that you were sent to live among us. Hear me, my Saviour, as I ask for your forgiveness, trusting the love that opens the way of life to me for your compassion is greater than any of my sins.
After your questions have been asked, imagine Jesus saying to you:
“Thank you for talking with me, and I have listened to your questions and concerns. You have heard my words and my word to you is: you are forgiven. For I have been sent into the world not to condemn it but to save it and I have come to save you, my child. Receive this forgiveness and may my spirit birth new life within you.”
Whatever questions we have about living with God while also living in the world can be brought to Jesus who will hear us and who will help us to live the new life he gives.
(The content of this meditation draws from a sermon I preached in 2008 and the quotation beginning “Jesus I have so many questions…” in line 2 paragraph 2 and going to the end of the meditation is from Seasons of the Spirit 2008)