Tale of the Sea
In his book The Life God
Blesses, Gordon MacDonald shares a story about a popular American
yachtsman. In 1992 Michael Plant commenced a solo crossing of the North
Atlantic Ocean from the United States to France. But after two weeks of the
voyage Michael Plant and his sailboat were lost at sea. Many people were
puzzled by the news because Mr. Plant’s seafaring skills were without equal and
his sailboat, the Coyote, was state of the art. Everyone in the
sailing world knows sailboats do not capsize normally. They are built to take
the most vigorous pounding a sea can offer. They are built to have more
weight below the waterline than there is above it. But when
the Coyote was found, it was upside down in the water. So what
happened? When the Coyote was built, an 8,000-pound weight was bolted
to the keel. No one knows why or how, but when the Coyote was found,
the 8,000-pound weight below the waterline was simply missing. No weight below
the waterline to ensure stability. The result? A very capable, experienced, and
much admired man was lost at sea.
The Bottom of Your Joy
Pastor John Piper once asked the
following question at one conference (“Getting to the Bottom of Your Joy,” Passion
2011), “What’s at the bottom of your joy?” “What is the feeder of your
happiness?” All of our joys have a foundation. What does it mean by that? Let
me give you an example. Recently, my 7-year-old Grace said to me, “Dad, when I
grow up, I want to be either pastor or teacher.” I said, “O I see. But why
do you want to be a pastor or teacher?” She said, “Because you teach and talk
in front of many people, and they listen to you.” So I asked, “Why does
that make you happy?” She replied, “Because you can tell them what to do and
boss them around.” If we continue this “why – because” conversation, we get to
the bottom of what makes us happy. At the bottom there are only two
possibilities of our joy: making much of me, or making much of God.
Self or God.
The default mode of the human heart is self-centered, self-exalting, making
much of self (cf. Jer 17:9). That’s why being “born again” is necessary. The
new birth changes the default mode of our fallen heart. It changes the bottom
of what makes us happy. It changes the foundation below the water line.
Nicodemus
In today’s passage we see a
contrast between a person who has self at the bottom and a person who has God
at the bottom – a contrast between Nicodemus and John the Baptist. First, we
meet Nicodemus. The Bible introduces Nicodemus as a man of the Pharisees, a
ruler of the Jews (v. 1), the teacher of Israel (v. 9). In other words, he was
serious about God. He was a good man, moral man. He was knowledgeable,
experienced, respected, full of credentials. Above the water line, he seemed to
be a perfect example of how to live as God’s people. But in reality, below the
water line, Nicodemus felt miserable. He felt thirsty. He felt something was
missing. Why? Because there was self at the bottom. Because self at the bottom
could never satisfy his heart made for God. Blaise Pascal rightly said, “There
is a God-shaped hole in the heart of every person which cannot be satisfied by
any created thing but only by God the Creator, made known through Jesus
Christ.”
So Nicodemus came to Jesus at night. And Jesus said to him, “You must be born
again.” Here Jesus was saying, “Nicodemus, you need something new at the
bottom. Now God is not at the bottom. You are at the bottom. You must exchange
yourself at the bottom with God.” So, to be born again is to experience this
exchange at the bottom – an exchanged life! It is no longer I at the
bottom, but Christ is at the bottom.
The story of Nicodemus is our story. Nicodemus is old you, old me.
At first, when Jesus says to Nicodemus, “You must be born again” in verse 3, he
uses a second person singular. But later, when he says, “You must be born
again” in verse 7, he uses a second person plural, also in verse 11 and 12. In
other words, Jesus is speaking not only to Nicodemus, but to all of us. Nicodemus
represents humankind. The truths are universal. You and I must be born
again. We must experience this wonderful exchange. Self at the bottom ought to
be replaced by God at the bottom. We know, from Nicodemus’ story, it’s quite
possible to enjoy worshiping God, praying to God, singing hymns, reading the
Bible without this exchange. It’s possible to do all kinds of good works and
religious activities without this exchange at the bottom. In Matthew 7:22-23,
Jesus says, “At the Final Judgment thousands strutting up to me and saying,
'Master, we preached the Message, we bashed the demons, our God-sponsored
projects had everyone talking. And do you know what I am going to say? 'You
missed the boat. All you did was use me to make yourselves important
(MSG)” The question is ranking. So what’s at the bottom of your joy –
Making much of you or making much of God?
John the Baptist
Today’s passage invites us to see
below the water line. And then, it takes us to meet John the Baptist – the one
who has God at the bottom of his joy. How do we know what’s at the bottom?
Oftentimes, storms in life reveal what’s in there below the water line. John
the Baptist was a rising star. Everyone in Israel was talking about him, and
many of them came out to be baptized by him. But then, all of sudden a storm
came. He saw his ministry begin to fade away as Jesus began his ministry. His
disciples said, “Rabbi, your star is sinking. Your ministry is diminishing. All
are going to Jesus, the one whom you testified. What are we going to do?” They
were upset, anxious, jealous. But, John said to them, “I am not the Messiah. I
am not the Bridegroom. I am the friend of the bridegroom, his ‘best man,’ who
stands and hears him, rejoices greatly at the bridegroom’s voice. That joy is
mine, and it is now complete. He must increase, but I must decrease” (John
3:29-30). So what’s at the bottom? Making much of Christ!
William Barclay tells us about the role of the bridegroom’s friend in Jesus’
time as follows[1]:
The “friend of the
bridegroom” had a unique place at a Jewish wedding. He acted as the liaison
between the bride and the bridegroom… And he had one special duty. It was his
duty to guard the bridal chamber and to let no false lover in. He would only
open the door when in the dark he heard the bridegroom’s voice and recognized
it. When he heard the bridegroom’s voice he was glad and he let him in, and
he went away rejoicing, for his task was completed.
The joy of the best man! The joy of making much of Christ, the Bridegroom! This is the new birth, new heart, new creation, new exchange! John the Baptist is new you, new me. When we are born again, myself being made much of ceases to be the bottom, and God becomes the bottom for the first time. God becomes our source of all our joys. Then, so naturally, we treasure him, savor him, enjoy making much of him!
How Can This Be?
Our Christian journey is a journey
from making much of self to making much of God, a journey from a life of
Nicodemus to a life of John the Baptist. It takes a miracle to change. We need
the new birth. “How can this be?” “How can I be born again, born from above?”
Nicodemus asked. And we ask today. Jesus answers, “Just as Moses lifted up the
snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who
believes in him may have eternal life” (vv. 14-15). It is not enough to be
educated. It is not enough to grow up in the church. It is not enough to do
religious activity. We must look to Jesus, who gives a new foundation of our
joy, our life.
Elizabeth Prentiss was a native of Maine. She was a pastor’s wife, and was very good at writing prose and poetry from a young age. But sadly, for much of her life she lived the life of a near invalid, she always suffered form chronic pain. To make things worse, she lost a child and shortly thereafter a second. In her diary Prentiss wrote, “Empty hands, a worn-out, exhausted body, and unutterable longings to flee from a world that has so many sharp experiences.” But it was then that she looked up to Jesus, and she was able to refocus her understanding of her own value and worth from doing to being. In the midst of grief and suffering, she found peace, rest, and joy.[2] That night she wrote the four stanzas of her hymn, and the second verse goes like this:
Once earthly joy I
craved, sought peace and rest;
Now Thee alone I
seek, give what is best;
This all my prayer
shall be:
More love, O
Christ to Thee,
More love to Thee!
More love to Thee!
Looking to Jesus is not just the ABC of the Christian life but the A to Z of the Christian life. Everyone who looked to the snake on the pole lived. Everyone who looked up to Jesus on the cross lived. Nicodemus looked to Jesus and lived. Let us look to Jesus – not just once, or twice. Let us keep looking to Jesus, keep trusting Jesus, keeping coming back to Jesus and his light. Then, Christ will become the bottom of our joy, and we will say, “More love, O Christ to Thee, More love to Thee!” Amen.
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