One of my favorite names for Jesus is "the Great Physician," a name which comes from a much loved gospel song (William Hunter, "The Great Physician," Baptist Hymnal [Nashville: Convention Press] 1991, No. 188)
I love the song's reassuring words:
"The great Physician now is near, The sympathizing Jesus;
He speaks the drooping heart to cheer, Oh! hear the voice of Jesus."
And God knows, we
- need him near,
- need his sympathy,
- need to hear his word to cheer our drooping hearts.
"Oh! hear the voice of Jesus!"
Jesus was a healer in every area of human sickness - body, mind and spirit. The very word "salvation" comes from the late Latin word, salvatio, which goes back to an ancient root that has to do with "health." Salvation is the health, the wholeness that the Great Physician brings.
A good doctor does not prescribe the same medicine for each patient. Jesus, the Great Physician, does not prescribe the same spiritual medicine for each patient. This morning we are going to consider several different "prescriptions" by the Great Physician, mainly the one in our text when he "prescribed" for four young adults, Simon and Andrew, James and John, but also his "prescription" to an old man named Nicodemus and his remedy for the man we call the rich, young ruler. And maybe, just maybe, through it all, he will prescribe for our drooping hearts some cheering, healing, saving word.
THE "BORN AGAIN" PRESCRIPTION
When Jesus was speaking with Nicodemus in John 3, he gave him what I call "the born again prescription," mighty good medicine, as many will declare. Jesus told Nicodemus that if he wanted to see the Kingdom of God, he had to be "born from above," or as the less accurate but more widely known translations have it, "born again."
This is the only time in any conversation with any person that Jesus used this expression. The Great Physician did indeed say, "Very truly, I tell you, no one can see the Kingdom of God without being born from above." (John 3: 3)
By this he meant being born from God, being transformed by heavenly power from God on high. Such a Godly change in a life is joyful and profound.
A Christian who is born from on high is surely a Christian with the power of God in his or her life from the start.
"BORN AGAIN" IN OUR TIME
But the term "born again Christian" means something else in American popular religious culture today. The "prescription" has been rewritten. Every doctor knows how frustrating it is to prescribe a course of treatment, and then to learn that the patient has revised it, ignored parts of it, self-medicated, etc. The same thing has happened to the "born from above"/"born again" "prescription" in our time. Instead of it referring to something God does, "being born from above," it has come to mean some things people have to do to convince others that they are truly Christian.
(1) Emotional Experience
Nowadays "born again" means that you have had an emotional experience in the presence of witnesses to validate your faith and to assure them that your experience is like their experience.
(2) Head Stuff
Nowadays "born again" means that after your emotional experience, you must be prepared to affirm certain specific articles of faith which your new religious group has laid out. To enter into full communion you must affirm that you give intellectual assent to the body of doctrines, head stuff.
(3) Sub-Culture
Nowadays "born again" means that after your emotional experience and your intellectual assent to doctrines, you must behave in a certain way in conformity with the norms of the community you would enter. There are political, ethical and cultural standards for you to meet in your new sub-culture. You quickly learn which wing of which political party is the one for "real" Christians, which holidays are considered to be dangerous, satanic or pagan, what kinds of music is truly Christian, how to dress, what movies and television programs you should never admit to seeing.
AFFIRMATION OF THE "BORN AGAIN" EXPERIENCE
Please understand me - I affirm the right of every group to define its boundaries for admissions and the right of every one to work out his or her own faith with fear and with trembling (Philippians 1: 12). And if a person works out his or her faith in the manner just described as "born again," and genuinely and sincerely holds such a faith, that person has my respect, affection and support. If the Great Physician has healed you with his "born again" prescription, if it is God's power from on high enabling you to meet current "born again" norms, I thank God. I welcome every "born again" Christian as my brother or sister in Jesus the Christ.
And I consider myself "born from above"/"born again." Let me briefly bear witness:
When I was nine years old, I lived in a seamless world of home, church and school. It was broken when my grandmother suggested that we get away from the cold Louisville, Kentucky winter and spend a few months in Florida. This was all right with my father, a travelling salesman whose territory in the southeastern states made it just as convenient to come home to his family in northern Kentucky or in central Florida.
Trouble for me began when I went to school. In Kentucky we wrote in cursive; in Florida at that time in grade three only printing was allowed. All the other boys wore shorts; like my friends in Louisville, I wore knickers (yes, I am that old!). I was called "hillbilly" and "Yankee," although I never figured out how I could be both. There were lots of fights to and from school.
Church was of little comfort. Back home we sang hymns and heard reasonable, spirited sermons. The Baptist church in Florida offered gospels songs sung with lots of nasal vowels and a shouting preacher. We were told that since we were from "up north," we should "go to the tourist church," a small interdenominational meeting in a social hall.
The only constant that carried over from Louisville to Florida I discovered one night in prayer -God was real, present, powerful. God loved me even if the people at the church rejected us and even if the kids at school just wanted to punch me for being different. I knew God was good and that his love was steadfast. This was my born from on high/born again moment. I could feel his presence. I could make sense of God in Jesus. I wanted to do something about what I was feeling and understanding. That meant going forward to declare myself a believer, a follower of Jesus. That meant being baptized as soon as I could - in Kentucky, not in Florida. ("How shall we sing the Lord's song in a strange land?" Psalm 137: 4) The Great Physician had prescribed for me; it was good medicine.
BUT...
But understand this, if other "born again" persons tell me that someone else is not a Christian because that person's experience is not like their "born again" experience, then we have a problem. I did not like playground bullies in 1945; I do not like theological bullies in 1997.
The problem is that some "born again" Christians try to limit the freedom of God in Jesus Christ by suggesting God can heal with only one prescription.
To try to limit the freedom of God is dangerous, foolish and futile.
To try to limit the freedom of God's children in how they respond to God's various treatments is to misread the New Testament and to stifle others' possibilities for growth in the grace and knowledge of our Lord.
Let's go back to the prescription model, and see how the Great Physician could give three different prescriptions to Nicodemus, to the rich young ruler, and to the four brothers in Mark 1.
(1) Nicodemus
To Nicodemus, who was an old man, Jesus said a man must be born again.
(2) The Rich, Young Ruler
But to the rich young ruler Jesus did not say, "You must be born again." No, the Great Physician saw that the rich young ruler was not the same as old Nicodemus and prescribed something different. Jesus said to the young man: "Go, sell what you have and give to the poor." (Mark 10: 21)
(3) The Four Brothers in Mark 1
To Simon and Andrew, James and John, who were neither as young as the rich ruler or as old as Nicodemus, the Great Physician prescribed neither being born again nor selling all. Jesus said something else. He simply said, "Follow me and I will make you fish for people." (Mark 1: 17)
(Footnote - I favor inclusive language, but as one who grew up singing, "I will make you fishers of men," I find "fish for people" an awkward, though well intended, phrase. Like the Reverend Will B. Dunn in Kudzu, I am tempted to say, "I hate these modern translations." For the record, I am sure Jesus meant that the disciples were to fish for all people. God knows, women need saving too!)
CALLS
I want us to look carefully at Jesus' call of Simon and Andrew, James and John, and see what it has in common with how the Great Physician treated Nicodemus and the rich, young ruler,
- not because it makes for a good Bible study (as important as that is),
- not because it may comfort some who may have been wounded by well meaning but mistaken "born again" Christians (as important as that is),
but
- because such a study may help some of you hear Jesus call you,
- because such a study may move you to answer that call, and there is nothing more important than that in this life.
This scene is sometimes described as "the call" of Simon and Andrew. There are many "calls" in the Bible. God seems to call people when they and we are busy at ordinary tasks
- Moses was at work, tending sheep. (Exodus 3)
- Gideon was at work, beating wheat. (Judges 6)
- Isaiah was in the house of God, worshipping. (Isaiah 6)
When we are at our usual tasks, secular or sacred, God calls.
And Simon and Andrew, James and John, were called while several things were going on simultaneously:
- listening with one ear to whatever Jesus might be saying as he passed along by the Sea of Galilee;
- cleaning up from work;
- thinking about how tired they were,
- anticipating how good a hot meal and a warm bed would be.
It is comforting to know that God can reach us even when we are doing several things at once. Some of us later today will read the paper, watch the Super Bowl, eat a snack, interact with our families, and try to do who knows what else!
In spite of their distractions the four future disciples paid attention to Jesus because there was something about the way he spoke the word of God on the shore. This man from Nazareth, this carpenter from the next village, was like no other person they had ever encountered.
People have wondered why they followed Jesus when there are so few recorded words spoken between them. Here are four possible explanations:
(1) Jesus had a magnetic personality, what some people today would call "star quality" or a charismatic personality. They were drawn to him.
(2) There was a kind of radiance about Jesus, an inner glow, what later artists would try to represent by a halo.
(3) They had heard him teach in the surrounding area; Jesus was from Nazareth, a village not all that far from Capernaum.
(4) Charles Page, Dean of the Jerusalem Center for Biblical Studies, a kind of evangelical archaeological think tank, draws on the presence of Peter and Andrew at the baptism of Jesus (John 1: 40). John 3: 22-24 indicates that Jesus spent some time in the wilderness of Judea with the disciples after his baptism and before they went north to Galilee. This time plus the time spent travelling together could have been used to prepare them for the day when Jesus would come and say, "Follow me!" which was in all likelihood a kind of signal that it was now time to begin the ministry for which they had prepared. ("Lesson from the Land - The Beginning of the Galilean Ministry," Lectionary Homiletics, Vol. VIII, No. 2, January 1997, pp. 10, 18)
This last theory is only speculation. All we have for sure is the brief exchange by the Sea of Galilee in Mark 1: 15 and 17.
Whatever the background of this passage, whatever did or did not precede these words, when Jesus spoke, they had to follow. In the language of The Godfather when Jesus said, "Follow me!", he was making them an offer they could not refuse! The old theologians called this "irresistible grace."
FOLLOWING - COMMITMENT AND CHANGE
What is so wonderful, so beautiful in Mark's version of the call of the fishermen is this:
their change of life, their commitment to follow Jesus comes apparently on the basis of only two recorded verses:
The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news....Follow me, and I will make you fish for people. (Mark 1: 15, 17)
That's it!
They followed him even though they had never heard an evangelist shout or sung 15 verses of Just As I Am.
They followed him even though they had never heard of the Virgin Birth, the Trinity, Justification, Sanctification, Premillenialism, Inerrancy, the Rapture or any of that wonderful head stuff.
They followed him even though they had never heard of the Christian Coalition, "family values," and praise choruses.
In those days "follow me" meant in rabbinic speech, "Become my students, be apprenticed to me, join my school, live with me." (Frederick Dale Bruner, The Christbook - A Historical/Theological Commentary on Matthew 1-12 [Waco, Texas: Word Books] 1987, p. 126)
In those days "follow me" had all the excitement and mystery of a college admissions acceptance letter, saying "You're in - fill out the forms - send money - come and learn - you are accepted!"
"Follow me" meant there were unknowns in the future, but all that mattered at that moment was the acceptance of the teacher.
They followed Jesus not because of what they had felt emotionally or what they would learn intellectually or what actions they knew they would do. They followed Jesus because of Jesus.
The followed Jesus:
- because of who Jesus was to them in that powerful, iridescent, pulsating, life changing moment, that ripe moment, that moment when the time indeed was fulfilled;
- because of who Jesus was, the one person in whom the kingdom of God had come so near that it could be touched;
- because of who Jesus was, someone so holy that they wanted to repent, someone so powerful that they knew they could find in him the strength to change, someone so engaging that they knew they had to make a commitment.
And so they followed Jesus immediately!
Now compare and contrast their experience with that of Nicodemus and of the rich, young ruler.
(1) Nicodemus Revisited
Notice that Nicodemus did not immediately follow Jesus, did not take him up on the call to be "born from on high" or "born again." He did not accept the healing proposal from the Great Physician in John 3. His response to Jesus was not sudden "born again" experience, but one of gradual drawing closer to Jesus.
Later he did say a good word for Jesus in the Sanhedrin (John 7: 50f.), but it was a cautious sort of "Let's give him a chance, a fair hearing," certainly not a bold profession of faith.
And still later, Nicodemus did boldly and in broad daylight come with Joseph of Arimathea to assist in the burial of Jesus (John 19: 38-42). These actions give us reason to hope that he gradually became a follower of Jesus, but we do not know that for a fact.
But if he did become a follower of Jesus, that man around whom the "born again" language clusters, he did not do it in a sudden emotional experience or do any of the other things that we associate in our popular contemporary understanding of what it means to be "born again."
What Jesus wanted out of Nicodemus was a change and a commitment.
He did not make a change and a commitment in John 3, but I think he began to ponder doing so on the basis of the seeds Jesus planted in his spirit. I believe he may have been thinking it over still further in John 7 when he spoke up for Jesus. I like to believe that by the time of John 19 when he boldly stood up, he had made the change and the commitment.
For Nicodemus becoming a follower of Jesus (if he did) was a process not a "Damascus Road" experience like Paul in Acts 9. Whenever I compare a sudden conversion like Paul's with a more gradual approach to Jesus, I recall the analogy of a wise, senior pastor from Virginia, Chevis Horne, a contemporary of our former pastor, Dr. Clyde Atkins, a teacher of our former associate pastor, Doug Murray, and a friend of mine.
Chevis says that some people do indeed become Christians suddenly and dramatically, but for others the process is as gradual as the change from winter to spring. We may not notice the precise moment when spring arrives; it may not arrive on the official "first day of spring," but when it comes, we know it is spring. We respond appropriately. We change our behavior - we clean the accumulated debris from the yard; we clean the house; we wash the windows to allow the sunlight to stream in; we plan for new growth in a garden; we change our wardrobe. We act differently because of the reality of spring, a reality which has gradually come over us.
Another analogy - just as some people have sudden "Damascus Road" conversions, some people experience love at first sight and know from the first date that this person is the one whom he or she will marry. Others fall in love gradually and almost imperceptibly sense that this relationship is moving toward marriage. But a day comes when the man and the woman know that a change has taken place, a commitment has been made, and there will surely be an announcement of their intentions and a ceremony to ratify the relationship, analogous to a committed Christian's profession of faith and ceremony of baptism.
(2) The Rich, Young Ruler Revisited
Notice that like Nicodemus, the rich, young ruler did not follow Jesus either. He went away sorrowful for he had great possessions (Mark 10: 22). He did not change; he did not make the commitment. He did not accept the healing proposal of the Great Physician.
(I find it interesting that based on the Nicodemus model we have "born again" Christians, but we have no "Go and Sell All" Christians based on the rich, young ruler model even though both "prescriptions" were used once by the Great Physician.)
CONCLUSION
Unlike the rich, young ruler, Simon and Andrew, James and John did accept the Great Physician's "prescription." Many of us have, and we would want you to hear the call of Jesus and respond.
Whatever healing word you hear from the Great Physician,
to be born again, to be born from on high,
be it to make a fresh start with the power of God in your life,
whatever healing word you hear from the Great Physician,
be it to sell all and give to the poor,
be it to liquidate your false values, get out of your self and into caring for others;
whatever healing word you hear from the Great Physician,
be it to drop your nets and follow him,
be it to drop whatever is business as usual and follow the Lord of life,
whatever the healing, saving word,
when Jesus calls, answer and follow him.
Following Jesus is to live as fully, as richly, as deeply as God empowers us to live.
We follow because this is the most compelling person we have ever experienced;
we follow because Jesus is Jesus, and never a man spake like this man (John 7: 46);
we follow because we are never so alive as when we are with Jesus;
we follow because there simply is no one else to follow who has the words of eternal life. (John 6:68);
we follow because we never have our mind race or our hearts beat as fast as when we feel his presence;
we follow because we never know such depth in life, such peace, such joy, such exhilaration as when we experience God's power in Jesus.
