Episode 284: A Prominent Man & an Unnamed Woman | Landon Dermott

Introduction

Right. Hey, good morning. My name's Landon. I'm the area director of Young Life here in Roanoke, and I work with high school middle school students all over the Roanoke Valley. Love what I get to do. I'm actually from here. I grew up in Roanoke, Virginia. I went to Hidden Valley High School, I graduated nine years ago, and I can vividly remember my high school graduation. It's for a bad reason, it's because the day I graduated high school, I had a pretty uncomfortable situation.

I tried to make a joke that day that did not go over very well. Has anyone in this room ever told a joke that didn't go over very well? There's only like a fourth of you raising your hands, the rest of you are lying, you've definitely told a joke that did not go very well before.

This happened to me the day I was graduating. We're at the Salem Civic Center, Hidden Valley High School graduation, and you sit in alphabetical order. I'm sitting next to two guys that I don't know very well. The graduation itself is exciting. There's new things coming, it's a celebration, but the ceremony can be a little boring; it can drag on. I was sitting there a little bored, and the principal got up and started talking about yet another award they were going to give away that day. She started to explain that this award was going to go to two individuals in our high school who had achieved a pretty impressive feat—they had perfect attendance.

And I'm not talking about perfect attendance like that, you know, that year or that high school career. This is their entire public school education career—they had never missed a single day. And I, for one, have some questions like, how's that even possible? How did they not get sick one day? You know, get their braces off, I don't know, never missed a day.

And so I see my opportunity clearly in front of me, and I think I'm gonna make a joke right here. And I'm gonna get to know these two guys sitting next to me, I'm gonna crack a joke, it'll be funny, it'll be hilarious. I put together what I thought was an amazing joke in my head, and so it was time to try it out.

I leaned over to the guy to my left, and I'd prepared the joke very well, put it all together, and I tapped him on the shoulder, and I said, nerds, am I right? And I thought it was a pretty good joke. But to my dismay, the guy just kind of looked at me and shook his head no, and was like, stop talking to me. I was like, dang, that's a bummer. I really, I thought that was a great joke, but obviously, whenever you tell a joke and it doesn't go well, you don't put it away, you try it again with a different audience.

So I thought, okay, the guy to my right will think that's funny, so I leaned over to him and I tapped him on the shoulder, psh, nerds, am I right? Same thing, same response, shook his head, was disappointed in the joke. I was like, man, I really felt like I had a good joke there. I was a little disappointed.

And about that time, the principal said, you know, we're excited to announce these two students, would these two students please stand to be recognized? And I know what you're thinking, oh, Landon was surprised and he actually got the perfect attendance word. No, it's worse. The person to my left and the person to my right simultaneously stood up. I was sitting in between the two of them. And I just kind of looked up at them, they looked down at me and shook their head at me.

And fortunately, it was graduation, so they left and we never spoke again ever in our lives. It was unfortunate, but in that moment, I thought I was gonna be on the inside. I thought that I was gonna make a joke with these two guys sitting next to me, and we'd have a laugh at someone else's expense. But what happened is the situation flipped on its head, and I was left on the outside.

The Peculiar Pattern of Jesus’ Interactions

And this morning, I'd like to take a look at something peculiar that we see happen all throughout Jesus's life. Something that happens when Jesus shows up, and it's this weird mystery that when Jesus is around, the people that seem like they would be on the inside are actually on the outside. And the people who seem like they would be on the outside, well, when Jesus shows up, they're brought in to the inside.

And so, we're gonna take a look at two accounts in John's gospel—an interaction Jesus has with a man named Nicodemus in John chapter three, and an interaction he has with a woman at a well in John chapter four. If you've got a Bible, you can flip it open to John three. We're gonna look back and forth. John four was our reading this morning, and we'll read a little bit from John three as well.

And the last thing I'll say before we jump into these two passages is that there is so much here. John three and John four could each be a sermon series of a month long, if we wanted to, and there's so much to dig into that we're gonna have to end up leaving some of it on the table. So my encouragement and challenge would be, would you keep taking a look at Jesus’ encounter with Nicodemus and this woman at the well? Because there's so much that I hope we get to explore some of it.

So, if you'll take it and flip it open to John three, we'll start. And what we'll do is, we'll kind of build up on the screen these two stories that sit side by side in John's gospel. You see, John intentionally puts John three and John four right next to each other. He wants readers and the people he's telling about the life of Jesus to see these two stories that seem like polar opposites, but he's showing us something in both of these interactions.

And so, we'll take a look and we'll start in John chapter three. I'll read in verse one, and it says this:

Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a member of the Jewish ruling council, and he came to Jesus at night and said, Rabbi, we know you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the miraculous signs you were doing if God were not with him.

And so just in these first few verses, we get a few details about Nicodemus and this interaction he has with Jesus. And the first thing I want to point out is that Nicodemus is a man. And that might seem obvious, but it'll come into play when we jump into John four. But Nicodemus is a man, and not only is he a man, he's a Jewish man, and he's given a name. And again, those things might seem arbitrary right now; we'll come back to those in John four. But first, we see that.

Then we see that Nicodemus is an insider. You could say that Nicodemus is a religious insider. It says that he's a member of the Pharisees. The Pharisees were teachers of the law who worked very hard for religion. They had done so many things; they devoted their life to pleasing God and to showing God to the people. Nicodemus is our good guy. In fact, it even says he's a member of the Jewish ruling council, which means he was an elected official.

So, not only was he high up in religious standards, he also was loved by people. Nicodemus is the epitome of a religious insider. And, the last thing we see about Nicodemus in this passage is that he goes to Jesus. We see that Nicodemus initiates this conversation. It says that he goes to Jesus by night, and some would say maybe he went by night because Jesus always had a crowd of people around him, and so it would have been hard for him to reach him in the daytime. But most likely, Nicodemus, who was a Pharisee, knew that the Pharisees quickly started to dislike some of the things Jesus was doing, and some of his biggest enemies in his time on earth were the Pharisees. So, it would have been risky for Nicodemus to publicly go and interact with Jesus. But nonetheless, we see Nicodemus initiate this interaction with Jesus, and he goes to him by night.

And so, we're going to look at John four. You can flip over maybe a page or two, and we'll look back at John four, which Brian read for us. We can see that these two stories are intentionally set up as kind of stark opposites. And so, we have Nicodemus, a named man who is Jewish. What do we see? We see a Samaritan woman who's not given a name. Men and women did not speak publicly in this time. It was a big deal for Jesus to have an interaction with a woman in this context.

She's a Samaritan woman, nonetheless. Jews and Samaritans—they did not mix. Those two groups hated each other. And then, she's not given a name. I wonder if John is showing us that Nicodemus, an insider, is so significant he's given a name, a prominent man, and this woman is left unnamed.

The second thing I think we see as an opposite of this is that this woman is a moral outsider. If Nicodemus is an insider, this woman is the outsider. We can start to see that when we realize that this woman goes to the well in the middle of the day. Scholars say women went to the well in the evening hours with their friends. It was their social time—they'd gather, support one another, and they'd go in the cool of the day. But yet, we see this woman in the heat of the day—noon at the well alone.

We start to realize, as we see her conversation with Jesus, that she's an outsider. Why? Because she had had five husbands, and the man she's with now is not her husband. We'll talk more about that, but this woman has a reputation that precedes her. And she couldn't go to the well in the evening hours. She had to go alone in the heat of the day. She is the outsider of outsiders— a woman, a Samaritan woman, an immoral Samaritan woman. The odds are against her.

And the last thing we see is that Jesus actually initiates this interaction. You might look at the story and say, well, the woman shows up at the well after Jesus. Yes, but if you look in John 4:4, it says that Jesus had to go through Samaria. And if you look at those two places on a map—Judea and Galilee—and you look from Judea to Galilee, drawing a straight line, you'd see that Samaria is right in between. Jews, because they did not like the Samaritans, would go the long way—they crossed the Jordan River and went around to get back to Galilee. But Jesus says he has to go through Samaria. Perhaps it was divine intervention—that Jesus knew he would interact with this woman at the well that day.

And so, we see Jesus initiate this interaction with this woman. John sets the two up and shows they're totally different. And we would expect that things would go well for the religious insider as he interacts with Jesus, the Messiah, the Son of God, the one he's been waiting for all this time. Here he is face to face with him; of course, this is going to go well.

And over here, we see this moral outsider at the well, and we think, uh-oh, this might not go so well. But, as often happens, as we take a closer look at Jesus—who he is and how he interacts with people—he shatters our expectations. And I think what we'll see is that the gospel is shocking as he interacts with these two people.

Jesus’ Use of Metaphors

And so, we'll keep going. Another similarity between these two stories is that Jesus uses a metaphor to describe salvation. You flip over to John three, and we'll look back in verse three. After Nicodemus says those things to Jesus, Jesus jumps right in and says:

"I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again." — John 3:3

So, Jesus begins to build this metaphor for what it means to have salvation, what it means to follow Jesus. He says, you have to be born again.

I'll speak to Nicodemus's confusion here. He was confused, but probably for good reason. If you were just talking to a guy and he told you—you know, you're talking about spiritual things—and he said, you have to be born again, it would be pretty confusing. Nicodemus says, how can a man be born again when he's old? Does he have to enter back into his mother's womb? He's confused at what Jesus is saying.

But I think what Jesus—or what I'll say—is that we are a little more comfortable with this language today. This is a term that Christians or the church use more often now. When we think of being born again, perhaps you think of 2 Corinthians 5:17, where Paul says:

"If anyone is in Christ, he's a new creation. The old has gone, the new has come." — 2 Corinthians 5:17

We're more comfortable with this language now because we use it out of John chapter three. But Nicodemus is confused. What Jesus is perhaps saying to Nicodemus in this moment is that you have to be born again. Nicodemus, a man who worked hard in religion all his life, is saying, look at the things I've done. I've been a good person, I've worked hard, I've been at all the meetings, I've done all the things. But Jesus says, you have to be born again.

See, birth is a peculiar process. We've all been born at some point in our lives, probably at the beginning. When we were born, we didn't have anything to do with the process. In fact, someone else labored so that we could be brought into the world. We didn't bring anything, we didn't do anything, we just came into existence.

And here's Jesus talking to a Pharisee, an elected official who's done so many good things, and he's saying, it's not about what you did. It's not about the things you've done—you have to be born again.

And so, we'll flip over, and we'll come back to that in a minute. But in John four, Jesus similarly uses a metaphor to describe salvation. And as he's talking with this woman at the well, and he asks her for a drink, he shatters all expectations by even having a conversation with her, let alone asking for a drink from the same cup that she would be using. It's shocking.

And Jesus begins to talk about this idea of living water. And we see that this woman, as I said before, has had five husbands and is with a man now who's not her husband. We don't know what happened in those situations. Some say perhaps she was wrapped up in affairs, perhaps she was running and doing things that were wrong—or perhaps things that happened to her. Perhaps she was infertile and she was unable to have children and was left. Or perhaps she had been widowed. We don't know if it's things she did or things that had happened to her.

But regardless, we can tell that this woman has been searching—searching for love. She's been searching to be fully known and fully loved. And every single time she seems to come up short. And Jesus looks at this woman and he says, no, no, no, it's not in the things you're searching for. It's in living water. And when you taste the living water, you will drink and be satisfied once and for all. You will never thirst again.

And so, we see Jesus use these two metaphors in both accounts.

The Results of Encounters with Jesus

The last thing I want us to see is the result. In John three, Nicodemus and Jesus continue their conversation, and it goes through a long dialogue. Jesus says some amazing things, and he even includes John 3:16—perhaps the most famous verse. When Jesus finishes speaking, John doesn’t give us any indication of what happens at the end of this interaction.

I'm wondering—does Nicodemus walk away mad, sad, disappointed, frustrated, confused? What happens? But in hearing nothing, we’re left to assume that the religious insider stands face to face with Jesus, the Messiah, and he walks away unchanged. And we see an insider who seems to be left on the outside.

And in the inverse, with the woman at the well, after her conversation with Jesus, he then reveals himself and says, I who speak to you am he— I am the Messiah. And what happens? This woman, who was at the well at noon—a moral outcast—is changed. Her heart is changed, and she runs back into the town that has rejected her.

The town that she's fleeing from— the outsider becomes the insider. She goes back into her town and gets to tell everyone about who Jesus is. What a unique vessel to use to reveal himself to this town. And the situation flips on its head. This woman who was an outsider becomes an insider. Her heart is changed by Jesus, and she brings that change into her town.

Who Are You in the Story?

And so, John sets up these two stories as polar opposites. He draws our attention and says, we see the insider becoming the outsider, and the outsider becoming the insider.

What does this mean for me and you today, as we look at Jesus' interactions with these two people? And I want to present three things that I think John is showing us about who Jesus is, this morning, as we close.

First, I think John wants us to see that Jesus is personal, and he's intimate, and he's after each of these individuals' hearts. You see, Jesus knows Nicodemus' story. The gospel is not just for the woman at the well and not for Nicodemus. He sees each of them, and he offers them the truth.

He sees them, and he knows what they need to hear. He knows their story, and he knows what they need. And he knows that Nicodemus is a man who's worked hard his whole life and has tried to earn God's approval. And to that, he says, it's not about earning it.

And to the woman who's been searching and searching for satisfaction, he says, you've been looking in all the wrong places. It's in the living water. Jesus is personal, and he's intimate. And he's after each of their hearts.

And the same is true for me and for you. If you hear nothing else today, know this: he's after my heart, and he's after your heart.

The second thing I think John wants us to see is that the gospel is unchanging. You know, it might seem peculiar that Jesus uses two different metaphors to describe salvation, but the truth of the gospel does not change.

It's the same for each of these people. I think what we see in Nicodemus and this woman is two people who seem like they might be polar opposites. But what I would venture to say is that what Jesus says to both of them is the same.

You see, Nicodemus—like I said—is a man with a polished and clean resume, proud of the things he's done, walking towards Jesus, saying, look at the things I've done. Here's my resume. And Nicodemus is walking on a road filled with pride. And in the inverse, this woman is walking away, running away, heading to the well, in hiding, with a resume that's broken, bruised, and tattered, torn up, and scribbled on. She's walking in shame, saying, I will never be good enough.

And we see a road filled with pride, and we see a road filled with shame. But I think those two roads, which seem to head in opposite directions, actually wind and dead-end in the same place. That place is despair.

And Jesus shows up for both of them. And what he says is the same: it's not about your resume. Jesus says, your resume is no good here. It doesn't matter how good or bad it is. The truth of the gospel is it's not about my resume, and it's not about your resume.

But Jesus doesn't just say, lay down your resume. He says more, and that leads me to my third point: it all comes down to the cross.

Don't want you to leave today thinking, man, Landon gave Nicodemus a bad rap. Because John, as he writes his gospel, gives us these tiny hints of the rest of the story for Nicodemus, who seems to walk away unchanged. And as we follow the story of Jesus' life in John's gospel, we see that later, Nicodemus—or the teachers of the law—building a case against Jesus, saying it's time to put this guy to death. He's done too much. We need to get rid of him.

And there's one man who speaks on Jesus’ behalf—that's Nicodemus. And later, at the end of the story, Jesus goes to Jerusalem during the Passover weekend, and he's put on a sham trial. The Jewish leaders deliver him over to the Roman government, and he's crucified.

And on that cross, during Passover, Jesus is put to death.

And it says that two men came to take Jesus' body: a rich man named Joseph of Arimathea, and another—Nicodemus. And I wonder if, there in Jerusalem, on that Passover weekend, as Nicodemus watched Jesus on the cross, he realized he needed to trade in his resume. It wasn't about the things he'd done; it was about what Jesus had done there on the cross.

And I wonder, as he took Jesus' body off that cross, hoisting that dead body, if he knew it didn't matter because there in his arms, he held the true Passover lamb—the Lamb of God who had taken away the sin of the world. And there, covered in blood—blood that by religious standards made him unclean—I wonder if Nicodemus didn’t care because he realized that blood washed him and all of us—white as snow.

You see, Jesus on that cross says, lay down your resume. But he also says, take me as your resume. You see, Jesus—the word who was with God in the beginning—left his place in heaven and was born to live a life and die a death for me and for you.

Jesus, the firstborn of all creation, chose to be born to live and die so that you and I could be born again.

Jesus, on that cross, labored so that we could be made new—a new life in Jesus. And Jesus, on that cross, being put to death, cried out— and you know what some of his last words in John's gospel were? He says, I thirst.

And there on the cross, Jesus thirsted so that we could be satisfied. He is the living water.

You see, Jesus doesn’t just say lay down your resume—he wants to be your resume.

And I wonder—who might you relate to most this morning? Perhaps you're like Nicodemus saying, look at the things I've done, I've earned it. This is what I have done. Jesus says, lay down your resume. Take me as your resume. It’s not about what we’ve done; it’s about what he has done.

Or maybe you feel like that woman—running away, saying, we will never be good enough. There’s nothing we could ever do. We’ve gone too far. And Jesus says, let me be your resume.

This morning, Eric is going to play a song, and I’d love for the next few minutes for you to spend some time praying and reflecting on the truth of the gospel in these two accounts.

And my question would be, where are you in the story? And wherever that is—like I said before—Jesus is personal, and he’s intimate, and get this, he’s after your heart this morning.

And whether you're trying to earn it or saying, I will never be good enough—he says, let me be your resume. Would you be willing to lay down your resume?

Whether for the first time you want to taste the living water or experience rebirth, or you've experienced it before but somewhere along the way picked the resume back up and tried to clean it, would you be willing to lay your resume down?

Listen to the words of this song as Eric sings it, and would you be willing to lay your resume down this morning? Nothing in my hands I bring, simply to the cross I cling. Wash me Savior, or I die. Stop running, stop striving. Give him your resume.

Lord, we thank you for this morning, for the way that you're after our hearts. We thank you for the truth of the gospel, which is that you are our resume—that there's nothing we can do to earn your love or outrun it. It's in your name we pray. Amen.