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The Dark Knight
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Week 5
 John 3: 1
Now there was a Pharisee, a man named Nicodemus who was a member of the Jewish ruling council.
2
He came to Jesus at night and said, "Rabbi, we know thatyou are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the signs youare doing if God were not with him." 
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Jesus replied, "Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God withoutbeing born again.
[
a
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" 
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"How can anyone be born when they are old?" Nicodemus asked. "Surely theycannot enter a second time into their mother's womb to be born!" 
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Jesus answered, "Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of Godwithout being born of water and the Spirit.
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Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit
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b
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gives birth to spirit.
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You should not be surprised at my saying, 'You
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c
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must beborn again.'
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The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannottell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit."
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d
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"How can this be?" Nicodemus asked. 
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"You are Israel's teacher," said Jesus, "and do you not understand these things?
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Very truly I tell you, we speak of what we know, and we testify to what we haveseen, but still you people do not accept our testimony.
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I have spoken to you of earthly things and you do not believe; how then will you believe if I speak of heavenlythings?
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No one has ever gone into heaven except the one who came from heaven—the Son of Man.
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e
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Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so theSon of Man must be lifted up,
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f 
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that everyone who believes may have eternal lifein him."
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g
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For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoeverbelieves in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
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For God did not send his Soninto the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.
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Whoeverbelieves in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemnedalready because they have not believed in the name of God's one and only Son.
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 This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness insteadof light because their deeds were evil.
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All those who do evil hate the light, and willnot come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed.
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But those wholive by the truth come into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what theyhave done has been done in the sight of God.
Mixer:What did you write on your pad this week?
 
Going Deeper:
1.
Let’s talk about the ferryboat scene. What is the Joker trying to do by setting upthis situation?
He is trying to create a situation where “the chips are down” as hesays before, so these people will turn on each other and act for themselves alone.
Imagine you are on the boat. How would you vote? Do you agree with the ideathat the prisoners deserve to die because they “had their chance” and “alreadymade their choices”? Why or Why not?
© Dixon Kinser 2009
 
In church history there are instances of martyrs trying to avoid being killed, not becausethey were afraid of dying but because they wanted to keep their executioner from thebeing responsible for their murder. They didn’t want that guilt and blood to be on theirhands. Is this an example of loving your neighbor as yourself?
How is the way theferryboat scene plays out a picture of the kingdom of God?2. What does Two-Face want and what are his motives? He wants retribution. Eyefor an eye justice. In the movie he screams, “It’s not about what I want it’s aboutwhat’s fair.” Drawing on our definitions of justice from last week (God’s big-picture setting everything to rights) what is the difference between fairness and justice? Should Christians seek one or the other? Or both?
Fairness is a dubious term to me these days, because it’s got that “eye for and eye”mentality going. You can see why Jesus subverts ( ala the sermon on the mount scriptureslast week). Fairness is about doing unto to others as they have done to you and everyonehaving the exactly same as everyone else. Fairness, in popular usage makes sure everyonegets what they deserve. But this is not the kingdom of God. In the kingdom of God NOONE gets what he or she deserve – but EVERYONE gets what they need. (See exampleslike the Year of Jubilee for how this plays out).
Consider where you seek fairnessinstead of justice in your life. What would the loving, Jesus centered response toTwo-Face be?3.) Read the John 3 scripture again.
John uses the terms “lifted up” and “glorified” todescribe Jesus’ death on the cross. Furthermore, in the story Jesus references a veryfamous story from Number 21(4-9) when the Israelites are assaulted by poisonous snakesbecause of their disobedience to God. God tells Moses to fashion a bronze snake and holdit up. Whoever looks on the snake then will be healed from the poison that is killingthem. But Jesus reminds them in John 3 that is wasn’t the snake that healed them, it wasGod. With that in mind, what point is John making about Jesus? Is Jesus the snake that’skilling us? What is he trying to say? Basically, the power of God and the path to thehealing is in Jesus on the cross. In the same way the bronze snake was held up as adisplay of both the problem and the solution the Israelites were having, so is Jesus on thecross
. In what way is Jesus on the cross both a demonstration of the cosmic problemof evil and it’s solution?
© Dixon Kinser 2009
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