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Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter is centered around the sin of adultery in a Massachusetts Puritan village. Hester Prynne, a local woman, is found to be with child outside of wedlock, and she refuses to give up who her lover is. She is forced to wear a scarlet A on her clothes as a punishment, which is where the title of the novel comes from.
The minister of her church during this time is a man by the name of Arthur Dimmesdale. He is a young man and a strong preacher. He is loved and adored by everyone in his congregation.
One day, Dimmesdale gets up to the pulpit and tells his people that he, in fact, is not a good person. They love him so much that they all tell him that cannot possibly be true. Later that evening, though, there is a scene where Dimmesdale rips open his shirt to reveal a scarlet A branded into his skin. This beloved preacher, the one who is universally adored by the community, is Hester Prynne’s lover.
Dimmesdale’s secret is a reminder to us that none of us, however we are perceived, can make the claim to be truly and perfectly good people. Modern self-help gurus in the world, who, unfortunately, at times make their way into the church, like to claim that deep inside us, if we just take the time and effort to look, there’s a part of us that is good and true and is who we truly are and who we truly want to be.
We know from our readings today that this notion is false. Jesus, in His conversation with Nicodemus, the wise leader and Pharisee, doesn’t say if you just dig far enough, you’ll find that good person inside you. Jesus doesn’t say if you try hard enough, you’ll be that person God intends you to be.
Jesus says that “you must be born from above.” Jesus is talking about an utter and complete transformation of ourselves into a new and different being. Jesus isn’t talking about self-improvement. He’s talking about Resurrection.
Just as importantly, this transformation, this resurrection, is not something we can enact on our own. This isn’t something a trip to “find ourselves” can cover. As all of our Scripture tells us this morning, we need God to bring about this change.
We need God because this change isn’t something we ourselves do. As Paul points out in Romans, not even Abraham was able to claim he was “justified by works”. As great as Abraham was, and as important as he is to our faith, he was also an incredibly flawed human being. His righteousness wasn’t something he came about on his own or developed for himself. Abraham was made righteous by his faith, his trust, in God.
This all, is of course, summed up in Jesus’ final words in our Gospel reading: “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life. Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.”
As human beings, none of us are good. We are, instead, incredibly flawed, something we remember during this time of Lent. The Good News is that God loves us anyways, warts and all. God loves us so much that He does the work to make us righteous. God does the work to make us whole. God came down into this world and transformed us and made us new. God gave us the opportunity for rebirth, for resurrection, to be our Resurrected Selves. We cannot do any of this on our own. We need God’s help.
For the rest of The Scarlet Letter, Dimmesdale struggles with the secret and the sin inside him. He struggles to the point that his health fails him, even to the point of death. This is what happens when we try to move forward on our own, and it is why we need God’s help. Only God can heal us. Only God can make us whole.
Don’t go down the path of seeking self-help gurus for guidance on how to be “your best self”. Don’t struggle on the path of “self-improvement” on your own. Turn to God. Trust in our Lord Jesus. Only He can transform your life. Only Jesus can make you into your Resurrected Self.