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There was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. This man came to Jesus by night and said to Him, "Rabbi, we know that You are a teacher come from God; for no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with him." Jesus answered and said to him, "Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God." Nicodemus said to Him, "How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born?" Jesus answered, "Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, 'You must be born again.' The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit.
Nicodemus answered and said to Him, "How can these things be?" Jesus answered and said to him, "Are you the teacher of Israel, and do not know these things? Most assuredly, I say to you, We speak what We know and testify what We have seen, and you do not receive Our witness. If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things? No one has ascended to heaven but He who came down from heaven, that is, the Son of Man who is in heaven. And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.
"He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be clearly seen, that they have been done in God."
- John 3:1-21
On Saturday, we read of the cleansing of the temple: The Passover of the Jews was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. And He found in the temple those who sold oxen and sheep and doves, and the money changers doing business. When He had made a whip of cords, He drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and the oxen, and poured out the changers' money and overturned the tables. And He said to those who sold doves, "Take these things away! Do not make My Father's house a house of merchandise!" Then His disciples remembered that it was written, "Zeal for Your house has eaten Me up." So the Jews answered and said to Him,"What sign do You show to us, since You do these things?" Jesus answered and said to them, "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up." Then the Jews said, "It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and will You raise it up in three days?" But He was speaking of the temple of His body. Therefore, when He had risen from the dead, His disciples remembered that He had said this to them; and they believed the Scripture and the word which Jesus had said. Now when He was in Jerusalem at the Passover, during the feast, many believed in His name when they saw the signs which He did. But Jesus did not commit Himself to them, because He knew all men, and had no need that anyone should testify of man, for He knew what was in man.
There was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. This man came to Jesus by night and said to Him, "Rabbi, we know that You are a teacher come from God; for no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with him." A note in my study bible says, "Nicodemus believed Jesus was from God, but his faith was still weak, as he was afraid of his peers and thus came to Jesus by night. Following this conversation, Nicodemus's faith grows to the point of defending Jesus before the Sanhedrin (7:50-51) and finally making the bold public expression of faith of preparing and entombing our Lord's body (19:39-42). . . . According to some early sources, Nicodemus was baptized by Peter and consequently was removed from the Sanhedrin and forced to flee Jerusalem."
Jesus answered and said to him, "Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God." My study bible tells us that the word again here can also be translated "from above" and that it clearly refers to the heavenly birth from God through faith in Christ (1:12-13). "This heavenly birth is baptism and our adoption by God as our Father (Gal. 4:4-7). This new birth is but the beginning of our spiritual life, with its goal being entrance into the kingdom of God."
Nicodemus said to Him, "How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born?" Nicodemus doesn't understand what Jesus is trying to tell him. But his question is very useful -- and this is a technique often used in John's Gospel. Misunderstandings become opportunities for Christ. As my study bible puts it, He "uses these opportunities to elevate an idea from a superficial or earthly meaning to a heavenly and eternal meaning."
Jesus answered, "Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, 'You must be born again.' The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit." Jesus is clearly making a reference to Christian baptism when He speaks of being born of water and the Spirit. Jesus' following statement is a play on words in the Greek: the Greek word pneuma means both wind and Spirit. My study bible says, "The working of the Holy Spirit in the new birth is as mysterious as the source and destination of the blowing wind. Likewise, the Spirit moves where He wills and cannot be contained by human ideas or agendas."
Nicodemus answered and said to Him, "How can these things be?" Jesus answered and said to him, "Are you the teacher of Israel, and do not know these things? Most assuredly, I say to you, We speak what We know and testify what We have seen, and you do not receive Our witness. If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things? No one has ascended to heaven but He who came down from heaven, that is, the Son of Man who is in heaven." My study bible points that "according to St. John Chrysostom, earthly things refer to grace and baptism given to man. These are earthly, mot in the sense of 'unspiritual,' but only in the sense that they occur on earth and are given to creatures. The heavenly things involve the ungraspable mysteries of the eternal generation of the Son from the Father; they relate to His eternal existence before all time and to God's divine plan of salvation for the world. A person first must grasp the ways in which God works among mankind before he can even begin to understand things that pertain to God Himself."
"And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so much the Son of be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life." My study bible tells us: "Moses lifted up an image of a serpent to cure the Israelites from deadly bites of poisonous snakes (Numbers 21:4-9). This miracle-working image prefigured Christ being lifted up on the Cross. As believers behold the crucified Christ in faith, the power of sin and death is overthrown in them. Just as the image of a serpent was the weapon that destroyed the power of the serpents, so the instrument of Christ's death becomes the weapon that overthrows death itself."
"For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life." My study bible says, "To show the reason the Son must be crucified ('lifted up' - v. 14), Jesus declares God's great love not only for Israel, but for the world. This single verse expresses the whole of the message of John's Gospel, and indeed, of salvation history."
"For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be clearly seen, that they have been done in God." My study bible says, "While Christ came to save and not to condemn, man has free will. Thus, he can reject this gift, and he becomes condemned by his own rejection."
It's interesting to me that Jesus would speak of Judgment (condemnation) in this great announcement of the Good News: what it is to be born again (from above), what it is to be baptized, and how it is that God so loves the world in order to save the world. It's a given that the Son has been sent. This is the beginning of a particular history, in some sense. It begins a final sort of offer, the most exalted "servant" has been sent into the world to save it. It divides history in two, because to refuse this gift is to refuse a kind of offer transcendent of everything else, greater than all that has come before it. This is because the Light has come into the world, as a person, not only a servant or a representative. This Light is the true Son, and He has been willing to become as one of us, vulnerable to life in this world, in order to make a sacrifice for us. How can there be a more potent message, a more powerful appearance to us? It is a great offer, beyond our comprehension, and one that really can't be repeated, it seems to me. There isn't another, greater Son to send. He is the only-begotten. In this time after Christ we live in, there has been a powerful force in the world, calling for the attention of all of us. The Holy Spirit works in so many ways. The affairs of the heart -- where the real call takes root -- are strange in some way to our ordinary consciousness. But that's the indwelling place of God, just as we are all temples for the Spirit. And Christ is the heart-knower, who meets us where we really are. And that's where we refuse the gift or accept the gift. That is where we love what we will love and reject what we will reject. The Gift is made from love, out of love, given by love, which is the very nature of God. Nicodemus asks what seems like a "dumb question." But the heart that is truthful will ask what it needs to in order to understand and to grasp the gift, even at the very beginning of a sense of the true reality on offer. It's an honest question, the mark of a truthful man. Jesus says that rebirth begins with a Greek word that means "again" but also "from above." It's sort of similar to a musical expression: "from the top," only where "top" can imply what's higher than everything else, above. It's from the first, too. So let us remember that there, in this place of rebirth, is the essence of the heart and the mind and the eyes and the ears that are ready to be opened, and we need to be in that place all the time. We need to be ready for that new start each day, contained in the Gift from above.
There was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. This man came to Jesus by night and said to Him, "Rabbi, we know that You are a teacher come from God; for no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with him." A note in my study bible says, "Nicodemus believed Jesus was from God, but his faith was still weak, as he was afraid of his peers and thus came to Jesus by night. Following this conversation, Nicodemus's faith grows to the point of defending Jesus before the Sanhedrin (7:50-51) and finally making the bold public expression of faith of preparing and entombing our Lord's body (19:39-42). . . . According to some early sources, Nicodemus was baptized by Peter and consequently was removed from the Sanhedrin and forced to flee Jerusalem."
Jesus answered and said to him, "Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God." My study bible tells us that the word again here can also be translated "from above" and that it clearly refers to the heavenly birth from God through faith in Christ (1:12-13). "This heavenly birth is baptism and our adoption by God as our Father (Gal. 4:4-7). This new birth is but the beginning of our spiritual life, with its goal being entrance into the kingdom of God."
Nicodemus said to Him, "How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born?" Nicodemus doesn't understand what Jesus is trying to tell him. But his question is very useful -- and this is a technique often used in John's Gospel. Misunderstandings become opportunities for Christ. As my study bible puts it, He "uses these opportunities to elevate an idea from a superficial or earthly meaning to a heavenly and eternal meaning."
Jesus answered, "Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, 'You must be born again.' The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit." Jesus is clearly making a reference to Christian baptism when He speaks of being born of water and the Spirit. Jesus' following statement is a play on words in the Greek: the Greek word pneuma means both wind and Spirit. My study bible says, "The working of the Holy Spirit in the new birth is as mysterious as the source and destination of the blowing wind. Likewise, the Spirit moves where He wills and cannot be contained by human ideas or agendas."
Nicodemus answered and said to Him, "How can these things be?" Jesus answered and said to him, "Are you the teacher of Israel, and do not know these things? Most assuredly, I say to you, We speak what We know and testify what We have seen, and you do not receive Our witness. If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things? No one has ascended to heaven but He who came down from heaven, that is, the Son of Man who is in heaven." My study bible points that "according to St. John Chrysostom, earthly things refer to grace and baptism given to man. These are earthly, mot in the sense of 'unspiritual,' but only in the sense that they occur on earth and are given to creatures. The heavenly things involve the ungraspable mysteries of the eternal generation of the Son from the Father; they relate to His eternal existence before all time and to God's divine plan of salvation for the world. A person first must grasp the ways in which God works among mankind before he can even begin to understand things that pertain to God Himself."
"And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so much the Son of be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life." My study bible tells us: "Moses lifted up an image of a serpent to cure the Israelites from deadly bites of poisonous snakes (Numbers 21:4-9). This miracle-working image prefigured Christ being lifted up on the Cross. As believers behold the crucified Christ in faith, the power of sin and death is overthrown in them. Just as the image of a serpent was the weapon that destroyed the power of the serpents, so the instrument of Christ's death becomes the weapon that overthrows death itself."
"For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life." My study bible says, "To show the reason the Son must be crucified ('lifted up' - v. 14), Jesus declares God's great love not only for Israel, but for the world. This single verse expresses the whole of the message of John's Gospel, and indeed, of salvation history."
"For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be clearly seen, that they have been done in God." My study bible says, "While Christ came to save and not to condemn, man has free will. Thus, he can reject this gift, and he becomes condemned by his own rejection."
It's interesting to me that Jesus would speak of Judgment (condemnation) in this great announcement of the Good News: what it is to be born again (from above), what it is to be baptized, and how it is that God so loves the world in order to save the world. It's a given that the Son has been sent. This is the beginning of a particular history, in some sense. It begins a final sort of offer, the most exalted "servant" has been sent into the world to save it. It divides history in two, because to refuse this gift is to refuse a kind of offer transcendent of everything else, greater than all that has come before it. This is because the Light has come into the world, as a person, not only a servant or a representative. This Light is the true Son, and He has been willing to become as one of us, vulnerable to life in this world, in order to make a sacrifice for us. How can there be a more potent message, a more powerful appearance to us? It is a great offer, beyond our comprehension, and one that really can't be repeated, it seems to me. There isn't another, greater Son to send. He is the only-begotten. In this time after Christ we live in, there has been a powerful force in the world, calling for the attention of all of us. The Holy Spirit works in so many ways. The affairs of the heart -- where the real call takes root -- are strange in some way to our ordinary consciousness. But that's the indwelling place of God, just as we are all temples for the Spirit. And Christ is the heart-knower, who meets us where we really are. And that's where we refuse the gift or accept the gift. That is where we love what we will love and reject what we will reject. The Gift is made from love, out of love, given by love, which is the very nature of God. Nicodemus asks what seems like a "dumb question." But the heart that is truthful will ask what it needs to in order to understand and to grasp the gift, even at the very beginning of a sense of the true reality on offer. It's an honest question, the mark of a truthful man. Jesus says that rebirth begins with a Greek word that means "again" but also "from above." It's sort of similar to a musical expression: "from the top," only where "top" can imply what's higher than everything else, above. It's from the first, too. So let us remember that there, in this place of rebirth, is the essence of the heart and the mind and the eyes and the ears that are ready to be opened, and we need to be in that place all the time. We need to be ready for that new start each day, contained in the Gift from above.
