As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life

 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 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 Man 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 that the Passover of the Jews was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.  This is the first Passover of three recorded in John's Gospel.  Jesus 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."  Nicodemus is a member of the Pharisees.  It's important to note that the Gospel does not give us an entirely monolithic picture of the Jewish leadership; there are other faithful among them as well.  My study bible points out that Nicodemus believed Jesus was from God, but his faith was still weak.  He is afraid of his peers among the leadership and thus came to Jesus by night.  Later on in the Gospel we will find that his faith has grown to such a point at which he will defend Jesus before the Sanhedrin (7:50-51).   After the Crucifixion, he will publicly prepare and entomb Jesus' body (19:39-42), a very bold act of faith indeed.  According to some early Church sources, Nicodemus was baptized by Peter and later 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."  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 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."   The Greek word translated as again means more literally "from above."  So the "hidden" reference in the text gives us a picture of heavenly birth; that is, birth from God through faith in Christ, as my study bible puts it (1:12-13).  This is clearly a picture of baptism and of adoption by God as our Father (Galatians 4:4-7).  This new birth isn't a completion of the spiritual life, but rather its beginning (just as childbirth is the beginning of that child's life).  The goal is the entrance into the kingdom of God; this is a necessity for that goal.  Nicodemus' misunderstanding about being "born again" is an opportunity for explanation by Christ.  As metaphors are common to Jesus' teaching, such misunderstandings are a frequent occasion for enlightenment and explanation in John's Gospel (2:19-21; 4:10-14, 30-34; 6:27; 7:37-39; 11: 11-15).  Just as one is "born from above," so to speak, Jesus takes one from an earthly and superficial understanding to a heavenly and eternal one.  Water and the spirit give us a picture of baptism as sacrament, but also the gift of the Holy Spirit (given at chrismation, but also a mystery of God's own anointing, as Jesus' following comments will indicate). 

"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."  This statement by Jesus (about the wind) is a play on words.  The Greek word "pneuma" means both wind and Spirit.  My study bible states that the working of the Holy Spirit in the new birth is as mysterious as the source and destination of the blowing wind.  The movement of the Spirit is a mystery to all of us -- a mystery which cannot be contained by human ideas, agendas, or expectations.  The grace of God cannot be restricted and meets no boundaries.

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?"  Interestingly, Jesus briefly switches here to the plural "we."  One may surmise this refers to Himself as both God and man, as He is witnessing what He knows from a heavenly perspective.  Earthly things, according to St. John Chrysostom, refers to Jesus' speaking to Nicodemus about baptism and grace given to man.  They're earthly in the sense that they become a part of the Church in the world.  Heavenly things are mysteries beyond man, such as the eternal generation of the Son from the Father.  Eternal existence beyond time (or before time) and God's divine plan of salvation for the world are heavenly mysteries; they belong to God alone to know.  My study bible says, "A person must first grasp the ways in which God works among mankind before he can even begin to understand things that pertain to God Himself."

"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 Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life."  And here the "voice" of Christ switches to third person in speaking of Himself, as in "He who came down from heaven" and "the Son of Man."  It remains a way of shrouding His talk in mystery so that revelation comes through faith, but also of affirming His divine and messianic identity.  The Son of Man has come down from heaven and therefore has knowledge of and can reveal heavenly mysteries.  But the One who descended is also to be lifted up, in perhaps the greatest mystery of all, so that He will "lift up" all those who believe in Him as well.  Jesus is of course speaking of the Crucifixion, when He will be lifted up upon the Cross, just as Moses lifted up an image of a serpent in order to cure the Israelites, through faith, of deadly bites of poisonous snakes (Numbers 21:4-9).  Jesus will remove the sting of death.  If we can look upon the crucified Christ in faith, so the power of sin and death is taken away.  My study bible says, "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.  For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved."  What's the reason for the Crucifixion ("lifted up')?  God's great love is not just for Israel, but for the world.  This single verse, says my study bible, not only expresses the full message of John's Gospel, but also of salvation history.

"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."   And finally, we're given the fullness of the impact of this mission and His message.  Christ came to save and not to condemn; but human beings have free will.  The rejection of the gift comes with its  own loss, which is effectively a condemnation by one's own rejection.  Effectively, judgment is made through our choice to reject the light, to oppose spiritual truth without which rebirth is not possible.

So what does it mean to be reborn?  Christ starts with the beginning; water and the Spirit form Holy Baptism.  But this is just the beginning of the spiritual life, of the entrance into the Kingdom and preparation for the life of the Kingdom.  The journey of spiritual truth, transcendence and transformation takes on a long growth from there.  It entails our meeting the Spirit within ourselves with each new experience, and inviting in the Spirit, the gift of grace, to come into our lives and heal the past as well.  Life is a series of looking in upon events in which we experience the world and what it offers -- good and bad -- but with that Spirit of Truth present with us.  The Cross offers us just that example.  We look upon this Man crucified, and what do we see?  So much is contained in that question.  Jesus uses the event of Moses holding upon the serpent on a staff as a kind of parallel and overlapping reality:  the Israelites who drew their attention up were healed of the deathly stings of the serpents.  If we can gaze upon the crucified Christ not as the "world" would see Him, but as faith would have us see Him, then we too are healed of the sting of death and sin.  It no longer has a permanent hold on us.  We are in a position to make a choice.  What will the world throw at you?  Will it teach you that the beauty of the spiritual life is worthless?  Does it try to say that the truths one learns via grace have no meaning and no value -- or even more powerfully, that they are dangerous?  What comes to the light and is exposed for all to see?  Our own willingness to hide from the light comes between us and real life, the life in abundance that He promises.  The image of the crucified Christ tells us this is not an easy nor a simple journey.  The world is full of too many things that a "worldly" attitude doesn't want to come to light.  But if we can look upon the One who gave us all for all, all truth for all life, and see His wounds, then we are healed of our own.  Nothing will ever be more true, nor more profound.  And no death nor sting of sin can keep this from us.  The world will plant shame where it doesn't want to hear truth.  The important thing in our lives, to change all this in us, is to have our faith and go forward in the truth that transforms, transcends, and transfigures everything else.  The root of that mystery is in today's reading, and the Spirit that works like the wind through and betwixt all things.