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

 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 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 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 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

Yesterday we read that the Passover 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."   Nicodemus, we're told, is a man of the Pharisees, and a ruler of the Jews.  This makes him an important man, a member of the ruling Council, also known as the Sanhedrin.  My study bible's emphasis is on faith; here Nicodemus believes that Jesus was from God, but his faith is still weak, as he is afraid of his peers and thus he came to Jesus by night.   But later on, after this conversation, Nicodemus's faith will grow to the point of defending Jesus before the Sanhedrin (7:50-51).  Eventually, he will also come to make the bold public expression of faith of preparing and entombing our Lord's body (19:39-42), along with another wealthy and distinguished man, Joseph of Arimathea.   According to some early sources, my study bible notes, Nicodemus was baptized by Peter and consequently he 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."   The word translated as "again" in born again can also be translated "from above."  It clearly refers to the heavenly birth from God through faith in Christ (1:12-13).  The heavenly birth referred to in today's passage is baptism, and our adoption by God as our Father (Galatians 4:4-7), my study bible says.  Clearly the new birth is the beginning of spiritual life; the goal is 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?"   A misunderstanding by Nicodemus; he questions the possibility of a second physical birth.  Emphasizing the need for insight, for spiritual eyes and ears in the practice of our faith, misunderstandings like this occur frequently in John's Gospel (see 2:19-21; 4:10-14, 30-34; 6:27; 7:37-39; 11:11-15).  Jesus uses such opportunities to elevate an idea from a superficial or earthly meaning to a heavenly and eternal one.

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.'"   To be born of water and Spirit is a direct reference to Christian baptism, and to the gift of the Holy Spirit given at chrismation.   This is a spiritual birth by grace, through faith, and in the Holy Spirit.

"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 is a play on words.  The Greek word pneuma/πνεῦμα means both wind and Spirit.   My study bible says that the working of the Holy Spirit in the new birth is as mysterious as the source and destination of the blowing wind.  So also the Spirit moves where He desires, and cannot 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."  St. John Chrysostom teaches that Jesus uses the phrase earthly things to refer to grace and to baptism which is given to human beings.  They are earthly, not in the sense of "unspiritual,"  but rather in the sense that they occur on earth and are given to creatures.   Heavenly things, by contrast, involve the unknowable mysteries of the eternal generation of the Son from the Father; they relate to the Son's eternal existence before all time and also to God's divine plan of salvation for the world.   My study bible says that a person must first grasp the ways in which God works among human beings before one can begin to understand those things which pertain to properly only to God and relations of the Holy Trinity.

"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."  Moses lifted up an image of a serpent in order 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, my study bible says, the power of sin and death is overthrown in them.  As the image of a serpent was the weapon that destroyed the power of the serpents, so the instrument of the death of Christ 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."  It's not always that we get a reason for why things happen in life, but here is this reason straight from the mouth of Christ Himself.  To show the reason why the Son must be crucified (or "lifted up"), Jesus declares God's great love not only for Israel, but for the world.  This is our answer.  This single verse, my study bible tells us, expresses the whole of the message of John's Gospel -- and indeed it is true for all 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.  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 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."   Christ came to save and not to condemn.   But human beings have free will; therefore we are capable of rejecting this gift.  People become condemned by their own rejection of the light of life which is in Christ.

Why this mission into the world?  Why the Cross?  Theology and the Church may come up with many answers to such questions, and through time we will receive more, but here in John's Gospel, we are given the most central and wide-ranging and foundational answer for all:  "For God so loved the world."   Everything starts with God's love.   John's Gospel began with its Prologue, echoing the words of Genesis, "In the beginning."  And, following that echo, John gave us the first seven days in Jesus' ministry, culminating with the first sign at the wedding in Cana, and then a day of rest for Himself and those who were with Him (2:1-12).   In the creation story of Genesis, God's acts are punctuated by God's thoughts; we're told that "God saw that it was good" (Genesis 1:4, 10, 12, 18, 21, 25).  But after God's final culminating act of creation, it was more than good.  Genesis 1:31 tells us, "Then God saw everything that He had made, and indeed it was very good" (my italics added).   This word for "good" in both Hebrew and Greek means more than good.  It also means "beautiful."  It can mean "pleasing," "excellent," "valuable," "worthy."  All of these adjectives fit the ways in which God viewed the world, God's creation.  But John's Gospel gives us the deeper understanding of God's perspective:  God so loves this world that God gives God's only-begotten Son -- so that whoever believes in Him may have everlasting life.  Notice that we are part of the wholeness of the beautiful, worthy, good creation of the world -- and God wishes to offer us eternal life through the Son, who is life (14:6).   Therefore, this life that we are offered is something merited by the full goodness and beauty of the world, and is fitting to it.  It is like a "blessing of blessings":  whatever God has already created as good is bestowed with a grace that exceeds all good, bringing out of its potentials greater good;  that we may have life more abundantly (10:10).  Whatever are the great blessings and potentials that grace can bring, evoke, multiply, and manifest, what we are given is a picture of the wholeness and completeness of the inherent and basic goodness of our world and ourselves as part of this created world.  It is good and beautiful, and so beloved of God that it is worth God's sacrifice, and we may come to eternal life through belief in the Son who is sent to our beloved world.  This is a picture of the wholeness of life, that regardless of what we see and experience, however it may be that there is a "fallenness" or darkness or evil that has made itself present to our world, this does not touch the basic goodness or the fact of God's love for the world.  And that is what we can take as our foundation for life and our understanding of life and where we stand in the whole created order of life.  It is this foundation of goodness, that which is worthy and pleasing, for which God deems the greatest sacrifice of love as God's gift, that sets out how we must view an entire order of creation and ourselves in it.  This act of giving by God is the centerpiece of history in the terms in which Christology sets out what life is all about and what we must be all about.  That promise of life is made so that the life we have may be enhanced without the limits we think we have, but with the abundance that only Christ knows and can promise.  Let us consider what light this love sheds on the meaning of our lives and how it intersects our lives in the here and the now.  What is He asking of us?  What is God offering?  That it is an offer made from love must tell us all about the gift, and what we have to lose when we refuse it.  Let us note a tiny glimpse of what this means hidden here in our reading:  Nicodemus is a Pharisee, an important man among the leaders.  He comes to Christ in faith, despite the fact that it will be the Pharisees who seek to condemn Jesus.  God's love rules out no one, there is nothing in this world inherently not "good."  It is simply a matter of our own acceptance of the gift of life and the light of Christ that makes the difference of grace.   The salvation that is offered is for all the world.