For God so loved the world

 

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 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.  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."  My study bible comments here that Nicodemus believed that Jesus was from God, but his faith was still weak, as he was afraid of his peers among the Pharisees and on the Council, so he came to Jesus by night.  After this conversation, Nicodemus would grow in his faith to the point of defending Jesus before the Sanhedrin (7:50-51), and eventually making a bold public expression of faith by preparing and entombing the body of Christ (19:39-42).  According to some early sources, Nicodemus was baptized by Peter and consequently removed from the Sanhedrin (the ruling Council), 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."  What does it mean to be born again?  In the original Greek of the text, the word for "again" (anothen/ἄνωθεν) means also literally "from above."  My study bible says this clearly refers to the heavenly birth from God through faith in Christ (1:12-13).  This heavenly birth is baptism, and it is also our adoption by God as our Father (Galatians 4:4-7).  This "new birth" is the beginning of our spiritual life.  It begins a lifetime process, and its 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?"  Nicodemus is puzzled, as he understands Christ's words literally and on worldly terms.  He questions the possibility of a second physical birth.  In John's Gospel, such misunderstandings are frequent (2:19-21; 4:10-14, 30-34; 6:27; 7:37-39; 11:11-15).  They serve as opportunities for Christ, who uses them 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."  Water and the Spirit is a reference to Christian baptism, and the gift of the Holy Spirit at chrismation.  One becomes a child of God through a spiritual birth which happens, as my study bible puts it, by grace, through faith, and in the Holy 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."  These verses include a play on words by Jesus.  In Greek, pneuma/πνευμα means both wind and Spirit.  My study bible comments that 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?"  According to St. John Chrysostom, earthly things (in the context of Christ's words here) refer to grace and baptism which is given to humankind.  These are earthly not in the sense that they are "unspiritual," but rather in the sense that they occur on earth, and they are given to creatures.   The heavenly things of which Jesus speaks here are references to the ungraspable mysteries of God such as the eternal generation of the Son from the Father, as my study bible puts it.  They relate to Christ's eternal existence before all time, and to God's divine plan of salvation for the world.  A person must first understand the ways in which God works among human beings before one can start to understand the realities which pertain purely to the Person of God.

"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 the bronze image of the serpent in order to draw their attention and cure the Israelites from deadly bites of poisonous snakes (in Numbers 21:4-9).  In Jesus' terms, this miracle-working image was a prefiguration of His being lifted up on the Cross.  My study bible says that as believers behold the crucified Christ in faith, 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 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."  Why must the Son be crucified ("lifted up")?  Jesus declares here the powerful reality of God's love -- not simply for Israel but for the world.  My study bible calls this single verse the expression of the whole message of John's Gospel, and 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 clearly seen, that they have been done in God."  Christ came to save and not to condemn, but human beings also have the free will to choose.  We can reject this gift, and effectively shut ourselves off from salvation by our own rejection.  The condemnation comes through a preference for the darkness of ignorance of God and the things of God in us.

When we explore John's Gospel and the depth of the concepts we find here, it is important to keep in mind that the salvation process is only begun through baptism.  That is, we have a lifetime of movement toward God as a possibility, and embracing of the things of God as they are offered to us.  That offering comes through Christ, and especially is viewed in His emptying on the Cross, giving all for love of human beings.  All of the teachings that Christ offers, everything He brings into the world, such as the spiritual truths we read here, are offerings for our salvation and regeneration, for our very life.   In the beginning of his Gospel, John writes of Christ, "In Him was life, and the life was the light of men.  And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it" (1:4-5).  This life that is offered to us, and that includes all of Christ's teachings, is both our light and life, if we choose it.  These verses from chapter 1 in some sense encapsulate all that is written here as well, and the fullness of the Gospel message.  Do we choose the light or is darkness preferable?  There is a level of commitment to this light and the life it offers to us that comes from impulses so deep inside of us that I am not certain we can ever pinpoint where that is found.  But it nevertheless is an inner reality reflected in the soul.  This light is also spiritual truth, it is the very truth of the being of Christ, a depth of reality that grounds the whole of creation.  We don't fully grasp such things, but we do choose to grasp toward them, to take in what we can as we can.  And this is the basic choice offered to us in the life of Christ as Son of Man, as incarnate Jesus.  Do we want to know, or do we not?  Knowing or "enlightenment" involves change, it means often making tough choices to let go of the past or our own ways of thinking, and this becomes a daily and lifetime practice found in prayer and in the varied disciplines of the Church for the deepening of our faith.  To be born again through baptism becomes a constant process, and one that goes on through the whole of our lives as we learn, and learn again.  It is also a deeply spiritual and mystical process, something we don't do of ourselves, but is the work of grace within us to which we give assent.   As Christ says, "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."   It is not up to us to choose or decide the work of the Spirit in us; it is up to us to desire the things of God, to be willing to accept this light, and its work in us.  Perhaps what is most important to keep in mind is that this is the work of love, and is given of God's great love, deeper and wider than we can understand.   Yet, how easily it is dismissed and rejected!