In last week’s gospel (Matt 4:1-11) the Spirit invited Jesus into the wilderness after his baptism to explore his identity as God’s beloved Son. One could look at this week’s gospel (John 3:1-17), in which Jesus talks about being reborn by water and the Spirit, as a reflection on his baptismal experience and his intense time in the wilderness. (Even though the two gospels were written decades apart by very different evangelists, the texts harmonize.)

Here is how today’s gospel opens. 

There was a Pharisee, a man named Nicodemus who was a member of the Jewish ruling council. He came to Jesus at night and said, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the signs you are doing if God were not with him.”
 
Jesus replied, “Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again.

Community gatherings usually stopped at sundown because there was so little light. Oil lamps were dim, at best. Maybe Nicodemus sought out Jesus at night because he wanted to meet in secret. But, perhaps he chose the evening because fewer people would be around Jesus and he wanted personal time.

Using we … we know that you are a teacher who has come from God... tells us that Jesus’ teaching and miracles had attracted notice of the religious authorities, even early in his ministry, and that they had discussed the source of Jesus’ powers. Simultaneously, Nicodemus may have intended his opening words as an indication of his interest or even flattery.  

However, Jesus’ response to Nicodemus’s introduction skipped the compliment and focused on the significance of his words, come from God. He told Nicodemus Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again. The words, very truly signalled that what follows carries great importance and links to the preceding. Jesus may have seen his wilderness time as realizing that all of creation was God’s kingdom, a vision, in all its complexity, which he would bring to the world. Then he used the hinge words, born again, reflecting his own experience at the river Jordan. 

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In the dialogue which follows Nicodemus takes Jesus’ words literally. 

“How can someone be born when they are old?” Nicodemus asked. “Surely they cannot enter a second time into their mother’s womb to be born!”
 
Jesus answered, “Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit. Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. You should not be surprised at my saying, ‘You must be born again.’ The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.”

Jesus’ words to Nicodemus reflect his own baptism with water and the Spirit (Matt 3:16-17), hint at his time in the wilderness where he explored its significance out in the open where the wind blew, and most significantly, he, himself, emerged reborn from his formerly obscure life as a Galilean carpenter.

The word sound can also be translated as voice, an enticing allusion to God’s voice from heaven saying, ‘This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased.’ Considering the verses on the wind as Jesus’ commentary on his baptism and time in the wilderness transforms it from a somewhat obscure reflection on nature to a commentary on Jesus’ own experience of attention to the voice of the Spirit.

 “How can this be?” Nicodemus asked.

“You are Israel’s teacher,” said Jesus, “and do you not understand these things? 

Nicodemus seemed locked into his literal interpretation so Jesus tried another approach. He appealed to Nicodemus’s’ knowledge of the role of the Spirit and creation from scripture. Ruach (pronounced roo-akh) is the Hebrew word for spirit, breath, or wind. Nicodemus would have known that. Genesis 2:7 says, the Lord God formed man from the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and the man became a living being. 

In Ezekiel 37 … the Lord God said to these dry bones: I will cause breath to enter you, you shall live…and you shall know that I am the Lord.’ 

So I (Ezekiel) prophesied as commanded; and… suddenly … the bones came together…and there were sinews on them and flesh …and skin covered them; but there was no breath in them. Then he said, ‘… say: .. Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live.’ I did as he commanded me and the breath came into them, and they lived and stood on their feet…

Hebrew scripture held examples of the Breath of God creating and recreating life. Jesus appealed to Nicodemus’s understanding of these different meanings of the word for wind, breath and Spirit.

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Jesus continued, Very truly I tell you, we speak of what we know, and we testify to what we have seen, but still you people do not accept our testimony. 

I have spoken to you of earthly things and you do not believe; how will you believe if I speak of heavenly things? No one has ever gone into heaven except the one who came from heaven—the Son of Man. 

Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, (Numbers 21:8-9) so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him.”
 
Again, Jesus began with very truly, signifying the importance of the following words, not only for Nicodemus, but for all. He was testifying that he had seen God, and that this was the source of his teaching and signs. He also referred to himself as the Son of Man a phrase used to describe the one who would come in God’s glory in Daniel (7:13-14). 

Jesus’s reference to heavenly things may reflect his own recent life-changing encounter with God’s Spirit in baptism and the wilderness. His whole life now witnessed to that encounter and to his personal alignment with the will of the Father. 

Then Jesus transformed the story of the bronze serpent in the wilderness into a second prophecy of his crucifixion as being lifted up. (The first prophecy was in John 2:19-22.)

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Expanding on this theme of salvation to Nicodemus, Jesus spoke some of the most famous words of the gospel not just to Nicodemus but to all of humanity: 

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.

Jesus articulated his understanding of himself as God’s only Son in these early days of his public ministry, following his time in the wilderness. Furthermore, he emphasized that his mission was not …to condemn.. but to save the world through him. It was his earliest statement of his life’s work.

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  • We tend to think of Nicodemus as a simple literalist. But seeking out Jesus and saying that we know you come from God indicates that the Spirit was moving in him. While Jesus may have challenged his literal mind, ‘Nic’ was directionally correct in his assessment of Jesus. Try reading the gospel as Jesus’ affirmation of his opening words rather than as a criticism. 
  • Subsequently, Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea took Jesus’ body from the cross. (John 19:39)  Between the admonishments of this morning’s gospel and that reverent service, how do you imagine that Nicodemus reflected on his encounter with Jesus? Did he feel humiliated at first? Did he recognize Jesus’ holiness immediately and believe? Did he walk away mystified by Jesus' words and have to meditate on them? When he took the body from the cross did he recall Jesus’ earlier words about being lifted up?
  • How do you understand Jesus’ words, God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life? Read the phrase and substitute some other word or phrase for the word gave. (Made a gift of…sent…presented us with…something much more expansive?) Does it make a difference? What does believing in him mean in your day-to-day life? 
    Peace
    Michael