#35 - Nicodemus and new birth: John 3; Reflection by Pastor Steve

Of all the things that happen to us in life, being born is perhaps the one thing we have the least control of. We don’t choose to be born. We don’t get to decide where we’re born. We don’t even know what’s happening to us when we’re born. It’s totally outside of our control.

Nicodemus comes to Jesus by night and he’s a bit confused. He knows that Jesus must come from God, because nobody can do the things that Jesus does apart from God. Yet somehow, Jesus doesn’t look or sound like anybody from God that Nicodemus has ever experienced before. Jesus doesn’t fit the mold. And God isn’t fitting neatly into the “box” that Nicodemus had made for God in his life.

“How can these things be?” asks Nicodemus, at which point Jesus starts to talk about being “born from above.” It’s as though Jesus is telling Nicodemus that having a relationship with God is, like being born, not something you can control or decide upon yourself. It happens because, like being born, somebody else has made a decision about you. Like being born, God has acted in Nicodemus’ life apart from anything Nicodemus had done, and it’s, like the blowing wind, outside of his control. Yet that’s good news for Nicodemus, because like being born, it means that he has new life because of God’s decision for him. It isn’t most necessary that Nicodemus understand exactly how God acts, but simply that God has acted, and acted to love and save him.

Sometimes, like Nicodemus, we can miss out on God’s action in our lives when God doesn’t act according to our expectations, or when we can’t understand or control the relationship. And yet, Jesus’ message for us is the same: God loves you and has acted to make you his child forever. Our call, like Nicodemus’, is simply to live into that new relationship.

John 3

Now there was a Pharisee named Nicodemus, a leader of the Jews. ²He came to Jesus by night and said to him, "Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God; for no one can do these signs that you do apart from the presence of God." ³Jesus answered him, "Very truly, I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above." ⁴Nicodemus said to him, "How can anyone be born after having grown old? Can one enter a second time into the mother's womb and be born?" ⁵Jesus answered, "Very truly, I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit. ⁶What is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the Spirit is spirit. ⁷Do not be astonished that I said to you, 'You must be born from above.' ⁸The wind blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit." ⁹Nicodemus said to him, "How can these things be?" ¹⁰Jesus answered him, "Are you a teacher of Israel, and yet you do not understand these things?
¹¹Very truly, I tell you, we speak of what we know and testify to what we have seen; yet you do not receive our testimony. ¹²If I have told you about earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you about heavenly things? ¹³No one has ascended into heaven except the one who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. ¹⁴And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, ¹⁵that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.
¹⁶For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.
¹⁷Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. ¹⁸Those who believe in him are not condemned; but those who do not believe are condemned already, because they have not believed in the name of the only Son of God. ¹⁹And this is the judgment, that the light has come into the world, and people loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil. ²⁰For all who do evil hate the light and do not come to the light, so that their deeds may not be exposed. ²¹But those who do what is true come to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that their deeds have been done in God."
²²After this Jesus and his disciples went into the Judean countryside, and he spent some time there with them and baptized. ²³John also was baptizing at Aenon near Salim because water was abundant there; and people kept coming and were being baptized ²⁴— John, of course, had not yet been thrown into prison.
²⁵Now a discussion about purification arose between John's disciples and a Jew. ²⁶They came to John and said to him, "Rabbi, the one who was with you across the Jordan, to whom you testified, here he is baptizing, and all are going to him." ²⁷John answered, "No one can receive anything except what has been given from heaven. ²⁸You yourselves are my witnesses that I said, 'I am not the Messiah, but I have been sent ahead of him.' ²⁹He who has the bride is the bridegroom. The friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly at the bridegroom's voice. For this reason my joy has been fulfilled. ³⁰He must increase, but I must decrease."
³¹The one who comes from above is above all; the one who is of the earth belongs to the earth and speaks about earthly things. The one who comes from heaven is above all. ³²He testifies to what he has seen and heard, yet no one accepts his testimony. ³³Whoever has accepted his testimony has certified this, that God is true. ³⁴He whom God has sent speaks the words of God, for he gives the Spirit without measure. ³⁵The Father loves the Son and has placed all things in his hands. ³⁶Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever disobeys the Son will not see life, but must endure God's wrath.