Monday in the Second Week of Easter, April 17, 2023

John 3, 1-8

There was a Pharisee named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. He came to Jesus at 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 are doing unless God is with him.” Jesus answered and said to him, “Amen, amen, I say to you, unless one is born from above, he cannot see the Kingdom of God.” Nicodemus said to him, “How can a man once grown old be born again? Surely he cannot reenter his mother’s womb and be born again, can he?” Jesus answered, “Amen, amen, I say to you, unless one is born of water and Spirit he cannot enter the Kingdom of God. What is born of flesh is flesh and what is born of spirit is spirit. Do not be amazed that I told you, ‘You must be born from above.’ The wind blows where it wills, and you can hear the sound it makes, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes; so it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.”

“A Pharisee named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews.”  From the evidence of the Gospels. Many if not most of the Pharisees opposed Jesus, seeing his rejection of their interpretation of the Scriptures as a rejection of Judaism.  But exceptions such as Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea did exist.  These sought to understand the Lord by asking him honest questions.  They had to be careful though lest they come under suspicion from the others of being his followers.  

“Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God, for no one can do these signs that you are doing unless God is with him.”  Nicodemus, instead of jumping to false conclusions, carefully considered the facts about the Lord: he had seen with his own eyes the miracles Jesus had performed and drawn the correct conclusion that these cures could only have been accomplished through the power of God.  Since this was so, who was this Jesus?  Who did he claim to be?  Was he the Messiah?  The discussion between Jesus and Nicodemus that follows, as reported by St. John, comes across as fragmentary or as highlights, yet in John’s report we hear the Lord teaching clearly about the Holy Spirit as a divine Person, revealing this to one who was willing to learn.  The questions Nicodemus asks may sound rather simple, almost childish, but he follows the Greek system of dialogue as practiced by Socrates and Plato, establishing basic principles and then building upon them. 

“Amen, amen, I say to you, unless one is born from above, he cannot see the Kingdom of God.”  Nicodemus opened with an admission that he believed Jesus to be a teacher who had come from God.  Jesus answers his unspoken question as to whether he is the Messiah who is come to establish the Kingdom of God on the earth and expelling the Romans.  The Kingdom of God, he says, is not what so many seem to think.  It can indeed be seen, but not with the eyes.  It is not a physical place.  It is invisible and can only be seen through grace.  This grace comes upon those who are “born from above”, transformed by grace.

“How can a man once grown old be born again? Surely he cannot reenter his mother’s womb and be born again, can he?”  The Pharisee’s question shows understanding.  He grants the Lord’s premise of a man being born again and asks how this can be.  By contrast, another Pharisee would have denied that this could happen, have hurled insults at Jesus, and stormed off.  “Amen, amen, I say to you, unless one is born of water and Spirit he cannot enter the Kingdom of God.”  Jesus explains what he means by being born again: he confirms that it is not a physical rebirth but a spiritual regeneration through “water and Spirit”.  John shows, throughout his Gospel, what the Lord means by “water” — grace and life, that is, a sharing in the life of God.

“The wind blows where it wills, and you can hear the sound it makes, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes; so it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.”  The Lord says this to make clear to Nicodemus the distinction between a human born of the Spirit and one born only of the flesh, and in this way helps him to understand the Holy Spirit.  He emphasizes the invisibility of the Spirit.  To us today, they seems very straightforward, but the Pharisees and the people of the time had a  materialist idea of God, the angels, and heaven.  In speaking like this, Jesus is weaning Nicodemus off the Messiah as a military leader.

Sometimes we also reduce God to a material being on our minds, despite our knowing that he is spirit.  He is transcendent, far beyond what we can conceive.  He is Love that overwhelms and transforms and never ceases.  He cannot be contained in a name, for “God” is a sort of title rather than an actual name.  He is infinite and ever present in the hearts of those who love him.  Knowing him better enables us to love him more and thus to believe in him with greater faith — faith that will be turned into knowledge when we behold him in his Kingdom.