Monday in the Second Week of Easter, April 12, 2021

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.”

St. John notes that Nicodemus came to Jesus at night.  In modern times, people often meet professionally or socially after dark, but in the ancient world and until the Industrial Age, this did not happen.  He would have stolen through the empty, unlit streets of Jerusalem for the house where it was said Jesus was staying, like a conspirator or a thief going to meet a comrade.  He would not have made his plans known to anyone lest he be thought of by his peers as “that man’s follower”.  Still, Nicodemus had watched Jesus and listened carefully to his words.  He was puzzled and troubled, and where others let their uneasiness keep them from the Nazarene, Nicodemus had the integrity to go and talk to him away from the crowds and to learn for himself if this was the Messiah.

“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 sums up in one line the argument Jesus was to make over and over to the Pharisees and Sanhedrin.  We can contrast the clear thinking of Nicodemus with the twisted, contorted denials of his brethren who would rather make the patently absurd claim that Jesus cast out demons by the power of the chief of the demons than entertain the merest possibility that he might be doing the work of God.  

“Amen, amen, I say to you, unless one is born from above, he cannot see the Kingdom of God.”  John quotes parts of the ensuing conversation, and not all of it, and so it sounds rather abrupt and cryptic.  But these are the words the Lord spoke to Nicodemus.  They may seem obvious to us, but they speak of a profound mystery.  Unless one is “born from above”, a phrase Nicodemus would have have heard before, a person cannot “see” the Kingdom of God.  The Lord is speaking of grace.  But how do we believe in the Kingdom of heaven before we receive grace?  The soul is drawn to God even while still walking in the darkness before grace and willingly goes to him to learn who he is.  At that time, the person is able to learn much about God, yet much remains in darkness.  It is possible by the moonlight to see outlines and this is enough to go on for a while.  But then curiosity gives way to desire and this in turn gives way to love, and then grace comes as the rising of the sun.  In the full light of grace we “see” with the eyes of faith — we believe.

“How can a man once grown old be born again?”  Nicodemus knows that the Lord is using ordinary words to speak of extraordinary things, but he needs the Lord to teach him the vocabulary of the Kingdom of which he speaks.  “What is born of flesh is flesh and what is born of spirit is spirit.”  Jesus teaches Nicodemus that he is speaking of spiritual realities.  To a man well-educated in the very physical Law of Moses, this is an entirely new way of thinking.  The idea of spiritual rebirth was prefigured in the Old Law through the sacrifice of the scapegoat and in the purification laws, but here it stands out, in its fullness, in the clarity of the daylight.  In an instant, the darkness becomes light, and we can see clearly what we could not even guess at before.  “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.”  We cannot see the wind, but we can see its effects in the trees or on the dust that normally lays quietly on the street.  We cannot read people’s minds, but when we see a businessman hurrying to a merchant’s stall we can surmise that he is interested in a transaction.  Likewise, we cannot see the Holy Spirit, but when we see a person performing a gratuitous act of kindness for another, or we see a young woman giving up her life to God as a religious, we know that he is the prime Actor.

In the night of this life we stumble about for our Lord, urged on by our love for him, progressing towards him even now with the help of the Holy Spirit.   Finally, the darkness will be stripped away and we will stand in the bright glory of the Lord’s presence, seeing him as he is.  “We know that when he shall appear we shall be like to him: because we shall see him as he is” (1 John 3, 2).