It was during the Passover festival, just after Jesus drove all the moneychangers and merchants out of the Temple, that we see this Pharisee, named Nicodemus, come to Jesus at night. Many scholars believe that Nicodemus came to Jesus at night because he was afraid to be seen with Jesus. John doesn’t really tell us this, and indicates that Nicodemus was a ‘leader of the Jews’ which would probably give him the social and political standing to do just about whatever he pleased. I love the Gospel of John, because unlike the other gospel writers who make every attempt to lay out “just the facts”, John sees his role as an interpreter not only of events but also of the various subtleties of language and speech. And so, it may be that John tells us that Nicodemus comes at night as a way to illustrate just how “in the dark” he was about who and what Jesus truly was.
Strangely enough, it first appears that Nicodemus does understand. He says, "Rabbi, we all know you're a teacher straight from God. No one could do all the God-pointing, God-revealing acts you do if God weren't in on it." And then comes Jesus’ response which throws Nicodemus into a quandary of his own making. Jesus said, "You're absolutely right. Take it from me: Unless a person is born from above, it's not possible to see what I'm pointing to—to God's kingdom."
Here, the older translations may make a little more sense. Jesus says that we must be born again to understand the Kingdom of God. Nicodemus, all understanding gone, asks Jesus, "How can anyone," said Nicodemus, "be born who has already been born and grown up? You can't re-enter your mother's womb and be born again. What are you saying with this [born again]/'born-from-above' talk?"
Before we judge Nicodemus too harshly, and it is easy to do, we must put ourselves in his shoes. Nicodemus is a learned Jewish scholar, he should have the mental and spiritual where-with-all to understand what Jesus is saying. But, he doesn’t. His understanding is on one plane and Jesus is speaking on another. Jesus is speaking of another world and Nicodemus is standing and speaking firmly in this one. Because they are not speaking the same language they do not communicate. It does not “compute” for poor Nicodemus. Jesus is speaking the language of the spirit. Nicodemus is speaking the language of human understanding. And this is not the first time we have heard the response of “How can it be?” Mary, the mother of Jesus, asks ‘how?’. And we remember Sara when told she would bear a child asks ‘how’. And here is where we can identify with Nicodemus—it is hard for those of us who live daily lives which require our constant attention to see beyond the physical aspects of life that loom before our eyes.
We are a people who want to understand things—the how, the why. Jesus says to Nicodemus, “you just don’t get it, even though you are a learned scholar”. We, for the most part, don’t like ambiguities. And yet, Jesus’ answer is full of innuendo, He speaks a language that one must have experienced, not just heard. Perhaps Jesus’ words cannot truly be understood, they must be lived. Jesus acknowledges that one must be ‘born from above’ to understand the kingdom of God.
Hear what Retired Bishop Nedi Rivera, from the Episcopal Diocese of Olympia, Washington says about the struggle of Nicodemus to understand the words of Jesus: “There is nothing in our culture (nor was there in that of Nicodemus) driven by money, success, strength, power and knowledge that can help us understand this kind of love. It is only through the Grace of God that we can see what God is doing. It is that same Grace of God that helps us understand the depth and height and breadth of that love: for the sake of the whole world. A love that gives itself to whomever would receive it. We seem to prefer love that is doled out to the deserving and those whom we deem worthy, but Jesus is clear, it is for the whole world, and it isn't for judgment but for life and salvation. We come to know this as we participate in his death: as we die to our old limits of love, to our opinions about God's favorites, to the limits we put on God's love for ourselves. As we die to those limits we are born from above and find it possible to love as God loves us. We come to know that believing in Christ is living this same self-giving love. Believing, we learn, isn't about mental assent, but about living New Life.”
And so we return to grapple with living in the world as Jesus lived. God is in on it! When we love as Jesus loved—for the whole world—God is in on it! When we give beyond what we think we can give—God is in on it! When we trust God to take us places we have not yet been in our walk in faith—God is in on it! Nicodemus, for all of his slowness of understanding knew when it felt right and declared—God is in on it! Our experience of God’s spirit is dependent on our willingness to become new—to be reborn.
Richard Lischer, professor of homiletics at Duke Divinity School refers to Nicodemus as one of the “most reluctant ‘new-borns’ on record. If one is to take the words of Jesus seriously, one realizes that following Jesus does not simply change one, it requires that one become completely brand new. We share Nicodemus’ hesitancy to give up all that is known to us. And Jesus is firm in His response to Nicodemus’ reluctance to embrace re-birth. Jesus tells us and Nicodemus that no one can just slip into the Kingdom of God—you must be born of water (which is more than likely a reference to baptism in Jesus’ name) and the spirit. You must be born from above. There is no power, no how-to book, no earthly teacher, no group or political agenda that replaces being born of the Spirit. And just when we think we are starting to get it, Jesus pushes us farther and says—the spirit is like the wind and blows where it will—there is no controlling the spirit, there is only faith that the spirit is at work in God’s promise.
Whoa! All this just got a little “heavy” as my generation used to say…but God is in on it!
God pushes us in Jesus’ words to let go of the reigns of our lives and let the Spirit “blow where it will”. This is to live in the world as Jesus lived. We are one week away from the triumphal entry into Jerusalem. The story is winding down and Jesus has placed himself into the hands and will of God. Next week we will see the crowd turn ugly, we will face squarely the despair of Jesus when God did not remove the “cup of sorrow and pain” from Him. And we will watch as Jesus allows the spirit to control His life right up to His death and resurrection. But, God is in on it! Our need to understand what God is doing (which in many cases, means approving of what God is doing, or agreeing to what God is doing—a little presumptuous, don’t you think?) is challenged by Jesus’ life. And He reveals to Nicodemus all you really have to do to participate in God’s Kingdom. Since God is in on it we let go and trust that God’s spirit will lead us into right relationship in that Kingdom of justice and peace. And so sacred contradictions surface in this walk in faith. Jesus and John, in his telling of the story, call us to at least acknowledge the ambiguities in this faith walk, if not accept them.
Richard Lischer says it better than I can: He asks, “We do not make the clouds move or the prairie billow like ocean waves. With the rest of creation, we submit to the wind and its caprice. Who is to say whether this chance encounter or that [loss of job], this melody in a cafe or that agonizing defeat, are merely the winds of chance that blow through everyone's life, or the "signs" of the Spirit who caresses us like a mother or a lover? What language shall we borrow with which to narrate our lives? For some it will be the formulas of spiritual certainty; for others, the evocation of mystery…”
And, in the end, we are grateful for mystery, that spiritual presence that challenges us to move and bend, and allow God to be in on it in every corner of our lives.
Amen and Amen…
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