Text: John 3:1-17 Revised Standard Version (RSV)
Nicodemus Visits Jesus
3 Now there was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicode′mus, a ruler of the Jews. 2 This man came to Jesus[a] by night and said to him, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God; for no one can do these signs that you do, unless God is with him.” 3 Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born anew,[b] he cannot see the kingdom of God.” 4 Nicode′mus said to him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?” 5 Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. 6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.[c] 7 Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born anew.’[d] 8 The wind[e] blows where it wills, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know whence it comes or whither it goes; so it is with every one who is born of the Spirit.” 9 Nicode′mus said to him, “How can this be?” 10 Jesus answered him, “Are you a teacher of Israel, and yet you do not understand this? 11 Truly, truly, I say to you, we speak of what we know, and bear witness to what we have seen; but you do not receive our testimony. 12 If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you heavenly things? 13 No one has ascended into heaven but he who descended from heaven, the Son of man.[f] 14 And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of man be lifted up, 15 that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.”[g]
16 For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God sent the Son into the world, not to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him.
In the Name of God, the Holy and Undivided Trinity. Amen.
A knock on the door in the middle of the night is almost never a good thing. It was especially scary in 1st-Century Palestine – Roman soldiers, and their counterparts, Herod’s thugs, were efficient and ruthless. Night time raids were common – doors were knocked open, unsuspecting people were rousted from their beds, and hauled off to prison. Many were never seen again.
Equally dangerous was going out at night – if the authorities caught anyone skulking around after dark, they assumed the worst, and hauled that person off to prison, too.
So this week’s Gospel lesson begins with an act of courage and an act of grace: The act of courage is on the part of Nicodemus, for risking everything to visit Jesus; and the act of grace is on the part of Jesus, for opening the door.
But just who was this Nicodemus, anyway? Why did he feel it necessary in the first place to slink through dark, unlit streets to pay his visit to Jesus? We are told in this passage that he was, first, a Pharisee, and second, that he was “a ruler of the Jews.” According to Dr. Eli Lizorkin-Eyzenberg, of the Israel Institute of Biblical Studies, “While we cannot know this for sure, it is probable that Nicodemus was a member of the Sanhedrin, the Jewish ruling council whose limited authority was sanctioned by Roman government. It is obvious that Nicodemus had an uneasy connection with the [Jews]. On the one hand, he was an intricate part of it; on the other he was afraid [of] and hassled by it. As such, he often felt that he did not belong.
“For example, we see that Nicodemus came to Jesus at night, and in John 7.50-52 we read that when he questioned his own fellow Hoi Iudaioi [‘the Jews’] about Jesus’ arrest, he was questioned for loyalty: ‘Nicodemus, who had gone to him before, and who was one of them, said to them, ‘Does our Torah judge a man without first giving him a hearing and learning what he does?’ They replied, ‘Are you from Galilee too?’””[1]
It may be, then, that it wasn’t just curiosity that compelled Nicodemus to take his night-time walk. Maybe he was feeling a bit desperate. It could be that he was even feeling a sense of hope. His first words to Jesus indicate that he had been closely following Jesus’ career. Owing to his position, he could not be seen fraternizing with Jesus, but he had to see him, which left a night visit as his only option. Whatever the reasons were that drove him to it – desperation, hope, rank curiosity – he was willing to take that risk. William Barclay tells us: “Nicodemus was a puzzled man, a man with many honours and yet with something lacking in his life. He came to Jesus for a talk so that somehow in the darkness of the night he might find light.”[2]
So, he shows up at Jesus’ door, is ushered inside, and excitedly greets Jesus with the words “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God; for no one can do these signs that you do, unless God is with him.” Nicodemus was no doubt sincere, and he probably thought that they’re off to a good start so far.
But no. Jesus’ next words stop him in his tracks. As curious, as hopeful, even as desperate for some answers as Nicodemus is, he still assumes some things about Jesus that he really shouldn’t assume – “Rabbi, we know…” We know who you are. We know what you’re about from the signs you do.
Jesus responds in a way that totally confounds Nicodemus: “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born anew,[b] he cannot see the kingdom of God.”
In other words, the “signs” are not even the half of it. What’s important is what those signs point to.
But…
“Born anew” – that’s the translation from the Revised Standard Version of the Bible, which we just read. The New Revised Standard Version translates the phrase as “born from above.” But I think the translation that we’re all most familiar with is the one from the King James Version of the Bible: “Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” No matter how it’s translated – as either “born anew,” “born from above,” or “born again,” that statement is as confusing for us as it was for Nicodemus.
What does it mean, exactly, to be “born again”?
In her commentary on this passage, Professor Sharon H. Ringe tells us that the Greek adverb anothen (ἄνωθεν) can be translated as both “again” and “from above.” Nicodemus clearly understands it as “again,” but from what Jesus says subsequently, it’s clear that he understands it to mean “from above.”
This is more significant than just a play on words. Professor Ringe continues, “In the theology of this Gospel, one’s identity depends on the place from which one comes and the place to which one goes. Thus, one’s participation in the new reality Jesus brings and represents depends on being born ‘from above.’”[3]
Another commentator, Meda Stamper, writes, “No one can see anything clearly about God and God’s kingdom, Jesus tells him, without being born from above… Above and below are directional signifiers for alternative worldviews, alternative lives even, in John. Unless a person is born into the worldview of God, that person cannot see the kingdom or, Jesus goes on to say, enter it…Jesus shifts the conversation from the smallness of Nicodemus’ view to the largeness of life in God, from the signs on which Nicodemus and others base their hope to the invisible mystery of the Spirit/wind (the two words are the same in Greek), which can give him birth into the truth that he is missing.”[4]
Nicodemus’ point of view was too small. He’d come to Jesus full of confidence that he had him pegged, that though Jesus was sent from God, he was just a wonder worker, maybe even a prophet, but no more. So when he heard the words “born again,” he was naturally confused because, as he said himself, being physically born again is an impossible absurdity. What Jesus invites Nicodemus to do is to allow for a broader understanding that goes beyond what he had ever known or even thought possible.
The point here for us is really the same. Will Rogers is supposed to have once said about then-President Calvin Coolidge: “It’s not what Mr. Coolidge doesn’t know that bothers me, it’s what he knows for sure that just ain’t so.” Well, sometimes we’re in the same boat with Mr. Coolidge and Nicodemus – we think we’ve got this “faith thing” all figured out. We’ve got a handle on Jesus, we know all there is to know about God, and boy wouldn’t the world be a much better place if everybody else listened to us and did things our way!
In his poem, “From the Place Where We Are Right,” the German-born Israeli poet Yehuda Amichai sums up that attitude this way:
From the place where we are right
flowers will never grow
in the Spring.
The place where we are right
is hard and trampled
like a yard.
Those are the times when we need to lift our eyes to the cross and recognize once again the overwhelming magnitude of God’s wisdom and grace. When Jesus refers to Moses raising the serpent, he’s referring to an ancient story known to all Jewish people – the Israelites were being poisoned in the wilderness by serpents, so Moses lifted one up on a stick that looked very much like a cross, and ordered the people to look at it. When they did, their thoughts were turned to God, and they were healed. Even so, says Jesus, he must be lifted up on the cross, and when people turn their thoughts to him, and believe in him, they too will find eternal life – they too will be born from above.
It is at that point that the enormity of who and what Jesus is finally dawns on Nicodemus – and he, too, is now born from above.
Finally, Jesus gives us those words of incredible promise: “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God sent the Son into the world, not to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him.”
Or, as Yehuda Amichai’s poem concludes:
But doubts and loves
dig up the world
like a mole, a plough.
And a whisper will be heard in the place
where the ruined
house once stood.[5]
In this time of Lent, let us smell the newly-dug earth of possibility even as we lift our eyes upward to that cross and feel again that birth from above!
In the Name of God, the Holy and Undivided Trinity. Amen.
[1] Lizorkin-Eyzenberg, Dr. Eli, “Who was Nicodemus? (John 3:1-8),” http://jewishstudies.eteacherbiblical.com/john-3-1-8-who-was-nicodemus-2/
[2] Barclay, William, The Gospel of John, Vol. One, The New Daily Study Bible, Lexington, Kentucky, Westminster John Know Press, 2001, p. 145
[3] Ringe, Sharon H., “Commentary on John 3:1-17,” Working Preacher, https://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?commentary_id=270, June 7, 2009
[4] Stamper, Meda, “Commentary on John 3:1-17,” Working Preacher, “ https://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?commentary_id=1314, June 3, 2012
[5] Amichai, Yehuda, “From the Place Where We Are Right,” quoted in Jolly, the Rev. Marshall A., “Digging Into Our Certainty,” Lent 2(A) – March 12, 2017,” Sermons That Work,” http://episcopaldigitalnetwork.com/stw/2017/01/26/digging-into-our-certainty-lent-2a-march-12-2017/#_ftn1