Born of the Spirit

R gave me a wonderful Valentine’s Day card this year. On the front is a couple sitting in their easy chairs looking at one another. The woman is thinking, “When you’ve been married a long time, you get to know what the other person thinks.” And the man, frowning at her, thinks, “No, you don’t.”

Isn’t that wonderful? Not only husbands and wives but parents and children sometimes assume that they know what the other is thinking. For me, this was especially apparent when our son was a teenager. I guess we had done such a good job of figuring out what he needed when he was younger that he expected us to know what he wanted when he was older. I’m sure I did the same thing to my parents, until I realized that speech was a better method of communication than telepathy.

Even when we talk, though, conversations can work at cross purposes. The conversation between Jesus and Nicodemus is an excellent example. It starts out innocently enough, but then Nicodemus gets totally lost. He thinks he’s talking about one thing, and discovers that Jesus has something else on his mind. Eventually Nicodemus disappears completely as the whole direction of the discourse changes. By the end we may all be confused!

It helps to know some of the code words which set up the story. Nicodemus is a Pharisee (uh-oh) and a leader of the Jews (uh-oh again). From other gospel accounts we know that the Pharisees are usually the bad guys, and the Gospel of John is especially hard on “the Jews,” which could mean either Judeans (big-city types who looked down on Galilean peasants like Jesus) or the leaders of the Jews (the people of parts). Furthermore, Nicodemus comes to Jesus by night. From the beginning of this Gospel there has been opposition between light (Jesus) and darkness. This doesn’t bode very well.

Nicodemus begins by declaring that Jesus must come from God because of the signs that he does. Some have said that this is intended to be irony, trying to trap Jesus into saying something foolish, but I prefer to read it at face value. In any case, the “answer” Jesus gives does not refer to what was said. Instead, he says that one must be born from above. The word translated “from above” also means “anew” or “again” – it is intentionally ambiguous. It does not refer to a specific, datable experience one must go through to be called a Christian (as in born-again Christians). The ambiguity puzzles Nicodemus, and he settles on the wrong meaning, that Jesus literally means to be born once more.

Things are not helped by another word play. The Greek word “pneuma” can mean blowing [wind], breath, spirit, or Spirit (as in Holy Spirit). Nicodemus seems baffled by the possibilities in Jesus’ use of it. Jesus says he should know better – teachers at the time were adept at word play.

And then Jesus says, “We speak of what we know and testify to what we have seen; yet you (plural) do not receive our testimony.” Just who are “we” and “you” (all-y’all)? It appears that we have stepped beyond an encounter between two people to the communities they represent: the non-believers on the one hand, those who prefer darkness to light, and the community of John the Evangelist, followers of Jesus, witnesses to the light of Christ. These are the ones who have been born anew/from above by water and the Spirit. They are the true descendants of Moses and the Israelites who followed Moses through the wilderness.

As one of my clergy colleagues put it, Nicodemus thinks that the conversation is about information when it is really about transformation. It’s not about the signs Jesus has done; it’s about new life in Jesus Christ. Yet even though this Spirit-filled life of light is freely offered to all, some choose to remain in darkness. God’s desire is that all come to the light so that all may have eternal life. But God is not about to compel people to come; instead, God chooses to limit God’s own power and allow humans to make their own choice. In effect, God does not condemn us; we condemn ourselves when we prefer darkness to light.

I’d like to think that, just as children and parents eventually understand one another, Nicodemus finally grasped the words of Jesus. We have a hint that he did. Much later in the story, Nicodemus will help Joseph of Arimathea take down the crucified body of Jesus and lay it in a tomb. Three days later that body will no longer be there. Maybe, just maybe, when Nicodemus encountered the resurrected Christ, he remembered that conversation held years before on a dark night – and walked forever more in a light so bright that he no longer could remember what darkness was like.

[Lent 2: John 3:1-17.]