Listen to the audio of today’s Reflection:
https://soundcloud.com/hapearce/reflection-for-august-13-2024
John 3:1-15
Jesus Teaches Nicodemus
Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a member of the Jewish ruling council. 2 He came to Jesus at night and said, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the miraculous signs you are doing if God were not with him.”
3 Jesus replied, “I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again.”
4 “How can a person be born when they are old?” Nicodemus asked. “Surely they cannot enter a second time into their mother’s womb to be born!”
5 Jesus answered, “I tell you the truth, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit. 6 Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. 7 You should not be surprised at my saying, ‘You must be born again.’ 8 The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.”
9 “How can this be?” Nicodemus asked.
10 “You are Israel’s teacher,” said Jesus, “and do you not understand these things? 11 I tell you the truth, we speak of what we know, and we testify to what we have seen, but still you people do not accept our testimony. 12 I have spoken to you of earthly things and you do not believe; how then will you believe if I speak of heavenly things? 13 No one has ever gone into heaven except the one who came from heaven—the Son of Man. 14 Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, 15 that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him.”
These verses are part of one of the most important stories in the Gospel of John – the conversation between Jesus and Nicodemus, a leader of the Pharisees who comes to see Jesus at night.
This conversation includes two of the best-known verses in the New Testament. In the part of the story we’re thinking about today, Jesus tells Nicodemus, “No one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again.” It’s probably not surprising that this statement confuses Nicodemus. In our time, it’s common for followers of Jesus to identify themselves as “born again.” (In fact, lots of Americans identify themselves as “born-again Christians” but also say they seldom attend worship. Not sure how that works.) But in any case, the idea of being born again wasn’t a part of the religious vocabulary in the first-century Hebrew world. So in the story, Nicodemus doesn’t know what to make of the whole idea of a ‘second birth.’
So Jesus goes on to explain the point he’s making. He says that to enter the kingdom of God, a person needs to undergo a ‘spiritual rebirth.’ He says that “flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit.” It seems that a person becomes a follower of Jesus because the Holy Spirit acts in their life, not just because they’ve decided to become a disciple. And it turns out that the Spirit is a powerful and unpredictable force.
That’s pretty important, because it makes our new life in Jesus a gift from God by the power of the Spirit – not something we earn by doing or saying or believing the right things, and definitely not by our own righteousness.
Our Reformed tradition teaches that once the Spirit starts a new life in a person, a process of sanctification begins. The person’s life is turned more and more away from the things that human nature craves – wealth and possessions, fame and the admiration of others, revenge on those who offend you, etc. In place of those things, the Holy Spirit turns us toward spiritual things that are consistent with the life and teachings of Jesus – a deeper relationship with him, service to others in his name, sacrificing our own interests for the sake of others, living in such a way that those who come in contact with us are led to praise God.
So if the Holy Spirit is working sanctification in us, our lives will be oriented toward the things Jesus did when he walked among us in human form. Those are things he also commanded us to do in his name – feed the hungry, heal the sick, visit the sick and imprisoned, welcome the stranger, tell the story of what God has done in him and teach others to follow his commands.
Mainline followers of Jesus tend to be suspicious of the whole idea of being ‘born again.’ Maybe because so many of those who identify themselves that way don’t strike us as being particularly Christ-like. But what Jesus says in this passage challenges each of us to ask ourselves whether we really have been ‘born again’ to a new life directed by the Spirit, or whether we’re actually still living according to the cravings of human nature.
Some of our brothers and sisters in Jesus can tell you the exact date and time when they were ‘born again.’ I think it’s great when a person can trace their new life as a follower of Jesus to a specific moment. But I also don’t believe you have to experience a lightning-bolt moment of divine action to be born again. For lots of followers of Jesus, being ‘born again’ is a continuing process by which the Spirit reshapes us, little by little and day by day, in the image of Jesus. The Reformed tradition says the process of sanctification continues to the end of a believer’s life.
The apostle Paul wrote that our lives should reflect less and less of our own agendas and more and more of the priorities of Jesus. That, I would say, is probably the best measure of whether we are ‘born again.’ But I think I would also suggest that becoming more like Jesus is usually a process by which the Spirit makes us slowly-but-steadily discontented with the way we have always lived, and gives us a hunger to be Jesus to the world around us.
Let’s pray. Lord, we ask that your Holy Spirit would come into our hearts and minds more and more each day, and that by that Spirit we would be constantly reborn in the image of Jesus, so that we might love you more deeply, serve you more faithfully, and display your image more clearly each day of our lives. Amen.
Grace and Peace,
Henry
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