Meditation 301
John 3: 1-17
Today’s is the last of the meditations that I have been writing for the past 14 months. This pandemic project has been an interesting experience. I have found that the practice of writing 5 or 6 meditations a week has been a way to express thoughts that come to me, and I have found in the sharing of these thoughts that there has been help for others. The reflections and comments from those of you who have been reading these meditations have been a blessing to me. Thank you all for being part of the reading community that has grown in the past 14 months.
This coming Sunday is Trinity Sunday, the day we are reminded of the doctrine that God is one in three and three in one. In this passage in John there is reference made to God in three different persons. We hear of God who sent Jesus, who sent his son, and who is by implication is a Father. We hear from Jesus who talks with Nicodemus, and we are told of the spirit that is like the wind that blows where it will, enabling us to be born of water and of the Spirit. Father, son and spirit. The traditional names for the members of the Trinity.
In this passage Jesus is talking to Nicodemus, telling him about God, and about how to know God.
Nicodemus has seen in Jesus something different than the other rabbis, so he goes to him to ask questions. This passage is so familiar to us, and the verse about being born again is quoted so much that we can miss the drastic nature of this story. Nicodemus was a Pharisee, this meant he was devoted to the law of God. He loved God and wanted to serve God. He had dedicated his life to studying the law, and he had a good understanding of what God wanted. In a way he was comparable to a moderator of General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church. He had recognition from his group of believers, and he would have some recognition from those outside of his group of followers. Nicodemus was respected.
Into Nicodemus’s ordered world came Jesus, a young radical rabbi who questioned the status quo. He was questioning religious traditions; he was questioning power balances, and he was upsetting everything with the stories he told, and the miracles he performed. Yet somehow in the midst of the upset Jesus was creating Nicodemus could see that he was more than a rabble rouser and he came to Jesus to find out more. This would be like an established, respected minister, asking one of the young men with piercings and tattoos what he had to say about God. For an established Pharisee, like Nicodemus, to come to a young man like Jesus for instruction, was an event that would simply not be expected. The older men did not go to the young men for instruction.
Nicodemus recognized that Jesus has been sent by God when he says “No one can do these signs that you do apart from the presence of God.” Nicodemus recognized authority in Jesus, and as unlikely as it would be for his day and age; Nicodemus goes to visit Jesus. As unbelievable as that story would be for the original hearers, we find that it was chosen to be recorded in the gospel of John. Just as it was unusual for Nicodemus to come to Jesus there are also people that we do not expect to approach for spiritual insight. Who are the people that are hard for us to approach? What would it be like for us to go to the people on the fringes and ask what they knew of God? What story might a street person tell of an experience of God? What story might a chronically unemployed person have to tell? Would they tell of Christians who showed them the love of God? Would they tell of believers who looked them in the eye and gave them the help they asked for? There are times that we are the face of Jesus to those we meet.
We see in this example that Jesus was open to talking with those who are asking questions, and teaching truth that will help them to grow. The truth that Jesus gives to Nicodemus; that he must be born from above is the truth that we need as well. This is not something that we have to hold over others, not a way of making us out to be better or closer to God, but a way that the spirit is at work in our lives enabling us to be born of water and the spirit. We are invited to be born from above or born anew. When we encounter God, we become new people.