For Sunday, May 31, 2015 – John 3:1-17
Too often the Pharisees get a bad rap. We imagine them as all the same when, like the rest of us, they come in a variety pack. Legalistic and self-righteous? Sure, sometimes—like me and you on some topic or another—but also hungry for truth, dedicated to seeking after God. One of these Pharisees is Nicodemus, who comes to Jesus by night saying, “Rabbi, we know you are a teacher who has come from God.” Notice he does not say “I” but “we” letting us know that there are others like him. What follows is a respectful exchange about something Jesus has been heard to say that causes Nicodemus to scratch his head in confusion: what it means to be “born again.”
Isn’t it curious that being “born again”—who is and who isn’t, what it means, how it looks, why it matters—remains one of the more head-scratching ideas among disciples of Jesus even today? Here Jesus breaks it down this way: to be “born of water” through our mother’s flesh is how we enter the human realm; this is simply the natural way. Similarly, we are “born of spirit” through the Spirit. This birth, like the first birth, is the natural way to enter the “kingdom of God” which Jesus has said is right here among us and within us and waiting for us, all at once. Nicodemus, like a pregnant mother nearing her time of birth, is up late, walking, seeking what he does not fully comprehend. He is filled to bursting with an eager anxiety, a hopeful restlessness, craving this new life he has heard Jesus promise.
Under the cover of night, we are told, he finds Jesus. Where else would we expect Jesus to be? Isn’t he always in our greatest longing, our deepest darkness? Where we go, to whom we turn, when new birth presses in upon us and darkness is all the light we can see makes all the difference. Wisely Nicodemus hands himself over not to his own understanding but to an experienced midwife who has sound advice and can guide him through his next spiritual passage. Where do you and I go? Do we trust the gifts found in darkness? Only there can we take off our masks, all the roles and rules of our lives, and just be ourselves, hungry for the depths of God. In the dark we can confess how ready we are, right now, for new life.
