RCL reading for Sunday, June 7, 2009:
Excerpt from the New Revised Standard Version
via Oremus (http://bible.oremus.org)
John 3:1-17
1 Now there was a Pharisee named Nicodemus, a leader of the Jews.
2 He came to Jesus by night and said to him, ‘Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God; for no one can do these signs that you do apart from the presence of God.’
3 Jesus answered him, ‘Very truly, I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above.’
4 Nicodemus said to him, ‘How can anyone be born after having grown old? Can one enter a second time into the mother’s womb and be born?’
5 Jesus answered, ‘Very truly, I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit.
6 What is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the Spirit is spirit.
7 Do not be astonished that I said to you, “You must be born from above.”
8 The wind blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.’
9 Nicodemus said to him, ‘How can these things be?’
10 Jesus answered him, ‘Are you a teacher of Israel, and yet you do not understand these things?
11 ‘Very truly, I tell you, we speak of what we know and testify to what we have seen; yet you do not receive our testimony.
12 If I have told you about earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you about heavenly things?
13 No one has ascended into heaven except the one who descended from heaven, the Son of Man.
14 And just 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.
16 ‘For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.
17 ‘Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.
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Nicodemus comes in out of the night bearing with him the weight of his social standing and accomplishments in erudition. He asks a series of questions which Jesus not so much answers as responds to. Neither really talks to the other so much as sets out positions for public debate. They obviouslly respect each other but Jesus keeps raising the question to a spiritual level, a level which Nicodemus consistantly avoids. One is reminded of the rich young man of the synoptic gospels for whom the price of discipleship is too high. Jesus responds that the price is everything you have but the reward is everything there is.
ReplyDeleteKen Brown writes ...
ReplyDeleteRe: John 3:8 Dr. James Stewart has a marvelous message that unfolds the meaning of John 3:8. Nicodemus knew the connotations involved in “ruach”, the Hebrew word for “wind” and “spirit”. Ruach indicated the wind with its energy and force and physical breath, the breath of life, and God’s wind, His supernatural, creative power as in Gen. 1:2. But the teacher of Israel did not know the Spirit whom Jesus would be introducing to the world and to his own seeking heart.
Stewart writes first of “the ceaseless action of the Spirit”, i.e. the wind blows constantly. The Spirit of God never ceases to work.
Secondly, there is “the sovereign freedom of the Spirit”, i.e. the wind blows where He chooses (“it will”). No one can control the where, when or how of the divine movement.
Thirdly, “the indisputable evidence of the Spirit”, i.e. you hear the sound of Him which reminds us of the passage in Acts 2:2f where the Spirit announced His presence with a roar like the blowing of a violent wind, the fiery tongues, and the gospel heard in every language needed as well as 3000 changed hearts and lives.
The “inscrutable origin of the Spirit” is Dr. Stewart’s fourth point, “but you do not know whence He comes”. Like the wind we can describe but not analyze its beginnings any more than we can rationally explain the Trinity or the new birth from above that Jesus was saying Nicodemus so badly needed.
The final point, “the incalculable destiny of the Spirit”, i.e. “you do not know where He is leading” becomes clear when we really try to follow Him. We don’t know any better than Nicodemus who, just a short time later, found himself trying to defend Jesus before the Sanhedrin. Then, startling and amazing even more, found himself before Pilate asking to bury the crucified body of Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews. Then there’s “the rest of the story” still being told.