Text: John 3:1-17
In the name of + Jesus. Amen.
Jesus revealed the Holy Trinity to Nicodemus, who had come looking for answers. The teacher of Israel needed to be taught by the rabbi who is God in the flesh. Nicodemus was also a Pharisee and a member of the ruling council. Although these groups hated Jesus, Nicodemus confessed that Jesus had “come from God” and God was “with Him.” But He had come at night, because believing such things could have gotten him in a lot of trouble with the authorities.
Jesus, the Son, speaks of God, the Father, and He teaches about the Spirit – and He wraps the entire lesson up in Holy Baptism. He tells Nicodemus that in order to be part of the kingdom of God, he must be “born again.”
Nicodemus is baffled by the expression. What does it mean to be “born again.” Obviously, Jesus is using a figure of speech, because one cannot “enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born.” Some people today think that “born again” means you’re some kind of special, super-charged Christian, like you actually believe and live this stuff. Then you’re a “born again” Christian as opposed to a normal, lukewarm Christian. Or maybe you have to have some kind of emotional conversion that allows you to wear the “born again” badge.
But where does Jesus say any of this?
He explains that one must be “born of water and the Spirit.” This is a mysterious saying at the time, because Jesus had not yet established baptism – but He will. But for now, it’s a missing puzzle piece, a mystery for the teacher of Israel to chew on.
But being born is not something that you can choose to do. It just happens to you. Somehow, you became you because your parents brought you into the world. God created you through them – just as He told Adam and Eve to “be fruitful and multiply.” When we were all born into this world, there was no decision on our part. There was no emotional conversion from non-existence to existence. It just happened by God’s will.
And being “born again” is a similar experience. It is something that happens to us by “water and the Spirit.” The word “Spirit” has a double meaning. It also means “breath” or “wind.” Jesus explains the work of the Holy Spirit to Nicodemus this way: “The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.” When Jesus gave the Holy Spirit to the apostles just before He ascended into heaven, He “breathed on them” and “said, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit.’”
When we are baptized, there are two things that happen: first, water is used, and second there are words: words that bear the breath of the one conducting the baptism. There is water and breath – and in the case of Holy Baptism, the breath is the Spirit. The one being born again may or may not be aware of it. It is something that is being done to him, rather than something that he does.
And about the same time that Jesus breathed on the disciples and gave them the Holy Spirit, authorizing them to forgive sins, Jesus established Holy Baptism: “Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.”
It would be then – when Jesus ordained the apostles into the ministry, when our Lord instituted baptism, and after Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit came and guided the disciples into all truth – that it all became clear. And that is why at Pentecost, after Peter’s sermon, “those who received his word were baptized, and there were added that day about three thousand souls.” Souls are added to the kingdom of God by baptism, by being born again of water and the Spirit.
In His teaching of the teacher of Israel, Jesus makes it clear that He is not merely a rabbi or a prophet, but rather the “Son”, who was sent by God the Father, into the world. And Jesus, the Son, was not sent by the Father to condemn the world, but to save it. “For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.”
And this new life is given to us, dear friends, just like our old life; through birth. We are born first of flesh and blood, and then we are born again of water and the Spirit. We are baptized in the name of the Trinity, according to the instructions of Jesus, washed with water, as St. Paul wrote to Titus: “But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, He saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to His own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by his grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.”
This is the second birth that mystified Nicodemus.
Jesus gave Nicodemus a clue about Himself from the Old Testament, something for Nicodemus to look out for that would help him to understand. He reminded him that “Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness,” back when the people were dying of snakebites. God told Moses to make a bronze serpent and raise it up on a pole, and everyone who looked at it would be saved. Jesus told Nicodemus: “So must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him may have eternal life.”
Nicodemus would see the Son of Man lifted up on the cross. And even though this put him at odds with the authorities, Nicodemus defended Jesus’ right to be heard before being condemned. He was at our Lord’s crucifixion, and he provided embalming spices for our Lord after His death, and he worked with Joseph of Arimathea to give Jesus a proper burial.
And it would be in light of the cross that these mysteries would become clear – especially when Jesus rose again, when He breathed the Holy Spirit into the apostles, and when He sent them into the world to make disciples by baptism. Only by sticking with Jesus to the end would the night-time lesson about the saving work of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit make sense.
Scripture doesn’t say what happened to Nicodemus after the crucifixion of Jesus. Church tradition also has nothing to tell us other than that Nicodemus was a believer, that he was born again, and that he became known to the church as St. Nicodemus.
And of all his fame and learning and accomplishments – none of these things amount to anything compared to being born again by water and the Spirit…
In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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