In this case (above) the questioner is an AD 30 “ruler of the Jews”. His peer group has just aggressively questioned Jesus about his authority to throw out all traders and their wares from the Jerusalem Temple.
Why does this particular boss choose to come at night and gently ask to know more – to know more of whatever was unknown to him about Jesus? . Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.” Nicodemus said to him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?”
What do you think of Jesus’ response? It’s the first of two “truly, truly” statements. Is he stating that this religious leader will remain blind unless a new life comes into him? “Unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.”?
Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or to where it departs. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.” Nicodemus said to him, “How can these things be?”
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Does Jesus’ second “truly, truly” help at all? “Unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.”? Does “water birth” have anything to do with womb waters? What about “Spirit birth”? Is that more than a baby’s first breath? And if this “Spirit birth” is like the wind, how can I ever grasp this new wind? Isn’t the wind – like Storm Cieran – completely out of my control?
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Jesus answered him, “Are you the teacher of Israel and yet you do not understand these things? Truly, truly, I say to you, we speak of what we know, and bear witness to what we have seen, but you do not receive our testimony. If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you heavenly things? No one has ascended into heaven except he who descended from heaven, the Son of Man.”
Is Jesus taking a really hard line with Nicodemus? Nicodemus had seen how Jesus had thrown out of the Jerusalem Temple all those who were concentrating of making a living but totally ignoring the LORD God of the Temple. Was Jesus referring to that as “earthly things” – “earthly things” which Nicodemus and his peer group “did not believe”? And when Jesus said “No one has ascended into heaven except he who descended from heaven, the Son of Man”, was he speaking about himself and about where he had come from?
“And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal being.”
“The serpent lifted up by Moses”? Back around 1400 BC, this Moses was the national leader of the descendants of a man named Israel. The LORD had brought about this numerous people’s release from slavery in Egypt. But virtually all of them had, within a short time, decided to attribute their freedom to money - to a golden calf which they’d made and worshipped. Rather like their descendants in AD 30 who were worshipping making-a-living and deliberately avoiding the LORD God of the Jerusalem Temple.
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In Moses day, the LORD had sent deadly snakes to bring the people to their senses. Many died. But the LORD then instructed Moses to make and “lift up” a bronze serpent high on a pole. Any who merely looked at it didn’t die. Do you think that Nicodemus knew about Moses and that historic lifted-up serpent?
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| Not many months later, Nicodemus himself would see “the Son of Man lifted up” on a Roman cross, abhorred by all? Would he connect the two? |
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