Before I even read the scripture, I'm going to break a homiletical rule. I'm going to give a Greek lesson. The New Testament was originally written in Greek, but every preaching student knows you're not supposed to talk about Greek words and problems of translation because it's boring. But that's too bad.
In this story as you have it on page -- in the pew bible, Jesus tells a man named Nicodemus, in verse 3, "Very truly, I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above." The Greek word translated here as "from above," is often translated as "again." The expression "to be born again," comes from this passage. It's translated both ways because the Greek word, anothen, can mean either "from above," or "again," or something of both at the same time. There's no word in English with that double meaning. So translators make a choice and footnote the alternative. But the first people to hear John's gospel would have heard both possibilities. And we, too, should keep them in mind.
Listen for the Word of God, as it comes to us in the Gospel of John, chapter 3, verses 1-17.
Most of us have wondered, from our Sunday School days, what it must have been like to know Jesus in the flesh, 2000 years ago. To walk with him along the Sea of Galilee. To eat the bread and fish that seemed to come out of nowhere. To drink the water turned into wine. To speak with the man blind from birth who gained his sight. Even if we're skeptical about the miracles, and many faithful Christians are, we wonder: what would it have been like to be in his presence? To hear him speak and ask a question? We may imagine that it would have been easier to believe then. That his presence or his words would have touched us in a way that left no doubt about who he was and his call to follow. After all, we believe in him now, 2000 years later. Might we have been better disciples if we were closer to the source?
Perhaps. But the story of Nicodemus suggests that being with and talking to Jesus might just have been confusing. Let's look at it. Nicodemus is a Pharisee. John will paint the Pharisees in a very bad and inaccurate light later on, but nothing has been said about them yet. As a Pharisee, Nicodemus would have been a serious student of the Torah, and a teacher who helped people follow God's law in a difficult time and place. John notes that he was a leader. Nicodemus comes to Jesus at night, and says: "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." A respectful statement. A statement that invited Jesus to say more about who he was, or the signs he did. Instead, Jesus says something that seems totally unrelated. "Very truly, I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above." We don't know what Nicodemus thought when he heard that. He might have wondered if he heard right. He might have thought that Jesus was a little off. But he went with it. He followed Jesus's lead. "How can anyone be born after having grown old?" he asked. "Can one enter a second time into the mother's womb and be born?" Again, Nicodemus does not get a direct answer. "Very truly," Jesus says, "no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit. What is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the Spirit is spirit." OK, Nicodemus may have thought, we come out of water when we're born from our mother's womb, our flesh is born of her flesh ... and the Spirit gives birth to the spirit? ... He must still have looked baffled, because Jesus goes on to say, "Do not be astonished that I said to you, 'You must be born from above.' 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 born of the Spirit." Nicodemus then asks a perfectly reasonable question: "How can these things be?" And what does Nicodemus get? A reprimand! "Are you a teacher of Israel, and yet you do not understand these things?"
Well, that's the last question he asks, according to John. No wonder! If I were Nicodemus, I think I would have walked away right then, insulted, or at least disillusioned. But Nicodemus did not. Apparently he stayed to hear the rest of Jesus's words, words about how the Son of Man must be lifted up, and how he was sent so the world may be saved. We hear about Nicodemus twice more in the gospel. Later, when some Pharisees were asking the temple police to arrest Jesus, Nicodemus protested. He pointed out that under their law people should first get a hearing to find out what they're doing. Later still, after Jesus is crucified, he is one of the men who takes the body and buries it. John tells us he brought 75 pounds of myrrh and aloes to bury Jesus. 75 pounds! and remember, he wouldn't have been able to throw it in a pickup. Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea anointed the body, wrapped it in linen cloths and laid it in a new tomb, honors usually reserved for important, revered people, not criminals or rebels hung on a cross. Nicodemus had become a disciple.
What made him a follower of Jesus? Was he persuaded by other signs and miracles? Did something change when Nicodemus saw Jesus on the cross, assuming he was there? We don't know the details of his spiritual journey. We aren't privy to his thoughts. We don't know what led him to prepare this loving and extravagant burial for Jesus. Nicodemus must have been born from above, or born again, but we don't know how or when. Perhaps he had a sudden conversion experience, but John says nothing about it. It's a mystery to us. It may also have been a mystery to Nicodemus.
Jesus never explains exactly what he means by being "born again" or "from above." Remember what he said? "Do not be astonished that I said to you, 'you must be born from above.' 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 of everyone who is born of the Spirit." So it is: being born again, being born from above, is like the wind that blows where it chooses. We do not control it. It comes to us, often unbidden. We do not know why it goes in one direction or the other. The workings of the Spirit, like the workings of the wind, are, at bottom, mysterious. Being born again, or the faith that accompanies it, is not something we can fully understand, much less direct.
Perhaps, at some point in your life, another Christian has asked you if you've been "born again," if you had a moment where Jesus entered your heart and you knew he was your savior. A sudden conversion experience that changed everything, including - most likely - the church you attended. If you said, "no," or equivocated, the person who asked may have been worried. After all, in this passage Jesus says you must be born again and he also says you must believe in him. Jesus, at least in John's account, has harsh words for those who don't. They will perish. They are condemned already. These passages, and ones like it, are often behind the claim that one must believe in Jesus to be saved. Behind the claim that you must be "born again."
But, and this is the wonderful thing about the Bible, you think you know what it says but then you don't, we also have this image of the wind. Of being born again as something mysterious and beyond our control. For some of us, faith does come in a sudden conversion, and nothing is the same again. For others, it's a reliable, steady sense of God's presence since earliest childhood. For others, it comes and goes. Maybe at one point in your life you felt "born from above," and had a strong sense of faith or spiritual renewal, but it faded, or your doubts became so strong you wondered if you should even call yourself a Christian. But then, as the hymn goes, the Spirit revived your soul again. And you were born again ... and again ....
I had a seminary professor who used to say, "You can't bawl people out for not having faith," because faith was not something we decide to have or not. It's not something virtuous people have and evil or foolish ones don't. It's something that comes from outside of us, a gift. That doesn't mean we're powerless, simply buffeted about the winds of Spirit. We have a part to play in our faith journey. Nicodemous is a good model for us. He was first, a student of scripture. When he saw and heard Jesus and believed him a worthy teacher, he sought Jesus out. He stayed, and listened, through a very challenging conversation. When his colleagues talked of arresting Jesus, he bravely spoke up. And finally, when Jesus died, Nicodemus did what was needful: he generously and lovingly prepared the body for burial, perhaps at risk to himself. So we can listen, and seek God, and do what we believe God is asking of us, while allowing that the Spirit moves as it will.
Because faith is the work of the Spirit, because it's not something we earn or create in ourselves, we can also trust that God has plans for all those people who don't believe in Jesus. Plans for good and not for harm. The Muslims of Indonesia and the Hindi of India. Our husbands. Our children who have left the church. Our atheist friend at work. Our neighbors from West End Synagogue who will be visiting next week. All those people, 2000 years ago, who knew Jesus up close and personal, but still didn't believe he was the Son of God. We can trust that God's Spirit works in ways unknown to us, guiding all of God's children according to God's will.
If the Spirit has called us to faith in Christ, as it did for Nicodemus, we can rejoice. We can make the decision to follow Christ and act in loving ways. And we can trust in these words of Jesus: that God sent his son into the world so that the world may be saved. That the Spirit, blowing where it chooses, brings blessings to all of God's children.
Amen.