Trinity: Gospel, John 3:1-17                                                            

John 3:1-17

There are two great teachers joined in the text of John 3. They are both experts in the Jewish Law and they both want all the other Jews to “get it.” In other words, these are educators in the truest sense of that word. The subject is the life of eternity, how to obtain it and at the tail end of the account, what awaits those who do not receive the gift God offers.

Jesus and Nicodemus, “Israel’s teacher” (v. 10), are meeting at night. From the perspective of Nicodemus, because he doesn’t want to be seen making inquiry of Jesus. But from the heavenly perspective of Jesus? Well, let’s just say that God knows some topics are best addressed outside the hustle and bustle of “office and water cooler.” So much could be said here about God preparing Nicodemus for the encounter and the message he received. But the cardinal issue is this great teacher of Israel, standing in the presence of this amazing itinerant rabbi, is dumbfounded at the teaching of spiritual truth coming from this “unschooled” teacher.

Nicodemus wants to know how to gain the life that will last forever and Jesus says that you can’t even see it with the eyes of this world. When you think of it in terms of what you have here, well it just doesn’t translate. Jesus says it’s a new birth that brings you into the Kingdom of God, or better the Kingdom of God into you. And it has nothing to do with amniotic fluid, hot water or clean linens. It is all about heavenly gifts. In effect, “You cannot see it Nicodemus, because you haven’t received the gift,” says Jesus. The Kingdom, the life of the Spirit, eternal life comes to Nicodemus and to us with the hand of God extended in blessing and our hands open to receive, declaring all the time that our sins make us unworthy of it. The payment of the demand for our sins on the cross, still future for Nicodemus, has secured both the gift and way of receiving it.

There’s a real washing that’s needed. And the Spirit of the Lord must hover over the cleansing water even as He hovered above the waters of the first creation. So Nicodemus must get his eyes off the world and its ways and trust the words of his night-time companion. “You must be born again” (3:7). Nothing short of a heavenly birth and nothing less than a heavenly perspective on the question at hand.

Lord, open our eyes.