The passage in the next post is sometimes used as the basis for the question, “Are you a ‘born again’ Christian?” This usually means, “Have you, in your adult life, had a conversion experience in which you accepted Jesus Christ as your personal savior?”
But that’s not exactly what today’s text says.
Jesus tells Nicodemus that a person must be “born from above”. The phrase “from above" in this sentence is a Greek word which can have two meanings: “from above” and “again”.
Nicodemus takes it to mean “again”. He asks, “How can a person once grown old be born again?” The “again” here is a different Greek word than the one on the lips of Jesus. It’s a word that always means “again”.
Jesus corrects Nicodemus by saying explicitly that he means born “from above” – that is, “of the Spirit.” In other words, the question is about baptism. John the Baptist had said that he was giving a baptism of water, whereas the one to come after him would baptize “with the holy Spirit”.
With all out technology, we have not yet been able fully to control fire, air, earth and water. Fires break out every day. The air can become terribly turbulent – there are tornados, hurricanes. Earthquakes cause great destruction. Water brings floods, drownings.
In today’s Gospel Jesus uses the analogy of the wind – it’s something we can’t see or control. So it is, Jesus says, with the Spirit. We can’t see the Spirit…or fully understand the Spirit…and we certainly can’t control the Spirit.
But to be “born of flesh” rather than the Spirit is to stay within a world that I can control and think only in terms of what I can accomplish on my own.
To do that is to stay within a small world. Even to believe in God is not something I can accomplish. If I believe in God it is because of God’s initiative toward me.
I’ve got to stop confining myself within the limits of my own resources. I need to let God work within me.