The Spirit and Nicodemus

The story of Nicodemus may be familiar to you.¹ NIcodemus comes to see Jesus at night. In John’s gospel light and dark symbolize accepting, or not, God’s ways. Jesus is called the light of the world. Darkness is presented as the opposite of that light.

Nicodemus has questions and then doesn’t understand what Jesus is talking about. This happens frequently in John’s gospel, Jesus says one thing and people think he means something different. Jesus, in this story, asks Nicodemus to imagine something startling. The idea of being “born again” or “born anew” or “born from above”² is new to Nicodemus. He doesn’t understand.

Then Jesus starts talking about the wind blowing. In Greek the word for wind is also the word for spirit. Is Jesus talking about being born anew or from above? Is he talking about wind or the spirit? No wonder Nicodemus is confused.

Remember, Jesus is not the Messiah anyone is expecting. He doesn’t say or do what people expect him to do. Would your response be that different from Nicodemus’ if you didn’t have the benefit of 2000 years of theological reflection on Jesus’ words? It is an astounding conversation.

Gail R. O’Day writing about these verses, “Once again Jesus describes new birth with a word that cannot be held to a single meaning. The word pneuma perfectly captures the essence of Jesus’ message: the wind/Spirit blows where it wills; human beings can detect its presence but cannot chart its precise movements. Jesus’ offer of new birth is like the wind/Spirit; a mystery beyond human knowledge and control.”³

The text in Chapter 3 does not give us Nicodemus’ response to what Jesus says. However Nicodemus does appear twice more in John’s gospel. In chapter 7 he urges the Pharisees to follow their law and listen to Jesus before making a judgment about him. In chapter 19 he goes with Joseph of Arimathea to bury Jesus.

Being born, both physically and spiritually, is a beginning. We don’t know, can’t know what life after birth will bring. The Spirit’s call is unpredictable and uncontrollable. But our response is in our control.

Jesus is always calling people forward, calling you and me forward, into a new future, a new way of being. Birthed into a life guided by the Spirit we listen wondering what we will hear.

1. You can read the story of Nicodemus (John 3:1-21), here. Just last March, we took a look at the language the author of the Gospel of John uses in this story. ↩︎
2. Each of these are ways the phrase can be translated. ↩︎
3. Gail Oday, “The Gospel of John, Introduction, Commentary, and Reflections” in The New Interpreter’s Bible, vol IX. Abingdon Press: 1995, page550. ↩︎