Water and Spirit

stuff of earth and things of heaven

Trinity Sunday Year B

May 26, 2024
John 3:1-17

Today is traditionally celebrated in the church as Trinity Sunday, the Sunday after Pentecost. A day where we honor and lift up the theology of the Triune God. A mystery that really is difficult to understand but I will simply explain it as a math equation that goes like this: One plus one plus one equals one! The Trinity is the three persons of God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit and too many preachers tie themselves in knots over trying to explain something that I don’t think can truly be understood outside of the heavenly realms. But Jesus is frequently alluding to the God that was, the incarnate God that is in the human body as the Christ, and the God that is the Holy Spirit, God’s real and active presence with us now. 

Nicodemus, a learned man of God, a Pharisee and Rabbi, had a very difficult time understanding this, too. He’s studied God and the Law, he’s heard of Jesus, he’s watched Jesus, he’s listened to Jesus, and he knows of Jesus’ miracles which Nicodemus seems to find irrefutable. But he’s got questions.

Nicodemus says he knows Jesus is a teacher that has clearly come from God. He calls Jesus “Rabbi” which implies that he sees Jesus as somewhat of an equal, if not a superior. Nicodemus is a leader of the Jews so he is likely one of the Rabbi of Rabbis. He says to Jesus “we know” which indicates that Nicodemus has discussed this matter of who Jesus is with the others who seem to be in agreement that Jesus is, indeed, a teacher that has come from God. What Jesus was doing– healing, teaching, performing miracles, could not be done without the presence of God. 

Jesus more or less tells him the Kingdom of God is not going to really be that obvious or recognizable by everyone–only those who have been begotten from above are going to be able to see the Kingdom of God, only those born of water and Spirit. Not that it’s off limits, it’s just hard to enter a place when you can’t see it.

And here is where we can sympathize with Nicodemus. He just doesn’t quite understand, taking things a little too literally. Nicodemus doesn’t come to Jesus with animosity, he’s not one of the Pharisees trying to trap Jesus, he comes with genuine openness, and much like us who are open to understanding the Gospel, we, too, can become befuddled if we get too literal. He’s questioning, “I’ve already been born from my mother’s womb. How do I go back and do that again?”

Jesus tries to explain again with, “Very truly I tell you,” which is an emphatic way of saying, “Listen, I am solemnly telling you the truth here, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and the spirit.” Nicodemus doesn’t argue with Jesus nor does he leave in protest, he’s trying, but just throws up his hands, “How can this be?” You or I might simply say, “I don’t get it, Jesus!”

Born of water and the Spirit. Water alludes to the process of human birth, from the womb of a woman. Born of Spirit is to be birthed into the Kingdom of God. Nicodemus does not understand that there is another way to be born. He is a privileged and learned teacher and has everything riding on that, but it is not enough. All his knowledge is good, but one must be born from the womb of God’s Spirit, too. The earthly and the spiritual must come together. We don’t cease being human, but we must accept our spiritual selves as children of God, too. Water and Spirit, stuff of earth and things of heaven. 

Being born from above, from Spirit, is to follow  Christ and live in a new way, a way where Nicodemus may have to let go of his earthly attachments to his wealth and his high rank in society to adopt the new life that is guided by the Spirit. We, too, have to consider the cost of following Jesus. For Nicodemus, it was high. But we all have to let go of the things we cling to in this life that keep us from being renewed, that keep us from living life in a new way, guided from above. We have to let go of what we think we know, we have to let go of our fear. We have to become new beings, live a new existence. This is our baptism, reborn, made new in the water and the Spirit.

As a teacher of the Torah, Nicodemus should have recalled the prophecies of the Old Testament such as in Ezekial who speaks of the promise of the new covenant with God, that the new age will be ushered in by the washing of the people in clean water and an outpouring of the Spirit. Jesus is announcing the fulfillment of that prophecy and Nicodemus is missing it. And Jesus calls him on it. “You’re a teacher of Israel and you don’t know these things?” See, Jesus is not reinventing the Law, he is fulfilling it and the very people who purport to know the law the best can’t see it right in front of their faces. 

This happens to us, too. We read the scriptures, are following all the rules, so confident that we are right that we can’t see the Spirit at work right in front of our faces. We can create God in our own image so we can be comfortable and keep God under control. Take for instance the last two verses of our reading today. “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.” How often has this verse been used by the masses to threaten or scare people, especially at football games? And right in front of us is the message that God so loved…this world that has gone astray and forgets God every day, God loves it. God loves us. We’re not all that loyal to God, but what is God’s desire? To punish us? No, God’s desire is that we not perish. 

The verse after that drives it home, “Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.” God did not send Jesus to condemn, but too often the teachers of the Law and now Christians use the threat of condemnation all the time. One very difficult thing for even an earnest and open teacher of Israel to hear was the last bit, “that the world might be saved.” Not just Israel, although that is where it began, but all the world. Not just those that have followed the law of Moses, but all the world. Everyone.

We don’t know if Nicodemus had had enough at that point and left, we don’t know what his final response was, but it would have been a difficult pill to swallow because it was not at all how the people of Israel thought the Messiah would act. All Nicodemus thought he knew was being challenged.

Nicodemus wasn’t sure he wanted to be seen talking with Jesus, so he came at night. Nicodemus could not quite comprehend that the truth was staring him in the face. But he was trying. Nicodemus was privileged, knowledgeable, powerful, and wealthy. What was going to be Nicodemus’ God? Was Nicodemus going to be able to let go to allow  the Spirit make him new? The door to the kingdom of heaven was open, but only when we are born of water AND the Spirit are we able to see it. It’s there for all of us, all the world, including the ones we think don’t belong. 

There is a hopeful message for all of us who can identify with Nicodemus’ struggle to “get” Jesus. His conversion wasn’t quick, but there was a longing in him and he must have sat with Jesus words for some time and the Spirit did move in a heart that was open, because Nicodemus later became a follower of Jesus, defended him to the Pharisees, and took care of his body when Jesus died. The body of water, the Spirit of God.

Robert Benson, a member of the community Friends of Silence & of the Poor, wrote:

When we were given the capacity to love, to speak, to decide, to dream, to hope and create and suffer, we were also given the longing to be known by the One who most wants to be completely known. It is a longing woven into the very fabric of the image in which we were made.

I believe it is this longing that is the Spirit beckoning. Take heart from Nicodemus. If you struggle with doubt or understanding just what God, the Son, and the Spirit are up to in this world and if it really matters, let the words of Christ sit in you. Open your heart to begin to trust that the Spirit will indeed create you anew. God so loved you that he sent his Son that you should not perish. You are born of water, my friends, and spirit.