John 3:1-17 Commentary

In the verses just before Nicodemus comes knocking on Jesus’s door, the gospel writer tells us that people were coming to believe in Jesus because of the signs Jesus was doing while in Jerusalem. Then there’s this rather ominous line: “But Jesus on his part would not entrust himself to them… he himself knew what was in everyone.” As we will be reminded at the close of our text this week, God knows what we are and even if we do not receive and honour him as we should, he still loves us and came not to condemn us but to save us.

Nicodemus comes by night, probably not wanting to get found out. He is someone who needs to be set free. As a teacher and leader, he likely doesn’t want to have people hear about his questions and doubts. On The Chosen from Amazon Prime, Nicodemus is depicted as an aging, tired leader who is frustrated by the Roman Empire’s pressures and frustrated by the demands to keep face among the Jewish people. The show decides to fill in his backstory based on Nicodemus’s conversation with Jesus by having Nicodemus’s frustration become mixed with sadness as he is unable to help a woman possessed by demons. But then, a little later, he hears that the woman is healed! Nicodemus goes to see for himself, joining the throngs of people coming to believe in this Jesus fellow because of the miracles he works. It is here that Nicodemus goes and seeks Jesus out for their late-night conversation.

Though there is no way of knowing, of course, whether this sort of scenario is what led Nicodemus to seek Jesus out, I appreciate how it helps me think about Nicodemus being on a spiritual journey—even if it feels like he’s trying to make his way through proverbial mud. To his frustrated and sad soul, Jesus feels like a breath of fresh air. And at the same time, all Jesus does is confound everything that Nicodemus knows. This isn’t necessarily a turn off to Nicodemus; his questions do seem like that of someone trying to make sense and not give up.

Of course, Nicodemus is going to have to give up on making sense and having understanding as his grounding. Both in our verses and in the rest of Jesus’s speech to Nicodemus that are not included in the lectionary passage, “believe” is a keyword, repeated over and over in various forms. Nicodemus must journey from knowing that the Rabbi Jesus has come from God to believing in him.

Nicodemus must be “born from above,” by being born of the Spirit. Nicodemus will need to be willing to receive the full testimony of Jesus, the one who needs no other witness than himself. Nicodemus will need to trust in Jesus, to humble himself in front of this Rabbi.

Jesus explains it to Nicodemus this way: Jesus is the only one who has both ascended into heaven as well as descended from heaven. There have been other prophets and teachers who have ascended into the heavens (namely the great Elijah), but only Jesus has come down to be with us.

As if to really bring it home for the teacher of the law, Jesus moves even further back into their shared heritage, comparing himself to Moses. Well, not Moses, but—like the serpent that served as both agent of judgement and salvation—as the one sent from God to save God’s people from their rebellion and sickness.

To be born of the Spirit, then, is to be like Nicodemus and seek out the powerful Jesus, the one changing people’s lives. And then, it’s to allow Jesus to change your life too by believing in him. Believing that he came for our good. Believing that he came out of great love. Believing that he is willing to humble himself and come down, and then humble himself and be raised up onto a death cross, in order that the world might be healed of all of its violence and suffering from evil. To believe that Jesus isn’t here to condemn us, but to set us free to live in his light.

Once again looking to Jesus’s words just outside our lectionary passage, Jesus hints at Nicodemus’s choice to come in the dead of night. Did Nicodemus fear being exposed to others more than he fears being exposed to God? So many of us will struggle with this same reality; during Lent we are reminded that there are parts of staying in darkness that we hold onto tightly. As we go through our journeys of new birth, we will need to be willing to step fully into the light of God’s day, for all the world to see, as we not only believe in, but also do “in God.”

Textual Point

Could Nicodemus’s use of the perfect tense in his opening statement to Jesus be a sign that he is taking steps towards belief? Nicodemus says that he knows that Jesus is a teacher who has come from God; in other words, he understands that there is a long-lasting significance to Jesus’s presence among them.

Jesus’s use of the perfect tense, especially in verse 11, seems to echo Nicodemus’s words in verse 2 even as Jesus describes humans generally—the “you” is plural in verses 11 and 12. There is so much that God does that is already rejected as nonsense; what will happen when people are confronted by the extraordinary reality of God?

Illustration Idea

Have you ever been in bed and had a thought or a question or a concern drive you out of the warm sheets? A gracious reading of our friend Nicodemus is to see him as someone who’s had a spark lit in him by the Holy Spirit and who can’t let go of his question until he gets to the bottom of it.

[Note: For the Year A Season of Lent and leading up to Easter, CEP has, in addition to these weekly sermon commentaries, a special Lent and Easter Resource Page with links to whole sermons, commentary on Lenten texts, and more.]