Daily Reflection Monday of the Second Week of Easter

Nicodemus is a character who appears only in the Gospel of John. He first shows up early in John in chapter 3 (we hear the first half of this meeting, one of the longest encounters with Jesus recorded in the gospels, today). He is a Pharisee but a Pharisee who admits that Jesus is undeniably from God because of the “signs” that Jesus was doing, and he calls him “Rabbi” (teacher), a sign of respect. This is very unlike most other Pharisees who completely denied Jesus’ authenticity. Nicodemus will later argue for Jesus before the Pharisees in chapter 7 and by the end, in chapter 19, he has become, along with Joseph of Arimathea, a disciple, even if a secret disciple for fear of the Jewish leaders, bringing (expensive) myrrh and aloes for Jesus’ anointing after his crucifixion, which quite probably he was present at ( significantly, as opposed to the twelve who had all fled).
 
In today’s passage from John, Nicodemus comes to Jesus “at night,” signifying both his fear of being discovered meeting Jesus as well as his own reality of still being in a spiritual darkness about who Jesus is. Jesus gets immediately to the heart of the matter by telling him that all must be “born from above” in order to enter the Kingdom of God. However, the Greek word here (the Gospel of John was written in what is known as Koine {for common} Greek of the first century) can mean both again or from above and therefore Nicodemus misunderstands which meaning Jesus was using, thinking Jesus is talking about actually being born again, or a second time, and thus his question to Jesus.
 
Jesus then clarifies by saying that we must be born of “water and the spirit.” This must refer to both baptism and the giving of the Holy Spirit (in what we have come to know as the sacrament of confirmation). He concludes by telling Nicodemus an additional great truth, “What is born of flesh is flesh and what is born of spirit is spirit,” meaning one birth is of the body (our actual births from our mother’s womb) and the other, our spiritual rebirth, from above or from God. This echoes what Jesus told the Jewish leaders and his other disciples in John 6 immediately after telling them that they must eat his flesh and drink his blood to have life, “The flesh is useless. The Spirit alone gives life.”
 
Jesus then tells Nicodemus something about that Spirit (for the Greek word for spirit is also the word for wind), basically that it blows where it will. There are no boundaries to the work of the Holy Spirit of God.
 
We should listen carefully to Jesus’ words here, as I’m sure Nicodemus did, for he struggled to understand Jesus. Jesus will go on to tell him (in the conclusion of their meeting in tomorrow’s gospel passage) that, “God so loved the world that he sent his only begotten son so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.”
 
Do we believe that the Spirit of God blows where it will, that nothing can block it and nothing restrict it? Do we believe it is fully available to all of us, that it is God’s pure love poured out on everyone everywhere at all times as God’s pure gift? That there are no boundaries or obstacles the Spirit cannot easily overcome? If we believe this and believe that God’s Spirit is in everyone and everything we meet since God fully loves everyone and everything that happens, then we can become ready, through prayer and faith, to find God and God’s Spirit and God’s love in everyone and everything. Then we can see everyone and everything as somehow God’s gift to us. If we do not, let us pray more and more that God will open our eyes to see it. For when we do, everyone and everything will become a great blessing that in our poor blindness we simply feared. For then God’s Spirit, God’s perfect love will have cast out all our fears.