Study Format:
1. What did you hear Jesus offering to you? To us? to the world?
2. What kind of resistance to Jesus did you hear?
3. What will you have to learn to resist or renounce in order to receive what Jesus is offering?
Interesting Ideas to Consider:
• If you are a fan of word play, this is a story for you!
• This story is the first example of a common pattern in John’s Gospel: a central event (in this case, a conversation between Jesus and the Pharisee Nicodemus) followed by a discourse by Jesus in which Jesus draws out general theological themes illustrated by the event. Other examples of this are Jesus teaching about the bread from heaven (John 6:22-58) after the feeding of the five thousand (John 6:1-15) and the Good Shepherd discourse (John 10:1-19) after the healing of the man born blind (John 9).
• Nicodemus is a complicated character, a fact that is portrayed immediately. On one hand Nicodemus, a religious leader, not usually the ones portrayed as being supporters of Jesus, sought out Jesus. As we saw in the calling of the disciples in John 1:38, seeking out Jesus in John’s Gospel is the first act of discipleship. But Nicodemus came to Jesus not during the day, but under the cover of night. This detail is especially important in John’s Gospel, where “night” is often used metaphorically to represent separation from the presence of God (9:4; 11:10; 13:30).
• Nicodemus opened with three positive acknowledgements of who Jesus was. 1) He called Jesus “rabbi,” acknowledging him as a teacher. 2) He said he was a “teacher who has come from God.” This was a traditional way of speaking of religious figures, so there is a degree here were Nicodemus was speaking a truth deeper than he understood. 3) Addressing Jesus in the first person plural indicated Nicodemus spoke not just for himself, but for his community. But Nicodemus drew these conclusions based on what Jesus had done (“signs” being the term used in John’s Gospel for what other Gospels termed miracles). 2:23-35 demonstrated that Jesus will not trust those who follow based only on signs.
• This reading introduces another common Johaninne (Johaninne relating to the writer and community of the Gospel of John) phrase, which in English is translated: “Very truly, I tell you…” In Greek, the phrase is amen, amen, lego, which literally translates Amen, amen I am saying to you…” Amen has the same meaning in Greek as in English, it is a transliteration of the Hebrew amen, meaning a declaration of affirmation, “may it be so,” or “truly.” My Greek teacher in seminary described it as Jesus saying, “When I finish what I’m about to say, you’re going to say Amen.”
• Has anyone ever asked you if you’ve been “born again”? That phrase comes from this story. The Greek word frequently translated as “again,” is anothen, a word with multiple meanings. It does mean “again,” it also means, “anew” and “from above.” These multiple meanings are only possible in Greek, there is no Hebrew or Aramaic (or English) equivalent. To be born anothen addresses both a time of birth (“again”) and the place from where new birth is generated (“from above”). The Kingdom of God in John also has both spacial and temporal dimensions. It is both already here in the person of Jesus, and not yet come into fullness.
• The choice of the use of anothen intentionally and unavoidably adds ambiguity into the reading, forcing Nicodemus to move beyond a surface reading to a deeper meaning. V. 4 showed how Nicodemus missed the two levels of meaning, focusing instead on one (“again”), and protesting that it is physiologically impossible. Nicodemus’s limited sense of possibility continually prevent him from understanding the fullness of what Jesus is saying. While Nicodemus was correct in one sense, it is impossible to be born again, that was not what Jesus was saying. Jesus was speaking of a radical new thing, not confined by space and time, and Nicodemus did not have the language or imagination to grasp it.
• In v. 5-8, Jesus tried again to expand Nicodemus’ thinking with new images that capture both meanings. “Born of water and spirit” in itself is a phrase with double meaning. For Nicodemus, the phrase turns on the word “born.” Nicodemus keyed in on the birth process as an exit from a mother’s womb, the literal process of giving birth. Jesus played on that imagery with “water” a reference to waters breaking immediately before the birth of a child, and “spirit” a reference to the new thing Jesus is bringing. For the reader of John’s Gospel, there is also a reference to baptism. The two essential items for a sacrament are a physical thing (in the case of baptism, water), and a word of promise.
• In v. 8, Jesus added more depth to the metaphor by talking about wind. The word in Greek is pneuma, which like anothen has a double meaning. In both Greek and Hebrew the words for spirit and wind are the same. Wind as a thing is mysterious, we as humans can feel the effects of wind, but we cannot see the wind itself. In the same way, what Jesus speaks of is a mystery beyond human knowledge and control.
• At v. 11, the text switches from conversation to discourse. Jesus spoke also in first person plural, speaking not just for himself, but for John the Baptist, the first disciples, and all the church who have “seen” Jesus and “know” him (see and know in quotation marks for the deeper meaning of both in indicating discipleship).
• V. 13, Jesus spoke of his ascension in the past tense, even though at the point of his speaking, it was in the future. This makes clear the post-resurrection perspective from which the Gospel is written.
• V. 14 references the story in Numbers 21:8-9 where Moses lifted up a serpent on a pole to protect the Israelites from snakes. It too is based on play on words. The Greek hypsoo means both “lift up” and “exalt” (the Hebrew word nasa has the same double meaning, for a humorous example, read Genesis 40:9-23, nasa is twice used in “lift up your head,” the first time it means “exalt,” the second it literally means lift up, as in remove your head from your shoulders, decapitate, if you will.) The double meaning is that in the physical act of being lifted up, Jesus will be exalted. The “lifting up” here refers to the crucifixion. John/Jesus is making the claim that in the seemingly demeaning experience of being crucified, Jesus will be exalted. This is the central theology of the cross in John’s Gospel, the event of the crucifixion is the moment of Jesus’ glory.
• Is there a more well-known verse of scripture than John 3:16? The word translated as “world” is the Greek kosmos, which in John most often refers to those who are at odds with God. So the use of the term here seems to suggest that God gives Jesus not only to believers, but in fact to all people.
Works Sourced:
O’Day, Gail. “The Gospel of John.” The New Interpreter’s Bible Volume IX. Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press, 1995.
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