Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God,
for no one can do these signs that you are doing
unless God is with him.
Nicodemus knew that the signs performed by Jesus indicated that God was with him in some special way. He struggled to understand by means of the intellect, and thus asked Jesus for an explanation.
Amen, amen, I say to you,
unless one is born from above, he cannot see the Kingdom of God.
Rather than directly responding, Jesus challenged Nicodemus, telling him that in his current state he could truly see or experience the Kingdom of God. He could, perhaps, infer much about it from the effects he witnessed. He could and did recognize that those effects implied a divine origin. But Jesus desired to raise him to a higher level, to life in the Spirit and not just the flesh. Only by experiencing life in the Spirit could Nicodemus truly see the Kingdom of God.
Nicodemus said to him,
"How can a man once grown old be born again?
Surely he cannot reenter his mother's womb and be born again, can he?"
Nicodemus was still thinking in earthly terms. He had no experience to provide an analogy for the reality of which Jesus spoke. Jesus used the word "born" because what he described was like a birth insofar as it made someone a new creation, opening them to new dimensions of reality. But it did not imply a mere reshuffling of the current physical reality, with all of the limitations that such a reality entailed. But still, the concept of birth pointed in the direction of the newness of the Kingdom. Just as one who was born experienced a completely new reality, so too would one born into the Kingdom. Nicodemus was trying to investigate facts. But Jesus was preparing him for an invitation, making him ready to hear his command, "You must be born from above".
It was one thing to account for all of facts about Christianity, to demonstrate its coherence with philosophy and with history and even with the deepest reading of human psychology. But none of this was enough to appreciate the radical newness of Kingdom life. It might all have amounted to a map pointing toward a goal, with words describing a treasure to be found, but without being able to convey a sense of the true power and value of the treasure. Apologetic facts could be provided through discourse. But the true value of the Kingdom could only be conveyed through the testimony of those who had experienced it.
Amen, amen, I say to you,
unless one is born of water and Spirit
he cannot enter the Kingdom of God.
How does one experience this new birth from above? Through baptism, in which we are covered by water and filled with the Spirit. Baptism is our point of entry into the death (like submersion in water) and resurrection of Jesus himself. In it we become children of the Father and brothers and sisters of Jesus by adoption. We hear the words that Jesus himself heard at his own baptism, "This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased" (see Matthew 3:17). It is by means of baptism that we become new creations in Christ, and walk in "newness of life":
We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life (see Romans 6:4).
Of course, once we mention a sacrament we start to lose the attention and patience of others. It seems to them that sacraments are merely rituals and cannot deliver on so great a promise. Seeming to confirm their point are the vast number of baptized Christians, including, perhaps, ourselves, who do not always experience or live from this new reality. Yet we have in fact received it. And though the grace is given all it once, it is released throughout ones life in correspondence to faith. This is good news. It means that no matter we have or have not already experienced, there is always more. We can and should learn grow in our trust of Jesus and to lean more and more into the promise of our baptism. After all, the Lord is looking, not so much for academics or for scholars, as for witnesses to give testimony. And we cannot give what we haven't first received.
Concretely, how can we seek to release more of the baptismal gift of the Holy Spirit in our lives? The prayer of the disciples in our reading from Acts is as good a place to start as any.
And now, Lord, take note of their threats,
and enable your servants to speak your word
with all boldness, as you stretch forth your hand to heal,
and signs and wonders are done
through the name of your holy servant Jesus."
As they prayed, the place where they were gathered shook,
and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit
and continued to speak the word of God with boldness
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