1 Now there was a Pharisee named Nicodemus, a leader of the Jews. 2 He came to Jesus by night and said to him, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with that person.” 3 Jesus answered him, “Very truly, I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above.” 4 Nicodemus said to him, “How can anyone be born after having grown old? Can one enter a second time into the mother’s womb and be born?” 5 Jesus answered, “Very truly, I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit. 6 What is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the Spirit is spirit. 7 Do not be astonished that I said to you, ‘You must be born from above.’ 8 The wind blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.” 9 Nicodemus said to him, “How can these things be?” 10 Jesus answered him, “Are you the teacher of Israel, and yet you do not understand these things? 11 Very truly, I tell you, we speak of what we know and testify to what we have seen, yet you do not receive our testimony.12 If I have told you about earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you about heavenly things? 13 No one has ascended into heaven except the one who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. 14 And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, 15 that whoever believes in him may have eternal life. 16 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. 17 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.”
John 3:1–17 (NRSVue)
This dense little passage in the Gospel of John is a direct repudiation of any attempt to create a hierarchy among humanity based on ancestry or social status. With one concept—being born anew—it rejects any societal structure that would allow people to be detained because of their ethnicity or to avoid prosecution for crimes because of their wealth.
In the chapter immediately preceding this passage, Jesus begins his public ministry with two very different actions. First, he turns water into wine at a wedding, blessing a poor family with extended celebration. Second, he braids a whip and uses it to drive the merchants and moneychangers out of the temple. It is difficult to imagine that those who observed these actions had a very good bead on who Jesus was and what he was up to. Still, we learn that “many believed in his name because they saw the signs that he was doing. But Jesus on his part would not entrust himself to them, because he knew all people” (John 2:23–24).
Nicodemus appears to be one of those who is awed by the signs Jesus is performing. He approaches Jesus with respectful, even deferential, language: “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with that person” (3:2).
Jesus responds oddly, to say the least. “Very truly, I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above.” What is translated here as “very truly” is, according to scholars Malina and Rohrbaugh, a kind of personal backing for what is to follow, akin to saying, “on my honor” (82). The word translated “from above” can also mean “anew” or “again.”
In the Gospel of John, Jesus often responds to a question in a way that is confusing, leading his conversation partner to ask more questions. This is one of those times. Nicodemus asks: “How can anyone be born after having grown old? Can one enter a second time into the mother’s womb and be born?” (3:4).
Jesus’s second response could be an attempt to remind Nicodemus of stories of rebirth or regeneration in the Jewish tradition (as F. F. Bruce suggests in The Gospel of John, 84). “Very truly, I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit” (3:5). This language echoes Ezekiel 36, where God promised to cleanse Israel with water and put a new spirit—God’s own spirit—within God’s people. Such echoes continue when Jesus says, “The wind blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit” (3:8). F. F. Bruce writes, “The promise to Israel through Ezekiel was amplified in the vision of the valley of dry bones, when the prophet obeyed the divine command: ‘Prophesy to the breath, prophesy, son of man, and say to the breath, Thus says the Lord God: Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live’ (Ezek. 37:9, RSV)” (84). In both Hebrew and Greek, the same word can be translated as breath, wind, or spirit. Water and Breath/Spirit bring new life (85).
To Christian readers of the Gospel of John, Jesus’s reference to “being born of water and Spirit” evokes baptismal imagery. In the sacrament of baptism, water is both sign and symbol of a person entering new life in the community of the church—the church which is gathered by the Holy Spirit. Some Christians lean into the exclusionary possibilities here: that only those who are baptized—“born of water and Spirit”—may see the kingdom of God. Others hold that the sacrament of baptism is not enough: an additional transformative experience of the Holy Spirit is needed to be truly “born again” (3:3). John 3:16—a concise summary of the entire Gospel of John—is another verse that has been used by many Christians over the years in an exclusionary way. Only those who believe in Jesus (which often means “believe just like I do”) will get into heaven. Verse 17 seems designed to thwart such exclusionary readings: “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.”
Christians who insist on such exclusionary readings, and Nicodemus, might be missing the import of birth imagery in this passage. Jesus’s initial response to Nicodemus begins with “verily, I say to you,” which invokes his personal honor (see Malina and Rohrbaugh, 82). In Jesus’s day and in the evangelist’s as well, birth was critically important in determining a person’s status and the honor due them in society (see Malina and Rohrbaugh, 81). Jesus’s remarks about “being born from above” and “being born from water and Spirit” echo the declaration of John 1:12–13: “to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God, who were born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God.”
In the Gospel of John, Jesus offers people a new way to understand themselves and experience life. This new identity, this renewed life, is not determined by the hierarchies of empire nor the vicissitudes of an individual’s history. Instead, it is rooted in the expansive and eternal love of God.
If a person can be born anew, can be born of God, then the old order, in which a person’s honor or status is determined by their genealogical ancestors, falls apart. The organizational principles of society would be turned topsy-turvy. Perhaps as upside-down as the cross—the empire’s chosen means of execution—becoming a site of incomprehensible love and divine glory.
Of course, because humans will human, we try to re-impose some sort of hierarchy on the new life offered by God’s grace, finding ways to exclude. Yet verses 16 and 17 emphasize God’s universal salvific will—God loves us all.
God’s love for all of us has moral and ethical ramifications. All our efforts to say some people are superior based on birth or status or even experiences of God are revealed as unholy falsehoods. God’s love nullifies every hierarchy based on ancestry and ethnicity, since birth does not determine status in the eyes of God. With equal measure it rejects the idea that some are above accountability and some do not deserve justice.
Twentieth-century theologian Karl Barth explains (in his book, Church Dogmatics IV.1, § 59) that God’s overwhelming love for humanity—God’s “yes” to us—means that God rejects all we do to elevate ourselves or harm and demean one another: God also says “no.” The same Jesus who turned water into wine braided cords into a whip. Both actions are outworkings of God’s profligate love.
Recognizing God’s love for all means that humans must also say “no” to lies, in word or deed, that deny this love. Barth was part of a group of pastors, the Confessing Church, that found the basic affirmations of Christianity required them to say “no” to Nazism in a brief document called the Barmen Declaration. Theologians in South Africa likewise found the affirmations of Christianity to require rejection of Apartheid, as written in the Belhar Confession.
The divisive politics of the U.S. have devolved to a point of nonpartisan chaos. When ICE detains children and deports people without due process, judges appointed by Republicans and Democrats agree this is unconstitutional. When redactions to the Epstein files protect rapists and expose victims, people of all parties recognize evil. Winds are blowing from several quarters, demanding an end to such practices, calling for something new.
For Christians, every “no” to dehumanizing practices is based upon God’s “yes” to humanity. People should not be ranked by birth or ethnicity, ought not be valued based on bank accounts or social status. These hierarchies are nothing compared to the abundant, everlasting love of God.
