Wind from Above

Text: John 3:1-9

What is your question, Nicodemus? What do you want to know, Nicodemus? What do you want?

Nicodemus comes in the night. He comes in the darkness. Under protection of the night. In the dark. He comes, perhaps, at risk to himself. Fearful, perhaps, we don’t know, of his fellow Pharisees. He comes, perhaps, in secret. To meet this man Jesus.

Nicodemus speaks to Jesus. He tells Jesus what he has heard. He tells Jesus about his own conclusions. He does not ask Jesus a question. He is like the caller on a talk radio show. He has something to say. He does not ask a question. The host in these shows always says, what is your question? Do you have a question for Jesus, we can imagine the host saying. Nicodemus does have a question, for the story says that Jesus answered him. Nicodemus has a question. But it is not a question on his lips. It is a question in his heart.

Nicodemus lives in a time when his nation is occupied and oppressed. The poor are many, and they are very poor. The rich are few, and very rich. Something is wrong. With the world, with the Pharisees, maybe even with Nicodemus himself. The question in Nicodemus’s heart is, I suspect, the question we always have: who are you, who am I, what shall I do, what is going to happen? Maybe those questions are not on your lips, but I bet they are in your heart, too.

Poor Nicodemus. Jesus answers his question, the story says. But what a strange answer. “No one can see the kingdom of God without having been born from above.” What kind of answer is that? Did I ask you anything about the kingdom of God? I guess Jesus thinks he did.

Let’s talk a second about the phrase: born from above. It is a problem. The word that our Bible translates “from above” could also be translated “again.” Born again. As in born-again Christian. The Greek word in the Bible means both things. From above, and again. Both at the same time. It is like the phrase “take it from the top,” meaning start up again.

It obviously does not mean literally to be born all over again. That’s the mistake that Nicodemus makes. What’s the deal, can I go back into the womb, is that what you mean, Jesus? (Or maybe Nicodemus is not so dumb. Maybe he’s just making a joke.) Besides that, when we are born, we come into the world with no history. I’m not sure Jesus means we have to start with a clean slate. We bring our past, the good and the troubled. In the same way, there is not much reason to think that the phrase means you have to have a sudden and mysterious conversion in order to be saved.

But no matter what the details, it seems that Jesus is talking about transformation. About something changing. About your life changing. Or being changed. If you wish to find what you seek, Nicodemus, something will change. This is not proscriptive. It is not a rule that Jesus is making up. Not a task to be accomplished. It is descriptive. No matter what, things will not continue the way they have. That is the way it works.

Nicodemus evidently is not one for letting things just happen. He would like to know things, and once he knows, would like to control what happens. He is a ruler. Rulers are like that.A man of power. In this passage, the word “can” appears six times. And the word really means “have the power.” It is the root of the words “dynamic” and “dynamo.” How can these things be? asks Nicodemus at one point. He is concerned about impossibility. Who has the power to make these things happen? Jesus tells Nicodemus, “I don’t think you quite understand what I’m talking about.”

We are born, Jesus says, of water and Spirit. Of water and wind, you could say, for there is only one word for wind and spirit. We are born as the world was born. In the very beginning, it says at the very beginning of the Bible, “In the beginning, … the earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep, while a wind from God swept over the face of the waters.” That is what we are. Part water, born from the waters of the womb, part wind, animated by the Spirit. Part earth, part heaven.

We are as solid as substance. Practical and able, full of power and ability, full of knowledge. At the same time, we are blown about on the wind, fragile, and crazy, and helpless. Our earth side thinks we are in control of things, and sometimes we are. Our wind side knows that we are not. If we think only with the earth side, we are doomed to sadness, frustration, and disappointment. The wind, says Jesus, blows where it chooses. This does not mean we are powerless. It does mean we are not very powerful. It does mean that perhaps we should let go of the notion that we have a destiny.

The forces that move us, the combination of our own and the Spirit’s, never drive us forward on a straight path. We hear God’s voice, the sound of the wind, the voice of the Spirit, as Jesus says here, in the experiences of our lives and the lives of others, we hear God’s voice in the wonder of creation, we hear God’s voice in the person of Jesus, we hear God’s voice in music and prayer and the bread and wine and the gathering of our friends. God’s voice, the sound of the wind, is not hard to hear. You hear the sound of it, Jesus says, but that does not mean you know where it goes. Not exactly. You are a teacher, Nicodemus, Jesus says. How can you not understand these things?

Nicodemus comes, as we do, with a question in his heart. That question in each of us is not always well-formed. We know, as Jesus saw in Nicodemus, that we have a question there, but we rarely know exactly what that question is. Or what it is in terms of the practical details of each of our lives. But just because we cannot articulate the question does not mean that it is not there. It is there.

And if the answer we hear is that transformation is ahead, and that the Spirit will guide you, then what?

Nicodemus, what did you do? What did you do after hearing Jesus? Did you return to your study, to the things of which you were certain, to the calculating and figuring out? Or was your life changed? Did you let go worrying about what could and could not be? What would and would not be? Were you freed? Nicodemus, did you turn and ride the wind?