One of the questions we priest occasionally receive is about our ability to prepare people for marriage – since we were never married, or to speak to families about dynamics that arise in families – although we came from families, we were not yet adults – or similar questions. As I have told some folks, “All true, but we have a lot more and varied stories about all such things.” And from that treasure trove of stories arises… hopefully …. some insight and sage advice if appropriate.
A while back a grandmother shared that she wished her first grandchild could be born again. It is a difficult pregnancy, a more difficult delivery, and a start in life that came with complications after complications. She wished her grandchild could have had a smoother start in life. Wouldn’t it be great if he could be born again?
Today’s gospel from St. John is familiar to all readers: Nicodemus’ approaching Jesus in the dark of the night. Jesus tells him he must be born gennēthē anōthen, an expression that can be translated as “born again” or “born from above.” In the Judaism of his day, a man was considered “born again” if he had celebrated his “bar mitzvah”, again if he married, again if he became a rabbi, and some sources say that again when considered a head of a rabbimic school (teacher of Israel). Nicodemus has already been born – several times in fact. .
Spiritually he was born into the traditions of the Pharisees and teachers of the Law. He has been born into the concerns for holiness and ritual purity of their interpretation of their religious tradition. Jesus tells him that in order to enter the kingdom of God, he needs to gennēthē anōthen. Nicodemus is flummoxed and asks “How can a person once grown old be born again? Surely he cannot reenter his mother’s womb and be born again, can he?”
Jesus is asking Nicodemus about a new spiritual rebirth. He needs to be “born from above.” John’s Gospel frequently distinguishes between the “below” and the “above.” The “above” is the realm of God working through Jesus to bring light, and to invite belief and the advent of eternal life in the present. The “below” is the realm of this world, with its darkness and resistance to belief in Jesus.
There are many things that can be said theologically about this scene. Being born from above is a breaking free of concerns that are either worldly or of a religious nature that keeps a partial shade on the light from above. Nicodemus needed to break free of a restricted, judgmental life into abundant life. Perhaps we do too.
As such, spiritual new birth is painful. Like physical birth it involves leaving behind the past and breaking into the present. Like physical birth, sometimes it takes longer than we would like, and at other times it comes upon us before we are ready. Spiritual new birth, while set in motion by God’s Grace, takes labor on our parts.
Being born from above is an on-going endeavor of this life that we may be “born again” into eternal life.
Image credit: Original: “Nicodemus Visits Jesus” | Henry Ossawa Tanner (1899) | Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia. Joseph E. Temple Fund | PD-US