Jesus and Nicodemus - John 3:1-5

While still in Jerusalem for the Passover a man “names Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews: the same came to Jesus by night.” As a Jewish leader, he would have been made aware of the scene that Jesus made by driving out the animals and money changers from the temple. It appears that there were at least two different kinds of reactions by the Jewish leadership, the first kind of reaction was complete anger and hostility towards the Savior and what he was doing. We saw this reaction when the leaders questioned Jesus about his authority and purposes. A second reaction was intrigue and genuine interest in who this man was and what he was doing, this reaction is demonstrated by Nicodemus when he seeks out the Savior. The IM asks “Who was Nicodemus?” and answers saying, “As a member of the Sanhedrin, Nicodemus occupied a position of political, social, and religious influence and power. From other scriptures we learn that Nicodemus appears to have been sincere in the questions he asked Jesus. For example, Nicodemus spoke in defense of the Savior to the chief priests and Pharisees, for which he was ridiculed. After the Savior’s Crucifixion, Nicodemus assisted Joseph of Arimathea in burying the Lord’s body, contributing expensive burial ointments and spices.” I’ve wondered about Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea and how they could be believers in Jesus but didn’t follow him everywhere that he went like the apostles did. But not everyone was called to give up all they had and follow him, they lived what they knew in the way that they were asked to, and that makes more sense to me.

Nicodemus starts with a very strong statement to Jesus saying, “Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from God: for no man can do these miracles that thou doest, except God be with him.” He calls him “Rabbi” which is a term of respect for a Jewish master, which I assume this is his way of acknowledging Jesus’s spiritual superiority. JTC also mentions that Nicodemus was “addressing Jesus by the title he himself bore.” He also recognizes that the miracles that Jesus was doing were only able to accomplished by God through someone who was worthy, and we’ll see that Jesus is accused of performing these miracles through the power of Satan later on. I wonder if it was his way of asking a question. From Nicodemus’s statement to Jesus’s statement, there seems to be a disconnect and I think that that is why it is so difficult for me to follow. It goes from Nicodemus recognizing Christ’s authority to Jesus making a seemingly unrelated statement, “Verily, Verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” It appears Jesus is answering a question that wasn’t ask, so did he do that because he knows the mind of Nicodemus? Or was it for some other purpose? I don’t know but this transition has always been difficult for me to follow. I also want to make note of Jesus’s personal speaking style with the use of “verily, verily, I say unto thee.” He says this quite frequently and we can see that when he visits the Nephites in the Americas after his death he also uses “verily, verily,” many times, and most other Book of Mormon authors do not. Interestingly, I googled “verily, verily meaning” and it comes up with a dictionary definition of “1. In truth: certainly. 2: truly, confidently.” It’s also described in the context of the Bible as meaning “amen.”  Someone suggested that this was Jesus’s way of basically saying, “what I am saying is true, I have the authority to make this statement.”

What does it mean to be born again? The IM quotes Elder David A. Bednar as teaching, “We begin the process of being born again through exercising faith in Christ, repenting of our sins, and being baptized by immersion for the remission of sins by one having priesthood authority… Total immersion in and saturation with the Savior’s gospel are essential steps in the process of being born again.” If Nicodemus wants to see the kingdom of heaven, then he must immerse himself in Jesus’s gospel, which seems new and radical. The more I think about it, it makes sense that Jesus would tell Nicodemus that he would have to be baptized in order for him to be included in the kingdom of heaven. It almost seems like Jesus is giving Nicodemus the opportunity to be one of his disciples, but doesn’t want to command him to do so because rejecting the opportunity would have dire eternal consequences for Nicodemus. That’s interesting, because we know that the Jews are familiar with the ordinance of baptism, so I don’t know how it was working back then, if they were all baptized at a certain age, or if they were just baptized when they found someone that they liked to follow, I’m not sure. This is interesting though because it almost seems like Jesus is suggesting to Nicodemus that he commit to Him, commit to His gospel. It’s really interesting because Nicodemus is in such a high profile position, it would be a huge change for him. I need to look more into Pharisees and what exactly that meant back then.

I guess it makes sense when you think about Nicodemus coming to Jesus at night, which to me indicates that he didn’t want his inquiry of the Savior to be common knowledge, recognizing that Jesus holds at least as much authority as Nicodemus does himself, and then Jesus tells him that salvation requires a commitment. Nicodemus seems surprised by this news saying, “how can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter the second time into his mother’s womb, and be born?” JTC notes that Nicodemus’s surprise might stem from the fact that Jesus included all people in the “except a man be born of water” statement. At this time in Jewish history, mainstream Judaism apparently didn’t require any official acceptance of their religion by those born into it, considered to be the children of Abraham. Maybe Nicodemus’s response wasn’t so much of a “how is that physically possible?” as it was a “even us as Jews?” Of course we know that all must individually accept the gospel and make those covenants in order to be saved, but this apparently wasn’t a belief held by the Jews at this time.

Jesus answers Nicodemus’s statement with a statement similar to the first one, “Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.” There are two fundamental differences between Jesus’s first statement to Nicodemus “Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God,” and this second statement. The first difference is Jesus’s statement that we must be “born of water and of the Spirit.” The IM quotes Elder D. Todd Christofferson as teaching, “It was Jesus who stated that entry into the kingdom of God requires that one be born again- born of water and of the Spirit. His teaching about a physical and a spiritual baptism helps us understand that both our own actions and the intervention of divine power are needed for this transformative rebirth- for the change from natural man to saint.”  We have to physically make the commitment by entering into the waters of baptism and then spiritual transform as we live our lives with the Spirit and change our natures. Kind of like we discussed with the water pots in Cana, we have to do all we can, and our effort makes us open to the Spirit to change who we are as people, it’s really a magical process, one that I don’t fully understand.

The second main difference between the two statements is that in the first one Jesus says that we must be born again in order to SEE the kingdom of God, and in the second statement he says we must be born of water and of the Spirit in order to ENTER the kingdom of God. What is the difference between seeing the kingdom of God and entering into the kingdom of God? The IM says, “The Prophet Joseph Smith taught about the Savior’s words in verses 3 and 5, which speak of ‘seeing’ and ‘entering’ the kingdom of God: ‘It is one thing to see the kingdom of God, and another thing to enter into it. We must have a change of heart to see the kingdom of God, and subscribe the articles of adoption to enter therein.’ When a person ‘sees’ the kingdom of God, the Holy Ghost has caused the person to have a mighty ‘change of heart.’ Then the person must participate in the ordinances of the gospel in order to ‘enter’ the kingdom of God.” Maybe it’s like, in order for the kingdom of God to even be a possibility for us we must be “born again” or baptized, then in order to actually enter into the kingdom of God we have to live faithful to the covenants that we made. That makes sense.