Jesus and Nicodemus part 2 - John 3:6-21

Jesus has just stated “Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.” Again, this verse is different than the statement Jesus made previously, “Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” We discussed the difference between seeing the kingdom of God and entering into the kingdom of God, but there is more to this verse because Jesus goes on to elaborate, “That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again. The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goest: so is every one that is born of the Spirit.” This was pretty confusing for me, I honestly could not follow this conversation and was just completely lost, and that’s exactly what the Savior was talking about. The IM is most helpful in this matter saying, “As recorded in John 3:6, the Savior taught him that spiritual things must be learned through the Spirit. President Marion G. Romney of the First Presidency explained that Nicodemus had not yet been born of the Spirit, so he ‘lacked the perception that comes from the Spirit. He simply could not understand that Jesus was saying there are two sources of knowledge, two different processes of learning- one through the normal sense of the flesh, the other through the voice of the Spirit… The Master was here reaffirming that the knowledge to be obtained through the gift of the Holy Ghost- the rebirth which the lord had spoken- is just as sure and certain to us as the wind that blows, even though we cannot see it. The Lord was teaching Nicodemus that the process of learning about things from the Spirit is real, even though the Spirit’s workings cannot be understood by those who have not been born again.” Let’s consider this in the light of our own conversion. People will ask how we “know” the Church is true? It’s hard to explain, we just do. How do we “know” the Book of Mormon is the word of God? Because it makes sense to us. Last night for Family Home Evening, one I just threw together because “oh crap, it’s Monday night and I want to go to bed,” we had testimony meeting and my son volunteered to go first and said “I believe the Church and I believe Jesus.” I asked “what makes you believe the Church is true.” He got all shy and said, “cause I prayed about it.”

Just as a side note, in case you think that I just have an exceptionally spiritual child, as a family we pray about whether or not the Church is true and whether or not the Book of Mormon is true, and we share our findings with each other. Mostly it’s me telling them the answer that I got and asking them if they had an experience similar to that, or if they had a feeling different than mine, I want to know that too. If they pray about the truthfulness of the gospel and either they don’t get an answer or if they think that their answer is “no,” then I want to hear that so that we can discuss it and hopefully get some resolution. I want their testimony to be strong, unbreakable. I want them to be able to look temptation in the eye and know what their choice will be, I want them to be leaders of people using the gospel and the Book of Mormon to strengthen their positions. I want them to have a personal relationship with Jesus, and actually, with all that we focus on, I don’t think that I do enough to help them build that relationship. I think that I’m going to look up FHE lessons about building that bond and we’ll work on that for a while. It’s not that *my* children are just uber spiritual and were born that way, maybe they were to some extent but I feel that most children can respond that same way if given the right resources, training, and opportunity. I guess what I’m trying to say is that it’s not us that are special, it’s the gospel, we are just applying it in the way that Jesus tells us, and miraculous things happen. I guess that’s what Jesus is telling Nicodemus here, that spiritual things are learned through Him, and we don’t necessarily have to understand the nitty gritty details, but it comes to us through spiritual means, and those who don’t accept that spiritual means are possible will never understand it. Full circle moment right there.

Nicodemus seems just astonished by Jesus’s teachings and asks, “How can these things be?” We all know that Jesus is a nice guy, but personally, I know that he can be firm and point out the obvious flaws if He knows that it will be helpful to our eternal progression. I feel like that can be kind of a loaded statement, but how can Jesus be firm and chastising for our own good? I know that for me, it usually takes an ‘aha’ moment for me to move forward or to let go of a destructive behavior, and usually those moments come through some sort of rebuke type of teaching, but it usually helps me move forward, so that’s how I mean that statement. Jesus’s response to Nicodemus might have been harsh, but there are a couple of points illustrated. Nicodemus asks, “How can these things be?” And Jesus answers, “Art thou a master of Israel, and knowest not these things?” The first point that is important here is that Nicodemus is a spiritual teacher of the people and yet he doesn’t know some of the most basic doctrine of the gospel, baptism by water and by the Holy Ghost, I mean primary kids are taught that. This statement shows that those in charge of perpetuating the gospel at this time did not understand it, so the basic leadership was deeply flawed. It also indicates that the means by which he should have been able to learn this doctrine was available to him. I don’t think that Jesus would have made this statement to Nicodemus if the doctrine had been lost and completely unattainable at that point in time. He doesn’t rebuke people for not conforming to laws they do not know, that’s not justice, that’s cruelty, but because Jesus took issue with the fact that Nicodemus did not know or understand his teaching we can be assured that they were in fact available at the time. The IM says, “The truths the Savior was teaching were taught in Old Testament scriptures, and Nicodemus should have been familiar with them.” JTC also comments, “Plainly a knowledge of some of the fundamental principles of the gospel had been before accessible; Nicodemus was held in reproach for his lack of knowledge, particularly as he was a teacher of the people.”

There is a very interesting shift of perspectives in verse 11, going from the first hand, metaphorical teaching of the Savior, to the plural “we” and Jesus speaking in the third person, which he usually does when speaking of himself. Verse 11 says, “Verily, verily, I say unto thee, We speak that we do know, and testify that we have seen; and ye receive not our witness.” Footnote A for “verily” says, “The Greek construction suggests that verses 11-21 contain a direct quotation. This testimony of Jesus was given to a member of the Sanhedrin.” I don’t really know what that means, so I’m going to think about it and see what I can come up with, but I’m going to keep on trucking with what I can know for the rest of the teachings. The Lord continues, “If I have told you earthly things, and ye believe not, how shall ye believe, if I tell you of heavenly things?” The IM quotes Elder Jeffrey R. Holland as teaching that the Lord used every day physical things, “like birth and the wind- in order to lift his understanding toward ‘heavenly things- like conversion and the Spirit.” Elder Holland points out that after teaching Nicodemus, “The Savior traveled to Samaria, where He taught the Samaritan woman about ‘living water’ to help her understand His true identity as the Messiah, and He used his disciples’ midday meal to help them understand the need to do His Father’s will. Elder Holland taught that in each such instance, the Savior was using everyday things to life the eyes of His followers to ‘higher purposes, loftier meanings, more spiritual sustenance… It becomes clear that this same lesson is taught by the Savior again and again. Jesus spoke of temples and the people thought he spoke of temples. He spoke of bread and the people thought he spoke of bread. And so on. And there were not merely parables in the allegorical sense of multiple applications of a single saying. They were in every case an invitation to ‘lift up your eyes,’ to see ‘heavenly things’- specifically to see and understand Him.” If those he taught didn’t understand that there was in fact a metaphor in what He was teaching, then they never would have understood the lessons He was going for.

In a second prophecy of not only his death but the manner in which he will die, Jesus saying, “And no math hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of man which is in heaven. And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so much the Son of man be lifted up.” We will probably go over the brass serpent that Moses lifted up and the crucifixion of the Savior when we get to the Old Testament, but I find it interesting that Moses is commanded to create a brass serpent to save the people when only a little while earlier the people had been chastened for making a golden calf to save them. So what’s the difference, brass serpent vs. golden calf? Is it that brass is more holy than gold? No, are cows sacred and snakes filthy? No. It’s not the animal or the material that make the difference, it’s who commanded it. The Lord commanded the creation of the serpent to prepare the people for His coming, but the people decided on their own to replace their worship of God with reverence for a statue. I’ve also wondered, why a serpent? I’m not really going to look into it now because I know that it will come later, albeit probably 5 years later, but I find it most interesting that the serpent in the Garden of Eden was cursed but then the Lord uses the image of the serpent here in a positive way. It’s like when people say “God is obsessed with numbers,” or “God is obsessed with snakes” or some other stuff like that, I think that this is a good example of how people get caught up in particulars that don’t really matter and miss the point. I also feel like Jesus is citing back to the Moses as a way to tie His mission with the ancient scriptures that Nicodemus should have been familiar with, and Jesus ends with the purpose of the serpent and the Son of man saying, “That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life.”

Finally we get to the famous declaration “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” This is going to make me sound really petty but I’ve always thought that this verse and others like it make it sound like God loves Jesus more than anyone else. God loved the rest of us just enough to send Jesus, his absolute favorite, down to die so that we could be happy again if we choose to. That sounds so petty and I know that Jesus has every right to be considered the favorite, and honestly, I know deep in my soul that Heavenly Father loves me just as much as He loves Jesus, and that’s a very deep sentiment. But I just can’t help that that’s how I felt for so long, though it makes sense to me now, living a life where everyone else is more important than me makes me hyper sensitive to stuff like that. I’ve felt that way for such a long time, and it took intense scripture study for me to finally know who God is and most importantly who I am to him. It’s not just that “God loved us enough to” because that implies that this existence was a mistake and that God fixed it for us, but that’s not the case at all. This existence was planned from the beginning, God loved us so much that he provided a plan for us to be able to gain bodies and become happy just like he is, that is what that verse means. For God so loved each one of us that he spent eons of time training and preparing and planning for us to be able to become as He is, that’s the opposite of selfish. He must have thought “I’m so happy that I want to share my happiness with all others who want it,” and he created the plan of salvation for us, because he loves us so much. The IM quotes Elder Bruce R. McConkie as comments that John 3:16 “summarizes the whole plan of salvation, tying together the Father, the Son, his atoning sacrifice, that belief in him which presupposes righteous works, and ultimate exaltation for the faithful.”