NOTES for Joh 3:1-15

The Church is young and full of strength, strength breathed into it by the Spirit of the Lord. Those being saved are added by the thousands, many signs are performed, all the believers have received the gift of the Holy Spirit and remain in the fear of God; their life is a model of the full life of a Christian (see Acts 2:42). Not life at all, but a dream... But a dream is still something mostly unattainable, something invented to ease the conscience. People say: this is an ideal incompatible with reality. But what the first Christians live by is precisely the real reality, more real than what we live in now.

And in His conversation with Nicodemus, the Lord speaks exactly about this new being, about the Kingdom of God that is within them and among them (see Luke 17:21, Matt. 18:20). Through repentance, through baptism by water and the Spirit, through birth from above, we can enter, or more precisely, we give Christ the opportunity to bring us into this other life (see John 3:13). We may not yet have noticed it ourselves, but He has already done everything. What remains for us is only to believe this as we believe nothing else, to believe so that we gradually become aware of what has happened to us...

As often happens, the most important thing in today's Gospel reading is its direct meaning. In the conversation taking place at night with Nicodemus, a man no longer young and wise with experience, the Lord speaks about a new birth, about the fact that a new life can begin for a person who has believed in Him. And this life, He says, begins as the result of birth from the Spirit of God, birth from above. It is frightening and sad when a person does not live this life born from above, given by the Spirit. But this fact should not lead us to despondency; on the contrary, Christ's direct command to the person is: be born and live. As God said through the prophet Ezekiel: I do not desire the death of the sinner, but that he turn and live.

From the Lord's words about birth from above, another conclusion follows clearly: this birth depends on you yourself. The Creator's will for your birth from above already exists and has been clearly expressed by the Lord. And this opens for us the joyful, paschal side of these words.

Among the Pharisees there were different people, and they related to Jesus in different ways. Among the spiritual leaders of the movement there were some who showed sincere interest in Him and in His words. Nicodemus was one of these people. He comes to Jesus with words of support and approval, calling Him a "true teacher." It is hard to say what meaning Nicodemus put into these words. It is entirely possible that he did not consider Jesus the Messiah. But Jesus Himself, as we see, is not going to discuss the question of His messiahship with Nicodemus.

In response to Nicodemus's assurances that he and those of like mind see in Jesus a true teacher, Jesus immediately speaks to him about a second birth. About birth from above. From water and God's breath. Usually people say: this is about baptism. Yes, it is clearly about baptism. But why, then, is Nicodemus so astonished? Those purifying washings that came to be called baptism were already long and well known to the Jews.

If this mysterious Teacher had merely proposed one more purifying washing, there would have been nothing unusual in that. But He speaks about a second birth, and Nicodemus does not understand Him. Though he should have: "Are you the teacher of Israel, and do you not know even this?" Jesus speaks of the second birth as something that could and should have been known to Nicodemus, if only he were a true teacher of Israel. And clearly the issue is not simply purifying washings. Still, Nicodemus speaks about the benefit of new birth as something self-evident but unattainable. He does not ask "Why?"; he says "How?" How can one be born a second time?

Why is clear: it is the most radical way to be freed from impurity. To begin life again. From a clean slate. And never again be defiled. But how? Jesus says: from water and God's breath. This sounds strange, because in those days it was commonly thought that God either purifies a person or sanctifies him. First He purifies, then He sanctifies. First purification, washing, and a sacrifice for sin, and then a sacrifice of peace. And perhaps then God's breath will descend upon a person. But purification and God's breath at once? Yet Jesus is speaking of the life of the Kingdom.

Of how accessible it is here and now, and in this sense His words are "about earthly things." About the breath of the Kingdom that purifies. And every time renews a person, as if bringing him to birth again: for in the Kingdom every day is new. And, of course, water: for until the full transformation of human nature there is no escaping sin. This is "about earthly things." And this is incomprehensible. As for "heavenly things," they are not yet even being discussed. They lie ahead. When the Kingdom is revealed in our fallen world to the end, fully transforming it. And there will no longer be any need for purifications. But that lies ahead. For now there are right steps. For now, "earthly things."

As much as we are in a better position, than Nicodemus, who heard these words the first. Obviously, it was very difficult for him to understand them, but it's much easier for us, knowing already what took place afterward.

All our life, all our thoughts and acts are penetrated by sin from birth - egoism, pride, fulsome praise, condemnation... Sin leads to incorrect (fallen) actions, having very ponderous consequences, which in their turn provoke new sins in us, and in our neighbors. And all this rolls, as a snowball, taking more and more speed. Certainly, such a life has nothing in common with the Kingdom of God. Can we stop it? If yes, then how?

Jesus says that a new birth is necessary for that, or regeneration, because the old life has to stop completely, and it is only after that, a new life can begin. Our participation, our desire is indispensable here, - what is called by the word "repentance". It is exactly through repentance that we come to freewill death in the water of Baptism, where ends our sinful life; and the next step is the acceptance of the new life, which the life-giving Holy Spirit, sent to us by the loving Heavenly Father grants us . And here we are, newborn babies, washed by water and Spirit, entering in the Kingdom of God...

It is so ideally. In practice - it is only partial for us. Our repentance is incomplete; we continue to repent even after the Baptism. Consequently, our sinfulness does not die completely, and we ought to be cleaned again and again. And birth from the Spirit - is rather not regeneration, but the generation in us of a new life similar to the grain of mustard, which will have to grow and grow. Yes God will make of us that fertile soil, in which the growing Kingdom will come to maturity and bring fruits!

Jesus uses the comparison of the spirit with the wind (it is a play on words in the Aramaic language): the spirit, quite as the wind, blows everywhere; we can feel its breath, but it is impossible to determine the beginning and the end of its flow. Only the spirit knows the source and the purpose of its movement. The idea of Jesus and the image used by Him are clear up to this point, and here He makes a quick turn: "So is every one that is born of the Spirit". How - "like that"? It seems, He means that the new life "isn't in the flesh, but in the Spirit" (Rom. 8) is so different in comparison with ordinary life, of which the beginning and the purpose are incomprehensible.

And nobody asks if we agree or not. The wind blows where it wants. Nobody can indicate it where to go, how to act, where to blow. Nobody has power on it. It shows itself where it wants. The Lord lets know here that the Spirit is as this wind. Sometimes it seems that right here He {the Spirit} would manifest itself, because we are in need of Him right now. But we have silence in reply, because He's free, and He Himself is freedom. Without Him, we even couldn't know what it is like, how we can live, when there are no strict rules and rites, without obligations "you give me, I give you ". Certainly, it would have been easier and quieter, if we knew accurately where, how and for what pay we could meet Him, and receive the wishful. But then, He wouldn't be God.

It is no wonder that Jesus' words shocked Nicodemus so much. In his view, a place in the Kingdom of the coming Messiah was guaranteed to him by the very fact of being born to Jewish parents and belonging to the chosen people. But the Lord tells him, and us, that what is born of the flesh (that is, of people, even Jewish people) is flesh, and that in order to enter the Kingdom of the Spirit one must be born of water (receive baptism) and the Spirit (receive that gift of the Spirit which, according to the word of the Lord, everyone who believes in Him receives - John 7:38).

Of course, it is easy for you and me to smile at an authoritative Jewish teacher who does not understand such simple things, since we know what the Lord Jesus is speaking about. Yes, thanks be to God, unlike Nicodemus, we understand when the Teacher speaks "of earthly things"; but does that mean we will understand when He begins to speak "of heavenly things"? If He calls birth from the Spirit "earthly," what then is "heavenly"? Perhaps we should not exalt ourselves so much over Nicodemus; beside the Lord Jesus we always remain slow-witted disciples...

Today our thoughts are on the Cross of the Lord. The sinless Son of God gave Himself over to the most agonizing execution, and the Cross - the place and instrument of His death - is terrifying, monstrous. And now the Church finds and exalts this Cross. Is it really in order to plunge us into horror and destroy us?

No. Contemplating the Cross and remembering the One crucified on it, we can sense His presence in our suffering and in our death; we can discover in ourselves the capacity for compassion. And besides this, all of today's texts say that the Cross of the Lord is the instrument of our salvation, the supreme manifestation of God's love, the revelation of God's glory. Then, contemplating the Cross, we can place our frozen heart under the searing rays of His love and discover in ourselves the capacity for thanksgiving. Crucem Tuam adoramus, Domine... We worship Your Cross, O Master...