NOTES for Ин 3:1-15
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.