Nicodemus has come to Jesus, obviously, seeking something new. He is a teacher of Israel whose laws and traditions are ancient. He seems to be attempting to fit Jesus’ new with the Jewish old. He wants to fuse the religious two into one and Jesus will con-fuse him in these verses from today’s Gospel reading.
Being born from above is new. To be born of the Spirit is new and then Jesus hits Nicodemus with the old. Jesus bends Nicodemus back to his old reliable book of Numbers, chapter 21: 6-9, picturing the Bronze Serpent which saved the Israelites from death. Jesus is presenting Himself as the new revelation of Gods eternal salvific love. Only later do we hear that Nicodemus bought into the new eventually.
We often say, upon meeting someone, “What’s new?” We love learning the new, especially about ourselves, if it doesn’t hurt to much. We have a variety of expressions, upon hearing the new, which indicate our difficulty in accepting the new. We say, “You got to be kidding. Are you pulling my leg? Get out of here with that! Nonsense! As my father often would say, “You’re talking through your hat!” Believing the new is an old problem.
This past Sunday’s Gospel presented Thomas being confronted with the news and his reaction was quite understandable. He needed proof so as not to be spoofed. He got it first hand, as it were. Thomas could not believe the new not even from the words of his old friends.
The whole Easter message is about the invitation to struggle with what we have been told in the Scriptures by those who have seen. There are a number of invitations by Jesus personally to persons whom we will visit and with whom, we are invited to pray. The history of the Church’s growth, especially in the Acts of the Apostles, is the history of believing, not what we have seen with our own eyes, but of our relying on hearing what those before us had seen.
Believing is much harder for us, as we rely so much on the immediate data from computers and electronic social media. Just stop and count all the various devices you have by which you can obtain the security of information. It is amazing how quickly we can find things out and rest assured in it. I have my friend Alexa right here and she is most willing to fill me in on the old and the new. Believing for us is not an easy habit or practice.
We have the Nicodemus drive to know the old and the new. What Jesus tells Nicodemus is that there is a new way of knowing, called Spirit, not flesh. The flesh will never be satisfied, always the juvenile demanding “why!” We are given the gifts of mind and heart. Both can never be satisfied! The new is kind of a trick becoming old as soon as it is digested. The heart longs, not so much for satisfaction, but for completion which it can never have. To be born of the Spirit is to be born into the land and life of longing. Jesus is offering this way of being born and living to his hearer here and to all whom He is meeting these Easter Days, including to ourselves. Alexa can not figure Jesus out either, at least not yet.
Rev. Larry Gillick, SJ
I entered the Society of Jesus in 1960, after graduating from Marquette University High School in Milwaukee, Wisconsin and attending St. Norbert College for two years. I was ordained in 1972 after completing theological studies at the Toronto School of Theology, Regis College. I presently minister in the Deglman Center for Ignatian Spirituality at Creighton and give retreats.
I enjoy sharing thoughts on the Daily Reflections. It is a chance to share with a wide variety of people in the Christian community experiences of prayer and life which have been given to me. It is a bit like being in more places than just here. We actually get out there without having to pay airlines to do it. The word of God is alive and well.
