3/1/2026
Second Sunday In Lent
Year A. John 3:1-17
Michael C Mitchell
3:16
3:16…Sounds kind of like a secret code.
Our Scripture reading today ends with one of the most well-known Scriptures in the Bible Belt, John 3:16. You can drive down most rural highways in Arkansas and see this Scripture referenced only by its number John 3:16 or just 3:16 displayed on large and small signs, and everyone knows it refers to the Scripture we read today. “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life. Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him” (vss. 16-17 NRSV). But, Nicodemus is about to show us this fact is not so easy to grasp.
Nicodemus, a leading Pharisee (we are told) went to Jesus in secret at night to talk with Jesus. Nicodemus, among other things, tells Jesus he realizes Jesus must have come from God in order to be able to do the things Jesus has been doing. Jesus responds, “Nicodemus, you have to be born from above in order to see the kingdom of God.” According to commentator Gail R. O’Day, the Greek word used here (anothen) requires two meanings in English to get the true meaning of this Greek word, “born again” and “born from above or, born anew.”1 Part of the word is physical, and part is spiritual. Nicodemus is confused and does not understand. He hears one of the meanings, born again, to which he asks Jesus how might it be possible to enter the mother’s womb and be born again. Jesus tries to explain in three different ways what this means. He uses a second image, “you must be born of water and Spirit,” meaning we are born into a physical body but we also are reborn into a spiritual body. That doesn’t take either. So, Jesus tries a third image, being born again/ from above is like the wind/spirit. The Spirit of God fills us like the wind which you can feel but not see, experience but not control. Jesus is saying that entering the kingdom of God requires a complete reworking of our minds and emotions, and God manages the transformation.
It reminds me of the famous Dicken’s story, “A Christmas Carol” with Scrouge being the character transformed. Scrouge is portrayed as a self-centered, selfish, self-serving, mean-spirited man who uses people in his village and who work for him for his own personal gain. And the poor he wants out of his way: “are there no poor houses to put them away in”? “If they are sick, let them die and be done with it. It will reduce the surplus population.” Then during the night of Christmas Eve, he encounters the three spirits, and in the process, Scrouge is transformed into a caring, thoughtful, kind and generous man who suddenly experiences compassion for the poor, the sick and for his fellow villagers.2 He was “born again” into a completely different person, “born anew” with a totally transformed spirit. Oh, we humans so love a story where mean and hurtful people change into loving, generous people, though we would like them to suffer a bit first.
Jesus will go on to say that this transformation is totally God’s gift to us because of God’s love for us. Jesus as God’s only Son is sent here as God’s gift of love to remake us into people ready for the kingdom of God, to die for us to complete the mission. This love is so radical that it is pure gift to us requiring only that we absorb the love into ourselves. Once this is done, God redesigns our minds and hearts as loved and loving people. Now we are born again/born anew and become citizens of the kingdom of God, first here on Earth where we help God bring love into the world and serve each other and the community, and then continuing on into God’s eternity once we leave human life.
So what do we act like or look like once this transformation is being performed? Paul, in his First Letter to the Church in Corinth, takes a stab at describing what people living in God’s love act like and look like in chapter 13: we become receivers of God’s love, and are made new into people who then love as Jesus does. That is, we become patient with people, we are kind to each other, we are not envious of each other (not of what they have or of their status in the community), we are not boastful or arrogant or self-promoting. We are not rude to each other. Instead of selfish or self-serving, we don’t insist that we get our way or that things must be our way. And, we are not irritable or resentful. We are truthful, we don’t engage in wrongdoing. In love, we bear the troubles of others, we believe in the good of others. And our love endures when others let us down (1 Cor. 13: 4-7). Not there yet?
Born again has been made out to be a possession we own, and a once and done thing. But this transformation is an ongoing deed by God in us, and God keeps us company while he continues this work.
“For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not parish but may have eternal life.”
1 The Gospel of John by Gail R. O’Day. The New Interpreter’s Bible, Vol. IX Luke John, pp. 546-555.
2 Dickens, Charles. “A Christmas Carol.”
Scripture readings are from NRSV.