Today’s scripture might contain two of the most famous passages for American Christianity. First we have the famous John 3:16, and then we have Jesus saying that we must be born again, or born from above, which is how the NRSV translate it, an idea which plays a major role for a significant portion of the American church, and so I was asked to explore what this idea means. What did it mean for Jesus and what does it mean for us? Nicodemus comes to Jesus at night to engage in a conversation. When people came in darkness it is often the sign of bad things to come. This is true in most books of the Bible, but for John darkness is a metaphor representing a separation from God. But there is something positive here as well, and that is that Nicodemus seeks Jesus’ out, which is the first step of discipleship in John. So from the start it’s not clear whether Nicodemus is on Jesus’ side or not. He says he knows that Jesus is from God, although he doesn’t actually really know.
So Jesus tells him, “No one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above.” Notice that the primary emphasis here is not about eternal life, but about the kingdom. While we talk a lot about eternal life, Jesus actually had little to say about the afterlife, but he did talk a lot about the kingdom of God or the kingdom of heaven depending on which gospel you are reading. In fact, in the synoptic gospels, the first thing Jesus says as he begins his ministry is “repent,” why? For the kingdom of God has come near. Jesus’ message is a kingdom proclamation, and not just of a kingdom to come, but of a kingdom here and now, just as we pray each week, “thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”
Even John 3:16 is about the here and now, “for God so loved the world that he gave his only son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but have eternal life.” When does eternal begin? Is it something that only starts when we die? Doesn’t sound very eternal. This is not a statement about the afterlife, this is a statement about eternal life, a life lived in the eternal presence of God. This is a statement that shifts the emphasis not to our death but to the here and now. Our eternal life with God is taking place here in the present, it is a current reality. This is an eschatological claim, and we’re remembering that eschatology deals with the end of time. Jesus is saying that the end of time is here already, and yet it is not here as well. Repent for the kingdom of God has come near. Our eternal life with God begins not sometime in the future; it begins now in this very moment because the kingdom is here, now, and God is present for us, here and now, and for all time. But how do we get that? Well that’s where knowing a little Greek helps, or at least leaning on those who know the Greek, which is what I do.
