Monday of the Second Week of Easter

Lectionary: 267

There was a Pharisee named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. He came to Jesus at night and said to him,
“Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God, for no one can do these signs that you are doing
unless God is with him.”

With the Octave of Easter and its accounts of the Resurrection/Commissioning behind us, the Lectionary directs our reflections back to the Gospel of Saint John. This gospel is often represented by an eagle because its thought is so lofty; it soars above our world. More importantly perhaps, the ancients believed an eagle can stare directly at the sun, and contemplating John is like gazing at the sun. Its directness and purity blind us. 

During Lent, we read the more controversial texts of chapters five through eight. We turn now to chapters three and six. The four readings of Monday through Thursday this week are taken from John 3 and the night visit of Nicodemus.

In his book entitled Jesus of Nazareth, Pope Benedict XVI offered a minority opinion about this chapter. Where most scholars believe this conversation was generated by evangelists through much deep reflection, Pope Benedict proposed that some disciples witnessed his midnight conversations with the sages of Jerusalem. They remembered his words. Neither they nor the Jews could fully understand what the Master was saying but their memory was as sharp as their devotion to him.

 

As the conversation begins we hear Nicodemus's confusion, "Can an old man be  born again?" His query is typical of the gospel. We've seen it already in the headwaiter's distress in Cana, and the challenge of the temple's custodians when Jesus drove out the merchants. This perplexity will increase throughout the Gospel until the Sanhedrin attempts to resolve it by crucifixion. 

Nicodemus knew that birth is a one-off event; there is no redo. The baptism of John the Baptist was a cleansing from sin, not a rebirth. There was no talk of restarting one's life from the beginning religiously, intellectually, or emotionally. 

But Jesus insisted that night, 

"...unless one is born from above, he cannot see the Kingdom of God.” 

We still suffer his perplexity. Can Republicans and Democrats act in bipartisan fashion for the good of the nation, or must they remain forever locked into mutual disagreement, fear, and contempt? Can Roman Catholics, Orthodox, and Protestants set aside their differences and testify to God's mercy as one people? Can the many races and genders of the United States form a more perfect union, or must they fight unto the death of the nation? Can stressed husbands and wives continually rediscover their love and admiration for one another year after year, or should they set time limits and expect temporary marriages? 

These challenges demand a rebirth; we cannot simply agree to disagree. Toleration is a dead end; it bears little resemblance to unity. 

Jesus insists upon a rebirth as we are baptized and become his body. Everything we have known, every decision we have made, every habit we have formed, and every relationship we enjoy must be discarded, dismantled, or rebuilt from the ground up. 

As Saint Paul wrote to the Philippians, 

But whatever gains I had, these I have come to consider a loss because of Christ. More than that, I even consider everything as a loss because of the supreme good of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have accepted the loss of all things and I consider them so much rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in him....