Patrick Comerford
Our Easter celebrations continue in the Church Calendar, and this week began with the Second Sunday of Easter (Easter II) or, in the calendar of the Greek Orthodox Church, with Easter Day.
Before today begins, I am taking some quiet time this morning to give thanks, to reflect, to pray and to read in these ways:
1, reading today’s Gospel reading;
2, a short reflection;
3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary;
4, the Collects and Post-Communion prayer of the day.
John 3: 7-15 (NRSVA):
[Jesus said:] 7 Do not be astonished that I said to you, “You must be born from above.” 8 The wind blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.’ 9 Nicodemus said to him, ‘How can these things be?’ 10 Jesus answered him, ‘Are you a teacher of Israel, and yet you do not understand these things?
11 ‘Very truly, I tell you, we speak of what we know and testify to what we have seen; yet you do not receive our testimony. 12 If I have told you about earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you about heavenly things? 13 No one has ascended into heaven except the one who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. 14 And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, 15 that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.’
Today’s Reflections:
In the readings for three days this week, from Monday to Wednesday, we meet Nicodemus, a prominent Pharisee, a rabbi, a teacher and a member of the Sanhedrin. He has a Greek name – Νικοδημος (Nikodemos) means ‘victory of the people’ – and this Greek name probably indicates he is an urbane and sophisticated man.
Nicodemus appears three times in Saint John’s Gospel:
1, He visits Christ at night to discuss Christ’s teachings (John 3: 1-21)
2, He reminds his colleagues in the Sanhedrin that the law requires that a person should be heard before being judged (John 7: 50-51)
3, At the Crucifixion, he provides the embalming spices and helps Joseph of Arimathea to prepare the body of Christ for burial (John 19: 39-42)
In this first encounter, Nicodemus comes to Christ by night. Perhaps he did not want to be seen consulting Jesus, who is newly-arrived in Jerusalem and is already causing a stir. But we should remember too that Saint John’s Gospel uses poetic and dramatic contrasts: heaven and earth, water and wine, seeing and believing, faith and doubt, truth and falseness. Here too we have the contrast between darkness and light, the world that is in darkness is being brought into the light of Christ.
Nicodemus is a good and pious Pharisee and member of the Sanhedrin, the highest Jewish religious court. But, despite his positive attitudes to the Mosaic Law, what is the foundation of his faith?
Nicodemus acknowledges Christ is a teacher sent by God. But is this enough – is it simply an understanding of Christ without faith? At this point, Nicodemus sees but does not believe; he has insight but does not have faith.
Christ’s reply puts the emphasis back on faith rather than on law, on believing more than seeing. But does Nicodemus understand this?
Nicodemus seems to misunderstand what he hears. He thinks Christ is speaking about a second physical, natural birth from a mother’s womb.
The dialogue that follows includes two of the most quoted passages in Saint John’s Gospel:
• ‘Very truly, I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above’ or ‘born again’ (verse 5)
• ‘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’ (verse 16)
Today’s reading is placed between these two well-known sayings. Christ tells Nicodemus: ‘The wind blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit’ (verse 8).
Nicodemus is confused or perplexed and asks: ‘How can these things be?’ (verse 9). Christ responds, asking him: ‘Are you a teacher of Israel, and yet you do not understand these things?’ (verse 10).
The conversation moves from the general to the particular, from the faith of many to the faith of one individual. When Jesus recalls in verse 7, ‘Do not be astonished that I said to you’, the Greek pronoun used (ὑμᾶς) is in the accusative plural form of the second-person pronoun. It signifies ‘you’ as the direct object when the speaker or writer addresses a group; so Jesus has been teaching a number of people, a group, or many people.
But when Jesus goes on to say, ‘Very truly, I tell you … yet you do not receive our testimony’ (verse 11), the first use of the word ‘you’ is singular, meaning you yourself, but the second use is plural.
It is difficult to notice these shifts in the English translations, to notice how Jesus moves from the second person singular to the first personal plural, from ‘you’ to we, then ‘you’ (plural) and ‘our’.
Who is the ‘we’ here, who owns what is ‘our’?
Too often, in the evangelical traditions, there is an emphasis on personal faith and personal salvation that makes no connection with collective faith, the faith of the Church, and makes no connection with the message of salvation not just for individuals, for humanity, or even the world, but the whole created cosmos.
When Christ speaks of the wind in verse 8, the Greek word used (πνεῦμα, pneuma) means both spirit and wind, while the word ‘sound’ (φωνή, phōnē) can also be translated as ‘voice’. I am reminded of Ezekiel 36: 25-27, where it says: ‘I will sprinkle clean water upon you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleanliness, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. A new heart I will give you, and a new spirit I will put within you; and I will remove from your body the heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. I will put my spirit within you, and make you follow my statutes and be careful to observe my ordinances.’
Nicodemus has floundered around; he really fails to grasp what Jesus is saying and its implications. His question is phrased: ‘How can this be?’ (RSV), or: ‘How can these things be?’ (NRSV). Others suggest that his question should be translated as: ‘How can these things happen?’ or even more literally: ‘How is it possible for these things to happen?’
A teacher ought to be aware of the truth. But Nicodemus seems to be behaving like a weak pupil.
In verse 12, we find a contrast between earthly things, such as the parable of the wind (see verse 8), and heavenly things, as in supreme spiritual realities. And Nicodemus is offered a choice. Which choice does he make?
Christ descended from heaven to bring eternal life, participation in God’s life. In verse 13, we read the first of Saint John’s three sayings about the Son of Man being lifted up, and it is comparable to three passages in Saint Mark’s Gospel on the Son of Man’s passion (see Mark 8: 31; Mark 9: 31; Mark 10: 33).
The word ‘lift up’ (verse 14) refers to both Christ being lifted up on the Cross and Christ being lifted up into heaven – the cross is the first step on the ladder of the ascension. For the imagery being drawn on here see also Numbers 21: 4-9. The writer of the Book of Wisdom calls the serpent a symbol of salvation (Wisdom 16: 6). But this verse also recalls the earlier remark to Nathanael that he would see the heavens opened and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man (see John 1: 51).
Nicodemus would have left Jesus that night challenged to ask whether he needed to move beyond the Law to an encounter with the living God, an encounter that brings death and rebirth. But the dialogue continues in tomorrow’s Gospel reading (John 3: 16-21).
Χριστὸς ἀνέστη!
Christ is Risen!
Today’s Prayers (Tuesday 14 April 2026):
‘Stocked with Hope’ provides the theme this week in ‘Pray With the World Church’, the Prayer Diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), pp 46-47. This theme was introduced on Sunday with a Programme Update by Mayank Thomas, Programme Manager, the Synodical Board of Social Services, Church of North India.
The USPG Prayer Diary today (Tuesday 14 April 2026) invites us to pray:
God, bless all who join CNI’s sessions on dignity and equal rights in various parts of North India. Strengthen their voices to guide others toward respect, fairness, and equality.
The Collect:
Almighty Father,
you have given your only Son to die for our sins
and to rise again for our justification:
grant us so to put away the leaven of malice and wickedness
that we may always serve you
in pureness of living and truth;
through the merits of your Son Jesus Christ our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.
The Post-Communion Prayer:
Lord God our Father,
through our Saviour Jesus Christ
you have assured your children of eternal life
and in baptism have made us one with him:
deliver us from the death of sin
and raise us to new life in your love, in the fellowship of the Holy Spirit,
by the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Additional Collect:
Risen Christ,
for whom no door is locked, no entrance barred:
open the doors of our hearts,
that we may seek the good of others
and walk the joyful road of sacrifice and peace,
to the praise of God the Father.
Yesterday’s Reflections
Continued Tomorrow
Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicised Edition copyright © 1989, 1995 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. http://nrsvbibles.org
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