Born of Wind, Breath, and Spirit

Lee University pedestrian mall, homecoming, taken 4 November 2023.

I don’t think it would be a stretch to say that John 3:16 is the most famous of all scripture verses. I remember as a boy seeing the words “John 3:16” painted onto the bare chests of freezing New York Giants fans while I watched Monday Night Football, seeing fans in Olympic stadiums holding up banners with the scripture reference, and of course, a little later on, seeing Tim Tebow sport the same thing painted on his face while playing for the Florida Gators.¹ And while I can’t speak for everyone else who grew up in a tradition similar to mine, it was the verse that was most often taught in Sunday school, most often mentioned to new churchgoers, and most often quoted by youngsters when candy was offered to anyone who could recite a verse from memory (along with “Jesus wept”).²

I’ve often heard people say that John 3:16 is the one verse that sums up the who gospel message. That may be correct, but simplifying it in that way goes against the spirit of what Jesus came to do. It contradicts the mission Paul refers to when, talking about Jesus, he states that “the same one who descended is the one who ascended higher than all the heavens, so that he might fill the entire universe with himself.”

The mission of Jesus is to expand himself outward, from the cross, until everything he created is filled with, not only the omnipresent Holy Spirit of God, but with The Christ, with Jesus, with God-become-flesh. (I’ll admit, when I think on that too much, it makes my brain hurt a little!)

But we humans like to reduce things down to their base properties. We like to condense and solidify the airy, wispy parts of the world into things we can grasp, shape, and control. The gospel of Jesus Christ is no exception.

This is partly because, as children, the Scientific Method was drilled into us as the ultimate measure of reality. If you can quantify something, put it through its paces, and find a way to produce the same result every time you interact with it, you have conquered it, and then whatever-it-is can be seen as “useful.”

But it’s also the case that humans just like to tinker with things, take them apart so they can be understood. It’s the way God made us. And that is one of the reasons why the Gospel of John, chapter 3 is so important. In the first half of this chapter we read about a religious leader named Nicodemus who pays a visit to Jesus in the middle of the night so as to avoid being seen. Nicodemus isn’t sure how to begin the conversation, so he begins by saying something that, from a modern, Western perspective, reads like a compliment.

“Rabbi,” he says, “all of us recognize that God has sent you to teach us. Your miraculous signs are evidence that God is with you.”

(3:2, NLT³)

If I had been having a secret, nighttime meeting with a super-important religious and cultural leader, I might have been tempted to respond with, “Oh, wow, Nick, that’s really kind of you to say! I’m just doing my best and letting God do the rest, you know?”

But Nicodemus isn’t trying to flatter Jesus. Instead, he’s confronting Jesus with evidence that says, We cannot deny that God is on your side because of the miracles you are performing. I would imagine that the next point he hoped to make was something along the lines of, But we don’t understand why you’re not living up to the expectations we Jews have had about the Messiah for all of these centuries.

Jesus is about to take the conversation for a hard right turn, however,