Title: Spirit is the Wind
Nicodemus' visit
Today's text is a conversation a man named Nicodemus had when he came to Jesus one night. According to today's text, Nicodemus was a Pharisee and one of the leaders of the Jews. Nicodemus appears in two other passages of the Gospel of John. When the chief priests and the Pharisees tried to arrest Jesus, they said: “Where in our law is there any law that defines a person as a sinner without first listening to him or recognizing what he has done?” (7:51). It is not so easy for a person who has quite a bit of financial leeway and a high social status to show interest in a person who is being sold off by the group to which he belongs. I don't know if this man was originally self-righteous or how he was influenced by Jesus, but he must have been a very unusual figure for a Jewish leader at that time. When Jesus was crucified and buried in the tomb of Joseph of Arimathea, it is said that Nicodemus brought oil for the body according to the funeral laws of that time (19:39).
However, in the text we read today, although Nicodemus came to Jesus, it is not clear exactly what his purpose was. As can be seen from other verses, it is not like any official who wants to know the way to eternal life, has a sin that cannot be revealed to others, wants to cure a disease, or wonders if he is a Christian like John the Baptist. He says: “Teacher, we know you as sent by God. Who can perform such miracles like you, unless God is with you?” (verse 2). He was just saying things that sounded a bit like flattering remarks in a way.
Strictly speaking, the character of Nicodemus itself is not very important in today's text. In fact, the same is true of all the great believers in the Bible. The Bible does not stimulate our faith by plausibly introducing prominent people. Neither does Nicodemus appear at all in the middle of his conversation with Jesus, nor does the Bible care about how he reacted to Jesus' answer. The Bible's focus is Jesus Christ. The kingdom of God, which the early Christian community experienced anew through him, is the key. The early Christian community, taking a completely new path between Judaism and Greek philosophy, is professing their faith through the mouth of Nicodemus.
miracle story
The reason Nicodemus considered Jesus to be the one sent by God was because a miracle had happened to him. The miraculous relationship with God does not end with just the testimony of Nicodemus, but rather is the basic faith of Judaism represented by Nicodemus. The Jews were constantly seeking such miracles and signs.
The basic message of the Old Testament is the salvation of the Israelites through the Exodus event. It is no exaggeration to say that this event begins with a miracle and ends with a miracle. When Moses received God's call on Mount Horeb, a burning thorn tree and leprosy occurred. The ten natural disasters that fell on Pharaoh are typical miracles. The parting of the Red Sea was an opportunity for the Jews to experience the amazing power of God. The stories of the pillar of cloud and the pillar of fire, manna and quail, a spring bursting out of a rock, and wars with foreign nations, all miraculous tales were evidence that Yahweh God lives and protects them. There were times when the teachers of the law and the Pharisees explicitly said to Jesus, “Teacher, we want you to show us a miracle” (Matthew 12:38).
There are two reasons people ask for miracles. One is that we want to see God visibly. It seems that God is bound to accept it in this way, too, because our sensuous way of ascertaining the truth is generally. Even today, many Christians are looking for evidence of this. Some people try to confirm such evidence in the mysterious providence of nature, or in the coincidences that occur in their daily lives. We try to confirm God through stories such as that a person who had suffered from depression was healed cleanly while reading the Word of God, or that Jesus resolved a relationship with a friend who had a bad relationship. This attitude of faith is not fundamentally wrong, but neither is it desirable. In response to the Pharisees' request to perform a miracle, Jesus once answered: “This wicked and ruthless generation demands miracles, but it has nothing to show except the miracle of the prophet Jonah” (Matthew 12:39). Believing in Jesus is a completely different level of work from confirming in a sensuous way.
Another reason to ask for a miracle is to think of faith as a curiosity. Just as people are curious about new cell phones, fashionable clothes, or country houses, miracles also stimulate our religious curiosity. Stories that an incurable disease was cured through prayer or a company that went bankrupt survived are enough to stimulate our curiosity. I don't know if our faith today is moving at a similar level of 'curiosity heaven'. However, Thomas A. Kempis teaches that those who are captivated by God's grace must, of course, give up their curiosity about the world. Of course, his teachings are aimed at young monks, so there are some extremes, but he is fundamentally correct. Because our Christian faith is not the same as the curiosity we feel emotionally or psychologically.
About ‘new man’
Regarding Nicodemus' favorable remarks, Jesus said something embarrassingly different. I don't know if it's a kind of alumni answer, or more precisely, Woo Moonhyun's answer. In today's text, Jesus answered: “Listen really well. No one can see the kingdom of God unless anyone is born again” (verse 3).
Nicodemus is talking about miracles and God, but Jesus is talking about a new man and the kingdom of God. The miracle story has now been turned into a ‘born again’ story. Are these two stories related or not? It is fundamentally different, but in an internal sense, it is a story that is communicated. First of all, here's the difference. A miracle is an event that takes place outside of a person, whereas a “reborn” is an event that occurs inside that person. The miracle is that the world outside of you is changed, but the world inside you is changing again. If we explain through today's text, a miracle is a physical thing, but it is a spiritual thing that remains.
What do miracles and other people have in common? What both cases have in common is that they transcend everyday life. The parting of the Red Sea or the treatment of the disabled are not common in our daily life. So we refer to it as a miracle. Again, Namdo does not happen often in our daily life. In this respect, it is again a miracle in the south. If the miracle that Nicodemus spoke of is a miracle of the world, it is the miracle of the inner self that Jesus spoke of.
Nicodemus did not understand exactly what Jesus said about being born again. Perhaps not only Nicodemus, but all the Jews who wanted to confirm God through miracles were the same. A person who is always waiting for a big event to happen on the outside doesn't know the change inside him. It was impossible for the Jews, who hoped to become a politically independent nation through the Messiah, and even to rule the whole world, to recognize Jesus, the carpenter's son, who was born in a stable, as the Messiah. It is difficult to recognize the truth right away when the interests are completely different.
I don't know if I'm naive or stupid, but Nicodemus asks Jesus: “How can a grown man be born again? I can't go back into my mother's womb and come out, can I?" (verse 4). Natural people have no choice but to ask this question. The spirit world is meaningless to positivists who think that only this reality we see now is absolute.
These words of Nicodemus do not mean that Jesus will be born again. So, what are the words of Jesus? Let's hear Jesus' answer again. “Listen really well. No one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born again of water and the Holy Spirit. What comes out of the flesh is flesh, and what comes out of the spirit is spirit” (verses 5 and 6). The key to this verse is water and the Holy Spirit. Of course, water here refers to the baptism of John the Baptist. All Jews considered the baptism of John the Baptist to be meaningful. Not knowing anything else, only the sermons and baptism of John the Baptist were heard by the prophet's voice that had not been heard for hundreds of years. But Jesus said that the water of John the Baptist was not enough. It is only through the baptism of the Holy Spirit that we can enter the kingdom of God, which Nicodemus is interested in. This baptism of the Holy Spirit is spiritual baptism. It does not end with a nationalistic and moral baptism, but more fundamentally, we must be baptized with the Spirit of life, the Holy Spirit.
The early Christian community began to contemplate how they differed from Judaism. They thought about what was fundamentally the event they experienced with Jesus Christ. In particular, I had no choice but to seriously think about the Holy Spirit event that I experienced in Mark's upper room on the day of Pentecost. The early Christian community was now able to lay the foundations for a belief radically different from Judaism. It is not the water baptism of John the Baptist, the last prophet of Israel, but rather the baptism of the Holy Spirit of Jesus Christ, who promised us eschatological life through the resurrection and gave us a taste of it, became the foundation of their faith. Based on this belief, they were able to declare that they could never enter the kingdom of God only through the water baptism of John the Baptist, which the Jews now think absolutely. Water baptism and the baptism of the Holy Spirit became the point of distinction between Judaism and Christianity.
Spirit like the wind
In today's text, Jesus explains the word 'be born again'. “Don’t be surprised when I say that you have to be born again. The wind blows where it wants to blow. You hear the sound, but do not know where it comes from and where it goes So it is with anyone who is born of the Spirit” (verses 7, 8). While referring to water baptism and Holy Spirit baptism, the word wind suddenly appears. There is nothing strange about this. The Greek word ‘pneuma’, which originally means the Holy Spirit, and the Hebrew word ‘ruah’, also mean ‘wind’. The Holy Spirit can be said to be the wind of life. Perhaps the ancients thought that the wind that blows with each season was a spirit. Those people with little knowledge of physics had no choice but to perceive wind as a movement of air, a kind of matter. Since wind also acts on our breath, it is not so wrong to think of it as the spirit of life.
Then, the baptism of the Holy Spirit in the text, being born again, can be seen as a change to a life that is dependent on the Holy Spirit with the attribute of wind. What does this mean? Verse 8 says that the wind blows as it pleases. It means that the Holy Spirit works according to the will of the Holy Spirit, regardless of our thoughts. Are you still having a hard time figuring out what this means?
To understand this, we need to double-check who we are talking to when we come to Jesus today. He is a typical Pharisee. According to them, the history of this world and the salvation of this world have already been decided. They are just waiting for the Messiah by such deterministic soteriology and such a view of history. Those who are satisfied with their beliefs, traditions, and preconceived notions are those who do not know the pneuma that transcends them. Those who look at the world like that do not see Jesus Christ. Because Jesus has already broken our preconceived notions. Those who can wait with an open mind for the power and love of God, who bring comfort, joy, and salvation in ways that we cannot predict, are those who have been baptized with the Holy Spirit, not just water.