thoughts on John 3:1-21

I am beginning to appreciate the wonders of a lectionary as I try to come up with a Bible passage each week to lead a Bible study over. I lately have started to wonder if I'm running out of Bible. Which is ridiculous, of course, but nevertheless there are passages I never want to touch, and after having done this for a couple of years I wonder how soon I can reuse passages. I usually end up preparing this the afternoon before (shh don't tell), so I settled on John 3:1-21 this week, even though in my old tradition it got a lot of coverage. Apparently Lutherans don't use it nearly so much, although I did find it in both A and B years in the lectionary. Regardless, this time I put out my own thoughts more so than my fairly typical group discussion model, so I wanted to put those here also.

As we get started, I would like to note that while Nicodemus is not present in any of the other gospels, he appears two more times in John, once defending Jesus' right to a trial (and getting some flack for it), and then towards the end when Jesus is crucified Nicodemus goes with Joseph of Arimathea to wrap Jesus body and bury it, and Nicodemus is credited with bringing the myrrh and aloes. So Nicodemus appears to have taken something out of this encounter.
Jesus tells Nicodemus that no one can see the kingdom of God without being born again (or from above) and Nicodemus asks "How can anyone be born after having grown old? Can one enter a second time into the mother's womb and be born?" I have heard a couple of different takes on this. Growing up, the impression was more that Nicodemus was being sort of sarcastic, not honestly asking but just being irksome. I started to wonder if that was really the best understanding, and later found some people who truly thought Nicodemus was confused and asking. Upon my own reflection most recently I thought quite possibly there is a bit of sarcasm, but out of a genuine confusion, not knowing at all what to say to what seems to be such an outrageous statement, and thus relying on mock certainty to maintain some composure.
When Jesus tells Nicodemus one must be born of water and the Spirit, some groups have used that water as argument for requiring baptism for salvation. Others have said that the water is a reference to physical birth, and I would argue more for that understanding, because then that also creates a parallel with the next statement, that what is born of flesh is flesh and what is born of Spirit is spirit.
Then there's this talk about wind and Spirit. For a random tidbit, the Greek word is the same for both, and in other places can mean breath, and Hebrew shares this peculiarity with the word for wind/spirit/breath. In thinking about this section, though, I wondered what it means. Truly, parts of this entire passage here have long been a bit confusing to me, although in some ways I think that is characteristic of the way John's gospel speaks, more so than the synoptics. I don't really think these couple of sentences mean we are going to go through life like tumbleweeds. It made me think, then, of the random people that touch our lives in brief moments. The stranger in the store who helps you when you've dropped some things, or the person you pass on the street who smiles at you when you are having a bad day, etc. We have never seen these people before and won't see them again. Maybe this is one way the Spirit blows through our lives.
In the next two verses Jesus switches to using some plurals, we and you, which makes me think it becomes a bit like Trinity vs humanity. Jesus says, "If I have told you about earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you about heavenly things?" What are these earthly things? Laws? Worship? Justice? Since we haven't gotten being human right yet, how can we expect to get all the faith stuff right? Jesus is the only one who's done and seen it all, ascended and descended.
"Just as Moses lifted up the serpent...so must the Son of Man be lifted up." Moses was instructed to build a bronze serpent and put it on a pole after the Israelites got themselves into a spot of trouble with God and serpents were sent throughout the camp to bite them. Anyone who had been bitten and looked at the serpent on the pole would be healed. In this same way Jesus is lifted up on the cross, and if we look to that we can be healed. My study Bible also noted that this reference to 'lifted up' could also include resurrection and ascension, and I like that, because it makes Jesus being 'lifted up' more complete. The serpent Moses lifted up offered a temporary healing from a physical affliction, Jesus being lifted up offers a permanent healing for a spiritual affliction.
Vs. 17 says the Son was not sent to condemn but to save. Jesus was not like the angels sent to check on Sodom and Gomorrah, to see if they were bad enough to be judged, but Jesus was sent to save us regardless of how bad we were.
It is interesting that this passage ends with the bit about evil and darkness vs light and good, because Nicodemus has come to see Jesus at night. Jesus admits at the beginning that he thinks Jesus is a teacher from God, so it seems Nicodemus is looking for the light in the darkness. John's gospel likes metaphors, and light/darkness is a big one. Judgment comes when we do not seek the light but continue in our darkness, for the darkness keeps us captive. So we come to the light, Jesus, and we are freed.