John 3:1-21 states
1. Now there was a Pharisee, a man named Nicodemus who was a member of the Jewish ruling council. 2 He came to Jesus at night and said, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the signs you are doing if God were not with him.”
3 Jesus replied, “Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again.”
4 “How can someone be born when they are old?” Nicodemus asked. “Surely they cannot enter a second time into their mother’s womb to be born!”
5 Jesus answered, “Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit. 6 Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit[b] gives birth to spirit. 7 You should not be surprised at my saying, ‘You must be born again.’ 8 The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.”
9 “How can this be?” Nicodemus asked.
10 “You are Israel’s teacher,” said Jesus, “and do you not understand these things? 11 Very truly I tell you, we speak of what we know, and we testify to what we have seen, but still you people do not accept our testimony. 12 I have spoken to you of earthly things and you do not believe; how then will you believe if I speak of heavenly things? 13 No one has ever gone into heaven except the one who came from heaven—the Son of Man. 14 Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, 15 that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him.”
16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. 18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son. 19 This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. 20 Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed. 21 But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God.
Nicodemus comes searching in the night for answers. And Jesus reveals to him, the very thing that scares him the most. It would expose him as a fraud. He has lived in the world around him pretending to be an expert in religion. He has probably preached to and converted a thousand souls. He has obtained through years of dedication his stature amongst his peers and his community.
Yet, Jesus tells him that he knows nothing of the truth. He knows nothing of what he claims to be an expert. Jesus ends laying out to Nicodemus that he has an option to bring everything into the light.
The world would say that stature and power give life.
But here, Jesus shows that eternal life begins when we expose our true selves. When the iron sharpens the iron of our souls. When the loving father casts us out to be disciplined, because we have been chosen for a purpose. When our reputations built by our own hands, are willingly sacrificed, so that our character can be let free to grow in strength. When despite being in the midst of a lion's den we are not devoured. When we face our greatest fear and lose everything we have worked so tirelessly to build, only to start over in the light. For it is when we are reborn, children of the light, that Jesus says to us to come forth to him. "Make way for the children", Jesus calls, as he begins to battle on your behalf. And that is the moment, when we look to him, that the poison that has entangled us loses its power. And only then, can we truly experience life.
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