Grace and peace to you from God our Father and His Son Jesus Christ.
We continue with our meditation on the Gospel of the Day.
As you read it remember to consider yourself as part of the narrative and first with Jesus looking at you and then Jesus coming and sitting by your side and you talking with you about what is happening in the story of the text.
John 3:7-15
Do not be amazed that I said, ‘You must be born again.’ The wind blows where it wishes. You hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.” “How can this be?” Nicodemus asked. “You are Israel’s teacher,” said Jesus, “and you do not understand these things? Truly, truly, I tell you, we speak of what we know, and we testify to what we have seen, and yet you people do not accept our testimony.
If I have told you about earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you about heavenly things? No one has ascended into heaven except the One who descended from heaven—the Son of Man. Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes in Him may have eternal life. ‘
The first thing that strikes me here is how Nicodemus through his action of coming to Jesus, has distinguished himself from his peers, but how his attitude still leaves him as one of them. Jesus speaks to him as one of the teachers of Israel who is slow to understand and caught in the historical mind set of legalism. We cannot just act differently, we need to be transformed. We cannot add Christ to our thinking we need conversion. Nicodemus is a good reminder that we cannot remain stuck in our religion. We need to have faith and trust in Jesus the Christ.
As I sit by Jesus’s side, I feel the love of my saviour and it draws me closer. My mind shifts from what I know about Jesus, it shifts from doctrine and facts and opinions to my experiences with Him. The love he fills my heart with, the joy that he brings into my life. I am reminded of the people I have seen healed, the hearts I have seen mended. The wind of the spirit blows wherever it will. I think of how he found me. Do you remember? Maybe today you are longing for Jesus to find you. We all long to be wanted, to feel special to feel loved. Jesus has an amazing way of changing your heart and correcting you in love. As if he is saying “I want more for you than you could ask or think.” Jesus brings us eternal life, not only a future life but the present reality of a life that is of everlasting consequence, not temporal, but permanent.
Let us pray:
Saviour of the world you call us into an intimate relationship.
May your spirit blow over our lives and draw us deeper into relationship with you.
May our seeking you in Scripture, liturgy and corporate worship; all build relationship with you.
Holy Spirit we want to know Jesus, convert our hearts this day that we may be born again in the resurrected Christ.
In Jesus name we pray.
Amen.
(By Fr. Andrew Manning)