As I thought about the gospel for this Sunday (John 3:1-17) I thought about being confused. In the gospel reading Nicodemus, a teacher of the law went to Jesus. We don’t really know what Nicodemus wanted from Jesus, except he wanted some answers. He went to see Jesus at night, away from lots of people.
Maybe he was trying to avoid the crowds, maybe he was hoping not to be seen by others who may have doubted Jesus. We can not be sure but as we read in the gospel Nicodemus had questions for Jesus and he wanted to find out more. It was perfectly normal for one teacher of the law to ask another one questions. They learned through debating with each other and maybe Nicodemus was seeking such a debate. Of course, this debate didn't go quite as expected.
This is why I thought about being confused. Nicodemus asked Jesus about how to get to heaven. This was a reasonable question, the kind you would have expected two teachers to discuss. Of course, Nicodemus was confused, as Jesus told him that you needed to be born from above. To be born again. Nicodemus knew that physically you cannot be born all over again. However, in a moment of completely missing the point, a moment of being completely lost, Jesus needed to explain to Nicodemus that he was looking at things in the wrong way.
Jesus showed Nicodemus that he needed to admit his need for God, to humble himself and to realise that all he needed to do was accept God. Not just this but to allow God to transform him. This was what Jesus meant by being born again. To be born again means to admit our need for God, to follow Him, and let our lives be transformed.
Nicodemus thought he knew all that there was to know about God and yet Jesus explained to him that the most important thing is to become as new, to accept that actually we do not have all the answers, only God does. We need to have a relationship with Him where we realise that we must become a new person, a new creation, someone who believes that God can and does make a difference.
This is amazing, but it can be hard when there are people in pain. It is hard to always understand how pain happens and yet part of being born again is learning to trust God more.
The Psalm for Sunday (121) helps me with this. It is as if the Psalmist is looking to the mountains for help from the one who created them. There is nothing better than going right to the source. The creator who protects and never leaves us. It is an amazing thought that the writer of the Psalm looked up and as they praised God they remembered that that even if they fell, God wouldn't leave them.
Things are not confusing at all. God loves us, and it is so much that, as verse 16 of the gospel reading reminds me, He sent His son to die so that we could have eternal life.
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