The Message, March 1, 2026: "Born of the Spirit," John 3:1-17

Author: Rev. Scott W. Cousineau
March 04, 2026

 

“Born of the Spirit”
A Message by Rev. Scott W. Cousineau
John 3:1-17

            It was very gracious of Lauren and Jared to have their son, Jameson, baptized on this day when we explore this particular passage of scripture. Actually, it must have been the Spirit at work, because when we were emailing back and forth regarding dates, I had no idea what passage I was going to be preaching on today! It all came together!

            Now, I do not know about Jameson, but I do know that I did not emerge from my mother’s womb knowing everything there is to know about God and the Kingdom of Heaven. And as I said to the children two weeks ago, I still do not know everything there is to know. (Although it certainly would be helpful during Thursday night Bible Study.)

            But the reality is that I was not born a “Christian.” My mother had been raised American Baptist, my father had been raised Roman Catholic, but neither of those facts made ME a Christian. Yes, I grew up in a Christian household. My mother worked in, served in, churches while I was growing up, I went to the office with her after school, she dragged me to Sunday school and youth group. I did enjoy the sound and the smell of the mimeograph machine, but none of that made me a Christian.

            I did not get baptized in middle school or high school as many of my peers in the Baptist Church did. In good Baptist tradition, my mother wanted me to make my own decision to be baptized. She did not want me to step into the waters of baptism just because everyone else was doing it. Do not panic. I was baptized some time in my early twenties; twenty-two I think. I was baptized at a point in my life when I understood what it meant.

            (Of course … I joke about being a SUPER Christian because I was baptized a BUNCH of times when Renee was practicing on me. There was a BIG youth named Ryan in the youth baptism class, and I served as her trial run.)

            In the Jewish tradition, one’s “faith” was typically a product of their birth. They were born into the faith. One’s status or role in the community of faith was typically determined by what family one was born into. But, as we heard in Jesus’ teaching and preaching, simply being born as a “Child of Abraham” did NOT guarantee one’s salvation. Being born a Child of Abraham did not ensure that one would see the Kingdom of Heaven.

            Jesus told them that there is so much more. They did not see that because they were not looking for it. The Children of Abraham did not see it because they took their salvation for granted. Jesus challenged them to look beyond. He was offering the people a new family in which ordinary birth was not enough. Jesus was saying to them, “Open your eyes and look around. Open the ‘eyes’ of your hearts and ‘look’ up. God is offering you so much more. The Realm of Heaven is so much more. God is offering you new life!”

            Here in this passage, we can hear the echoes of John the Baptist’s testimony: “I myself did not know him, but the one who sent me to baptize with water said to me, ‘He on whom you see the Spirit descend and remain is the one who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.’” (John 1:33)

            We know that John’s message resonated with the people. We know that he had followers of his own. We know that there were throngs of people coming to him to enter the waters of baptism, to receive a baptism of repentance. Those who were searching for something more, or something beyond, in John’s baptism must have heard the promise and the hope in Jesus’ words. “New life?! Born anew?! Yes, I want that! What must I do?!”

            Which brings us to our friend Nicodemus. What was he doing there that night that he visited Jesus under the cover of darkness? The truth is that we do not know for sure what his motivation was that night.

            We do know that Nicodemus was a Pharisee, an expert in the Law. It was an elite “brotherhood.” There were only six thousand Pharisees at any given time. He took a pledge as he became a Pharisee to dedicating his life to observing every detail of the scribal law.

[The Law – the first five books of the Hebrew Bible. It was considered to be the “perfect word of God.” To add or change one word was considered to be a deadly sin. Those five books, and specifically the Ten Commandments, were believed to contain everything that the people needed to live their lives, if not explicitly then implicitly. The scribes dedicated their lives to deriving all of the implications that emerged from the Law. (How do we define this? What is work? What is rest? Etc.) All of the thousands of rules and regulations were deduced from those great principles. The Mishnah was the codified scribal law. The Pharisees then dedicated their lives to following every detail of the scribal law.]

            Nicodemus was likely born into the wealthy ruling class. He was even more elite than an “ordinary” Pharisee. Scripture says that he was a “ruler of the people” … archon … which referred to the Sanhedrin. The Sanhedrin was the “Supreme Court” of the Jewish people. There were only seventy of them and they had jurisdiction over every Jew in the world. One of the roles of the Sanhedrin was to determine whether or not someone was a false prophet.

            So, again … why did Nicodemus go to meet with Jesus that night?
            Did he go to test Jesus? We heard that he had been talking with the others. Did he go to determine if Jesus was a false prophet?
            Was he simply curious? He had heard the stories. Perhaps that was what he had been discussing with the others. Did he want to meet the man in person?
            Or … was he searching for something himself? Was he searching for something more? Or something beyond that which he had dedicated his life to? Was there something more to the faith than strict adherence to the scribal law? Was it possible that the observance of those thousands of rules and regulations left him lacking?

            If you would like to spend another hour, or so, we could really unpack all of this. Over the course of the centuries, we have come to understand Nicodemus’ motivation to be the search. Nicodemus is one of the few people in the Gospel narrative that we encounter and then encounter again later. We have come to assume that Nicodemus sought Jesus out as part of his faith journey because at the end of Jesus’ life, Nicodemus participated in the anointing and burial of Jesus’ body. (John 19:39)

            As we sit here on the Second Sunday in Lent nearly two thousand years after this encounter, we have to consider what their conversation means to us. Each of us hears the questions and the answers with different ears because we come with our own questions.
What does it mean to born from above? Am I too old to be born anew?
What does it mean to have our lives oriented toward God?
What does it mean to be in right relationship with God?
What does it mean to “see” the Kingdom of God? Or the Kingdom of Heaven?

            What does Jesus ask of us? Believe. “Believe these things that I say to you because I have seen it with my own eyes. In fact, I am the only one who has seen. So, trust me. Have faith in God who loves you, who cherishes you. No, I cannot PROVE it, but I can show you. Believe. Follow God’s will. Follow me, trust me, and I will show you God’s beloved community.” Amen.

BACK