Day 18 Tuesday - Mar 14, 2023; Mar 5, 2024; Mar 25, 2025
Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ -John 3:5-7
Now I’m no mother, but one thing I know is that birthing particularly takes its toll upon the one giving birth. Children do not brag about how long it took them to be born, but mothers often remember how long they were in labor. And rightly so; it was, afterall, their suffering, hardship, and labor that brought the child into the world. Maybe that’s why we call it labor!
The same is true of our new birth. This time, it is Christ who acts as the mother to you: he suffers all the pain and hardship to bring about this new life. It is his labors that wrought your salvation. It can become easy to think of the time we converted, the things we repented of, the journey of Sunday School to confirmation all the way to church council president. Yet none of that brought about your new birth.
This is why baptism is, properly speaking, God’s work and not ours. Like birth itself, we participate in it. But it is not our labor. Like the child brought forth from the womb we may have experienced much. It may have been a hard transition. But it is God’s doing.
You must be born again. That is why Jesus came, suffered, and died. And that is why he gave you baptism, that the labor of his cross might bring you into his kingdom.
Thank you, Lord. I know my birth into this world is a gift that came by my mother enduring much. And similarly my new birth at baptism is a gift that came by you suffering and dying. This Lent, focus me on what you have done for my sake. Let me boast of nothing but your cross for me. Amen.
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