Day 28 Saturday - Mar 25, 2023; Mar 16, 2024; Apr 5, 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
The first time I ever read Karl Barth I thought, “this guy knows he’s the smartest man in the room.” And most of the time (if not all the time), he probably wasn’t wrong. We all know people who can dwarf everyone in the room with their intellect. You can read philosophers who make your head spin. The other day I tried to read up on a means of fixing our church’s website and as I read I felt like a fish out of water. I had NO IDEA what half the terms on the troubleshooting site meant. I was completely lost.
These words from Jesus were to Nicodemus, a Pharisee, a teacher of Israel. Everyone knew he was one of the bright ones. Yet when he came to talk to Jesus, he seemed completely out of his element. “Are you a teacher of Israel and yet you do not understand these things?” (John 3:10). Being wise, educated, or enlightened counts for very little in the Kingdom of God. You can have all this and be blind to its presence. In the end, the only thing that lets us see the Kingdom is to enter it by new birth. That happens, Jesus says, by water and Spirit.
And that’s good news. It’s bad news, I suppose, if you thought you’d be smart enough to figure out the truth of these things. It's bad news if you think too much of your own theological insights. But it is good news - and you know it to be - if you’ve ever felt like the not smart one in the room. You don’t need a theology degree to be saved, and even if you have one you might not be. Even a pastor must be born of the Spirit. But every person, no matter their intelligence, can be born of the Spirit. No IQ test is required. God doesn’t check your transcripts for admission. Instead, he provides for our rebirth. The good news is that God has given us gifts like baptism for precisely this reason. As Jesus says water and Spirit, he makes clear that your baptism has the power to birth you into this Kingdom.
Let me believe it, Lord, that you have granted me all I need for this saving faith. Whatever is lacking, teach me to look to you for it. And as you have born me of water and Spirit, so sustain this new life within me. For every time I realized what I did not know, or wrestled with the things I cannot understand, I thank you that they do not prevent me from coming into your Kingdom. I need only your Spirit. So come, Holy Spirit. And with your presence may Thy Kingdom come to me. Amen.
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