Gospel: John 3:7-15
Because of this, don’t be surprised when I say, ‘You must be born again from above.’The wind blows where it pleases and you hear its sound, but you don’t know where it comes from or where it is going. It is like that with everyone who is born of the Spirit.” Nicodemus asked again, “How can this be?” And Jesus answered, “You are a teacher in Israel, and you don’t know these things!Truly, I say to you, we speak of what we know and we witness to the things we have seen, but you don’t accept our testimony. If you don’t believe when I speak of earthly things, what then, when I speak to you of heavenly things? No one has ever gone up to heaven except the one who came from heaven, the Son of Man.As Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert,so must the Son of Man be lifted up, so that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.

Reflections

“Whoever believes in him may have eternal life.”We need to understand earthly things in order to understand heavenly things. Pneuma is the Greek word for either wind or spirit. When we know the movement of the wind we may also figure out the movement of the Spirit. The wind blows where it will, so the Spirit of the Lord.Now when we possess the Spirit of the Lord, because we are born of the Spirit, we can understand God’s ways and we should be willing to be carried away by his Spirit.Jesus teaches Nicodemus his firsthand experience with God. Jesus knows what he is saying about God and the mind of God because he has been there in heaven. He is just sent as incarnate to testify to bring to earth the heavenly realities.All Jesus asks now of Nicode­ mus and us listeners is to believe in him. Soon he will be lifted up. He will ascend into heaven where he comes from. This will confirm what he claims to be and his teachings about God and how we should live our lives on earth. Jesus is different from the rabbis of Israel and us who only figure what heaven is like.
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