Nicodemus and the Trinity
Sermon for Trinity Sunday, 2024, delivered at St. Paul's Episcopal Church, Louisville, KY
Text: John 3:1-17
“For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.” If I had a dime for every time I’ve heard, read, or have seen that quote from the Gospel of John, I would be a rich man. It is at once a neatly packaged statement of Christian faith and a sentence so familiar that we are prone to give it only passing attention. Because of its familiarity and importance, it tends to draw our attention away from what is discussed between Jesus and Nicodemus in this appointed reading. This reading was chosen specifically for this Trinity Sunday, yet what it has to do with the Trinity is not clear. So, I want to set aside for a moment God loving the world and sending Jesus to it, and search for this connection with the Trinity.
Nicodemus has come to Jesus at night to talk about who Jesus is and what he’s been doing. This setting is significant for two possible reasons: the first is that Nicodemus knows that the religious leaders do not like what Jesus has been saying, so Nicodemus has to be careful not to be seen visiting Jesus. The second is that darkness and light are major themes in John’s Gospel, where darkness represents sin, ignorance, and condemnation, and light represents repentance, enlightenment, and salvation that Jesus brings. Nicodemus lives in spiritual darkness, perhaps seeking light in the person of Jesus. As they talk, it becomes obvious that Nicodemus is not understanding the language that Jesus is speaking, despite both using Hebrew words. Nicodemus is looking at himself and his faith in factual, if not literal terms, while Jesus is speaking in spiritual terms of things best understood by the heart and in the soul, not with the head. There is a fundamental difference in the perspectives that they have, and where they want this conversation to end up.
As they talk, Jesus makes several plays on words that we miss because they can only be understood in the Greek that John wrote the Gospel in. Jesus responds to Nicodemus’ first statement saying that we must be born, and then he uses the Greek word “anothen,” which can mean “again”, or “from above.” This word carries a lot of weight, because its interpretation has led to two major views of spiritual birth in Christianity: to be born again through a believer’s baptism, or a second birth through baptism in the Holy Spirit from above. The second meaning of "anothen" is the basis of baptism in the Episcopal Church. It is also related to the Pentecost, when the apostles had their experience with the Holy Spirit descending on them. Nicodemus thinks that Jesus means a physical second birth, but I think Jesus uses the second meaning, that is to go through a second birth of belief in the Holy Spirit of God that has come from above. Jesus then goes on to mention spiritual things being born of the spirit, and the wind blowing where it wills. For both spirit and wind, Jesus uses the same word “pneuma,” bringing them together as at least related, if not the same thing. Nicodemus doesn’t get that either, perhaps not being able to get past the meaning of the wind blowing.
Finally, Jesus says that God sent the Son so that everyone might be saved. Here he uses the word “sozo,” meaning a rescue, a healing, or to make whole. This word has given us a different view of what salvation could be. When I hear someone ask if I or someone else has been saved, my first thought is “saved from what?” and this Greek word gives me another way to understand what Jesus did for us, the salvation that he brought. If we were continue to read the Gospel chapter beyond this morning’s reading, we find that Nicodemus is no longer part of the narrative, and Jesus goes on to say that this healing, this being made whole, comes to those who believe in him and have seen his light, and thus are rescued from the darkness. God’s unconditional love for us means just that, that our decision to accept Jesus as our personal savior is irrelevant to receiving this divine love from God. Unconditional means that our imposition of conditions for God loving us are not part of what Jesus said about it.
What Jesus has done in this reading is to begin to describe one part of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit. He describes the nature of the Spirit as being the same as the wind, where we can feel it and see its effects on us and the world, but we can’t see it. He describes what the Spirit brings to us, which is the ability to see the kingdom of God, not as a visible reality, but as a spiritual reality. In this kingdom, God is the ruler, love is the currency, and prayer is the spoken language. I can sympathize with Nicodemus here because these are things we understand through our faith, not through our senses, like he seems to. We experience the power of the Spirit rather than see it, or hear it, or measure it in some way, and this is very different from how we live our lives intellectually and physically. Jesus is saying to Nicodemus, and to us, that if we look for evidence of or try to describe God, we will miss God entirely. Jesus is leading us into a life in the Spirit and a life in God, not a life only in the world. This spiritual understanding of life through the Holy Spirit compliments the life we live in God’s Creation, thinking and acting as Jesus did. This is one way of understanding how the Trinity is relevant to us, but it is not the only way. We will continue to search for what the Trinity means and how it is important to us.
Through Jesus, John closes the loop on the Trinity with that phrase that we know by heart, and the phrase that follows it that we forget, that Jesus was not sent by God to condemn the world, but to rescue it from darkness, to make it whole again, to heal it. And Jesus was sent to do this because God loves the world unconditionally. We won’t fully understand what God and Jesus have done and why unless we include the Holy Spirit as our window into the kingdom of God. God sends, Jesus works, the Spirit illuminates; or God loves, Jesus heals, and the Spirit explains. This is the beginning of the Holy Trinity in scripture that was further explained and amplified by later Christians. It is the relationship between God, Jesus, and the Holy presence in the world that lets us see the light where we find darkness. Nicodemus didn’t understand this three part relationship and he was left in the dark. We have the advantage of more than one night, more than one conversation to understand the Trinity and what it means to us.
Text: John 3:1-17
“For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.” If I had a dime for every time I’ve heard, read, or have seen that quote from the Gospel of John, I would be a rich man. It is at once a neatly packaged statement of Christian faith and a sentence so familiar that we are prone to give it only passing attention. Because of its familiarity and importance, it tends to draw our attention away from what is discussed between Jesus and Nicodemus in this appointed reading. This reading was chosen specifically for this Trinity Sunday, yet what it has to do with the Trinity is not clear. So, I want to set aside for a moment God loving the world and sending Jesus to it, and search for this connection with the Trinity.
Nicodemus has come to Jesus at night to talk about who Jesus is and what he’s been doing. This setting is significant for two possible reasons: the first is that Nicodemus knows that the religious leaders do not like what Jesus has been saying, so Nicodemus has to be careful not to be seen visiting Jesus. The second is that darkness and light are major themes in John’s Gospel, where darkness represents sin, ignorance, and condemnation, and light represents repentance, enlightenment, and salvation that Jesus brings. Nicodemus lives in spiritual darkness, perhaps seeking light in the person of Jesus. As they talk, it becomes obvious that Nicodemus is not understanding the language that Jesus is speaking, despite both using Hebrew words. Nicodemus is looking at himself and his faith in factual, if not literal terms, while Jesus is speaking in spiritual terms of things best understood by the heart and in the soul, not with the head. There is a fundamental difference in the perspectives that they have, and where they want this conversation to end up.
As they talk, Jesus makes several plays on words that we miss because they can only be understood in the Greek that John wrote the Gospel in. Jesus responds to Nicodemus’ first statement saying that we must be born, and then he uses the Greek word “anothen,” which can mean “again”, or “from above.” This word carries a lot of weight, because its interpretation has led to two major views of spiritual birth in Christianity: to be born again through a believer’s baptism, or a second birth through baptism in the Holy Spirit from above. The second meaning of "anothen" is the basis of baptism in the Episcopal Church. It is also related to the Pentecost, when the apostles had their experience with the Holy Spirit descending on them. Nicodemus thinks that Jesus means a physical second birth, but I think Jesus uses the second meaning, that is to go through a second birth of belief in the Holy Spirit of God that has come from above. Jesus then goes on to mention spiritual things being born of the spirit, and the wind blowing where it wills. For both spirit and wind, Jesus uses the same word “pneuma,” bringing them together as at least related, if not the same thing. Nicodemus doesn’t get that either, perhaps not being able to get past the meaning of the wind blowing.
Finally, Jesus says that God sent the Son so that everyone might be saved. Here he uses the word “sozo,” meaning a rescue, a healing, or to make whole. This word has given us a different view of what salvation could be. When I hear someone ask if I or someone else has been saved, my first thought is “saved from what?” and this Greek word gives me another way to understand what Jesus did for us, the salvation that he brought. If we were continue to read the Gospel chapter beyond this morning’s reading, we find that Nicodemus is no longer part of the narrative, and Jesus goes on to say that this healing, this being made whole, comes to those who believe in him and have seen his light, and thus are rescued from the darkness. God’s unconditional love for us means just that, that our decision to accept Jesus as our personal savior is irrelevant to receiving this divine love from God. Unconditional means that our imposition of conditions for God loving us are not part of what Jesus said about it.
What Jesus has done in this reading is to begin to describe one part of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit. He describes the nature of the Spirit as being the same as the wind, where we can feel it and see its effects on us and the world, but we can’t see it. He describes what the Spirit brings to us, which is the ability to see the kingdom of God, not as a visible reality, but as a spiritual reality. In this kingdom, God is the ruler, love is the currency, and prayer is the spoken language. I can sympathize with Nicodemus here because these are things we understand through our faith, not through our senses, like he seems to. We experience the power of the Spirit rather than see it, or hear it, or measure it in some way, and this is very different from how we live our lives intellectually and physically. Jesus is saying to Nicodemus, and to us, that if we look for evidence of or try to describe God, we will miss God entirely. Jesus is leading us into a life in the Spirit and a life in God, not a life only in the world. This spiritual understanding of life through the Holy Spirit compliments the life we live in God’s Creation, thinking and acting as Jesus did. This is one way of understanding how the Trinity is relevant to us, but it is not the only way. We will continue to search for what the Trinity means and how it is important to us.
Through Jesus, John closes the loop on the Trinity with that phrase that we know by heart, and the phrase that follows it that we forget, that Jesus was not sent by God to condemn the world, but to rescue it from darkness, to make it whole again, to heal it. And Jesus was sent to do this because God loves the world unconditionally. We won’t fully understand what God and Jesus have done and why unless we include the Holy Spirit as our window into the kingdom of God. God sends, Jesus works, the Spirit illuminates; or God loves, Jesus heals, and the Spirit explains. This is the beginning of the Holy Trinity in scripture that was further explained and amplified by later Christians. It is the relationship between God, Jesus, and the Holy presence in the world that lets us see the light where we find darkness. Nicodemus didn’t understand this three part relationship and he was left in the dark. We have the advantage of more than one night, more than one conversation to understand the Trinity and what it means to us.
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