BEMA Episode Link: 255: John — Water, Spirit, Darkness, Light
Episode Length: 1:09:16
Published Date: Thu, 27 Jan 2022 01:00:00 -0800
Session 6
About this episode:

Brent Billings and Josh Bossé continue the journey through the Gospel of John, discussing the meeting of Jesus and Nicodemus, and the themes of their conversation.

Discussion Video for BEMA 255

BEMA 226: The Chosen S1E7 — “Invitations”

The Great British Bake Off — Wikipedia

The Tree of Life (2011 film)

God in Search of Man by Abraham Joshua Heschel

Man Is Not Alone by Abraham Joshua Heschel

Transcript for BEMA 255

Notes

*Note: The following notes are handwritten by me, Adam, and I reserve the right to be wrong.

BEMA 255: John — Water, Spirit, Darkness, Light - Study Notes

Title & Source Summary

Episode: BEMA 255 - John: Water, Spirit, Darkness, Light Hosts: Brent Billings and Josh Bosse Focus: John 3:1-21 - Jesus and Nicodemus

This episode provides an in-depth exploration of one of the most famous passages in the New Testament: the nighttime conversation between Jesus and Nicodemus. Rather than treating this as a simple evangelistic proof text, the hosts uncover layers of Passover imagery, Exodus parallels, creation themes, and profound statements about grace, exposure, and spiritual transformation. The discussion reveals how Jesus uses the context of Passover and Israel’s foundational story to challenge Nicodemus about the true mission of God’s people and the radical nature of God’s grace.

Key Takeaways

  • The conversation between Jesus and Nicodemus likely occurred on the night of Passover, during Leil Shimurim (the night of watching), adding significant context to Jesus’s teaching about being “born again”
  • Jesus distinguishes between two types of rebirth: being born of water (physical deliverance from Egypt through the Red Sea) and being born of spirit (spiritual transformation at Sinai through receiving Torah)
  • When Jesus says “unless you are born again,” he is essentially saying “we need another Passover, another Exodus” because Israel has not truly left their spiritual Egypt
  • John 3:16’s “only begotten Son” primarily refers to Israel as God’s firstborn son (Exodus 4:22-23), sent into the world to bring all nations to God, not just as an individualistic salvation verse
  • The judgment Jesus describes is self-administered: light has come into the world as a new creation, and people either step into it or hide in darkness out of fear of exposure
  • Jesus’s teaching reveals that God’s mission has always been about including the whole world, not just the Jewish people, and that temple practices had become barriers to this mission
  • The story of Abraham and Isaac on Mount Moriah demonstrates that God provides the sacrifice rather than demanding it, revealing a God of radical grace rather than conditional acceptance

Main Concepts & Theories

The Setting: Passover and Leil Shimurim

The episode establishes that this conversation occurs immediately after Jesus cleanses the temple during Passover. The specific detail that Nicodemus came “at night” is significant beyond mere secrecy. Leil Shimurim, based on Exodus 12:42, is the traditional Jewish practice of keeping watch on the night of Passover, commemorating how God “kept vigil” to bring Israel out of Egypt. Jews traditionally stay up watching for salvation to come.

This context makes Jesus’s opening statement devastatingly pointed: “You won’t be able to see anything. You won’t be able to see the kingdom coming because you haven’t been born again.” While they are symbolically watching for God to deliver them, Jesus tells them they cannot even see what God is doing.

Nicodemus: Not a Foolish Question

Traditional interpretations often portray Nicodemus as asking a ridiculous literal question about crawling back into his mother’s womb. However, as both a Pharisee and a member of the Sanhedrin, Nicodemus was highly educated in Torah and would immediately understand Jesus’s Passover imagery.

His response is actually sophisticated. When he asks about being reborn “when you are old” and mentions returning to the womb, he is engaging with Jesus on multiple levels:

  • We cannot return to Egypt: The womb represents Egypt, and Torah explicitly forbids returning there. Is Jesus suggesting they need to go back to slavery?
  • The impossibility of starting fresh with experience: How can someone with accumulated life experience, baggage, and weariness truly start from a clean slate?
  • Israel’s collective exhaustion: As a nation, they have been through multiple exiles and are now in what they consider a “Torah renaissance.” Why start over when they have finally achieved stability?

Nicodemus is essentially asking, “We’ve already had our Exodus. Why do we need another one? We can’t unlearn what we know or undo our history.”

Two Births: Water and Spirit

Jesus makes a crucial distinction between being born of water and being born of spirit, corresponding to two different moments in the Exodus narrative:

Born of Water (Physical Rebirth)

  • Crossing the Red Sea
  • Physical deliverance from slavery
  • Immediate change in material conditions
  • From slaves to free people

Born of Spirit (Spiritual Rebirth)

  • Mount Sinai
  • Receiving Torah
  • Spiritual transformation and calling
  • From free people to God’s partners in redemption

Jesus emphasizes that Israel’s experience included both rebirths in sequence. They did not go directly from Egypt to the Promised Land. They stopped at Sinai for spiritual transformation. Moreover, Torah uses their experience of slavery as the foundation for how they should treat others: “Take care of the alien, orphan, and widow because you were once slaves.” Their baggage becomes the ground for their rebirth rather than an obstacle to it.

The Wind and the Spirit

Jesus plays on the double meaning of ruach (Hebrew) and pneuma (Greek), which can mean both “wind” and “spirit.” When he says, “The wind blows wherever it pleases, you hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going,” he makes several points:

  • This is a remez (hint) to Ecclesiastes and the theme of “chasing after the wind” (futility)
  • From the outside, trying to understand what Jesus is doing is futile, like chasing wind
  • You cannot grasp this movement intellectually; you must experience the spiritual transformation yourself
  • Those born of the spirit are similarly unpredictable and cannot be controlled
The Son of Man and Descending Before Ascending

Jesus introduces a puzzling reversal: “No one has ascended into heaven except the one who descended from heaven, the Son of Man” (John 3:13). This flips the expected Sinai imagery where Moses ascends the mountain.

Jesus references Daniel’s vision of the Son of Man, who comes after all the empires fall to put the world back together. The point is clear: before we can ascend to receive spiritual transformation, we must first descend as the Son of Man to work on putting the world back together. Spiritual experience without justice work is incomplete.

This connects to Jesus’s temple cleansing. The marketplace was set up in the Court of the Gentiles, making it difficult for non-Jews to access worship. Jesus argues that if their religious practice excludes the very people they are meant to reach, then the sacrifices become meaningless. The “smell” (ruach) of the offerings will not ascend to God if the posture is wrong.

The Bronze Serpent: Healing Through Lifting Up

Jesus references Numbers 21 where Moses lifted up a bronze serpent to heal people from a plague of venomous snakes. This plague came upon Israel because they complained about taking a detour on the way to the Promised Land. Notably, they resolved it themselves by confessing to Moses and asking him to intercede.

Jesus uses this image to flip the idea of ascending from sacrifices rising to God to healing coming down to the people. The point of the Son of Man role is not self-focused spirituality but bringing actual healing and salvation to people. It must result in people experiencing wholeness, not just maintaining religious systems.

The Two Spies: John and Jesus

When Jesus says, “We speak of what we know and testify to what we have seen, but still you people do not accept our testimony,” the plural “you” evokes Numbers 13-14, the story of the twelve spies. Ten spies brought a fearful report about the Promised Land, but two - Joshua and Caleb - insisted it was good and they should enter.

Jesus (Yehoshua in Hebrew, the same name as Joshua) positions himself and John the Baptist as the two faithful witnesses testifying that there is a spiritual Promised Land available, but the people are afraid to enter. John is significantly positioned at the Jordan River, the crossing point into the Promised Land.

The ten spies argued that the Promised Land was too demanding - “a land that devours its people.” They preferred the simplicity of the desert where God provided everything directly. Similarly, Jesus challenges Nicodemus about preferring comfortable religious systems over the messiness of actually engaging the world.

John 3:16: Israel as God’s Firstborn Son

Rather than jumping immediately to Jesus as the “only begotten Son,” the hosts encourage hearing this verse as Nicodemus would have heard it, with fresh ears.

The clearest Old Testament reference to God’s “only” or “firstborn” son is Exodus 4:22-23: “Israel is my firstborn son, and I told you, ‘Let my son go, so he may worship me.’ But you refused to let him go; so I will kill your firstborn son.”

Heard in this light, John 3:16 becomes: “God loved the world so much that he gave us [Israel] into the world so that whoever followed Torah, whoever listened to this story, would not perish but have everlasting life.”

The verse is about God’s mission for Israel to bring the whole world into relationship with God. The nine plagues before Passover were not primarily for Israel’s benefit (they already believed) but to reveal God to the Egyptians. God wanted to bring Egyptians out of Egypt too. A “mixed multitude” did leave Egypt with Israel and became part of the covenant community.

Jesus recenters Nicodemus on the original purpose: “You are at the end of Passover, and yet you’re not interested in bringing any Egyptians along with you.”

Judgment as Light: The Self-Administered Verdict

Jesus introduces a radically different understanding of judgment in verses 17-21. God did not send the Son to judge the world but to save it. Yet judgment still occurs, but it is self-administered:

  • Those who believe are simply “not judged”
  • Those who do not believe “have already been judged”
  • The mechanism of judgment is that light has come into the world as a new creation

The tenth plague offers a parallel. Unlike the first nine plagues where God made clear distinctions between Egyptians and Hebrews, the tenth plague fell equally on everyone. Protection required proactive participation: painting blood on the doorposts.

Similarly, Kingdom is being created in the midst of the world. Light is shining. People either step into it or stay in darkness. That choice itself is the judgment.

Hiding in Darkness: Genesis 3 and Fear of Exposure

Jesus identifies why people resist the light: “Everyone who does evil hates the light and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed” (John 3:20).

This directly echoes Genesis 3, where Adam and Eve sin and then hide from God, covering themselves because they feel exposed and vulnerable. They fear God will tear them apart like a predator.

Jesus acknowledges the very human, very real reasons we resist stepping into the light:

  • We will mess up
  • Our inadequacies will be revealed
  • We will hurt people’s feelings
  • We will discover uncomfortable truths about ourselves

We get comfortable in our “dark little niches” and prefer not to be exposed. Jesus challenges whether we are truly willing to step into the light and be seen fully.

Radical Grace: Everything Performed in God

Verse 21 offers perhaps the most radical statement in the passage: “Whoever practices the truth comes to the light, so that his deeds may be revealed as having been performed in God.”

This is not saying that if you are perfect, then your deeds will be seen as performed in God. Rather, it is saying that if you step into the light, everything you do - including your failures and sins - will be revealed as having been part of God working in you.

When sin stays hidden, it festers and grows. When sin comes to light in a community of grace and love, it becomes something new life comes out of because it can be seen, recognized, and acknowledged.

But this requires preemptive trust that grace will be there, that exposure will not lead to being “pounced upon and torn apart” but that nakedness will be loved and healed rather than judged and cast out.

Abraham and Isaac: The God Who Provides

The Abraham and Isaac story (Genesis 22) becomes the culmination of the teaching. Abraham, who had lost many people throughout his life (his father, Lot, Hagar, Ishmael, almost Sarah), might reasonably fear that God wanted to take everything from him, including Isaac.

God’s test exposes this fear: “Lay that fear naked and see what God I am.”

When Abraham passes the test, he looks up and sees a ram caught by its horns (horns being symbols of power and wealth in ancient times). God did not ask Abraham to sacrifice the ram. Abraham chooses to sacrifice it because he suddenly understands: God is not here to take from me; God provides.

This becomes a saying: “On the mountain of the Lord, it will be provided.” This mountain is Mount Moriah, where the temple was later built. The sacrifice God wants is not one demanded from us, but one that tells a story of God’s grace, hospitality, and love.

Jesus is saying this is why God sent Israel into Egypt and into exilic places - so they could tell this story to people who do not know it. Now they are not even interested in telling it to those who do not already know it.

Abraham’s experience on the mountain is the spiritual rebirth Jesus is talking about - actually seeing and experiencing God’s character of grace rather than just believing it conceptually.

Examples & Applications

Temple Cleansing and Systemic Barriers

The hosts connect Jesus’s temple cleansing to the conversation with Nicodemus. The marketplace was set up in the Court of the Gentiles, the only space where non-Jews could come to worship. Money changers were there because Roman coins with the emperor’s image (considered idolatrous) could not be brought into the temple proper. This created a practical need, but it was solved by sacrificing Gentile access to sacred space.

This illustrates how religious systems can systematically make it impossible to fulfill God’s mission. The temple, meant to be “a house of prayer for all nations,” had become a barrier to including the nations.

Application: What structures in our churches, organizations, or personal lives create barriers to the very people we are meant to serve? What would it mean to cleanse those spaces?

Faith Breaking Our Spiritual Paths

Josh Bosse quotes Abraham Joshua Heschel: “Faith is the breaking of our spiritual paths.” We develop ways of following God that are good and healthy, but they can become comfortable patterns we are used to. True faith pulls us outside those comfort zones.

Application: What spiritual practices or beliefs have become comfortable paths? Where might God be inviting you into discomfort that leads to growth?

The Pandemic and Weariness

The hosts acknowledge that in the context of the pandemic, many people understand what it means to be weary. The idea of starting over, of being “reborn,” can feel like too much when you are already exhausted.

Jesus does not dismiss this weariness but reframes it. Israel’s own baggage and trauma from slavery became the foundation for their calling. “Take care of the alien, orphan, and widow because you were once slaves.” The hard experiences become the ground for transformation, not obstacles to it.

Application: How might your own difficult experiences, rather than being disqualifications, be the very thing that equips you to participate in God’s work of putting the world back together?

Exposure in Community

The teaching on coming into the light and having deeds revealed as performed in God only works in a context of genuine grace. When sin is hidden, it grows. When sin comes to light in a community that truly loves and has grace, it can be transformed.

Application: Do you have relationships where you can be fully known, where your failures and struggles can be exposed without fear of rejection? What would it take to create or find such community?

The Spirit Provides

Jesus teaches that we do not have to have everything figured out. The Spirit will provide what we need when we need it, just as God provided the ram for Abraham on the mountain. When Jesus sends out his disciples, he tells them not to worry about what to say because the Spirit will give them words.

Application: Where are you waiting to have all the answers before stepping out? What would it mean to trust that God will provide what you need when you need it?

Potential Areas for Further Exploration

  1. Day Six of Creation and the Flesh-Spirit Discussion: The hosts mention that Jesus’s statement “Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit” contains deep creation narrative connections, particularly to day six of Genesis 1. This would require a detailed study of humanity’s creation and calling.

  2. The Half-Israelite, Half-Egyptian Story: Josh mentions Leviticus 24:10-23, the account of a young man with an Israelite mother and Egyptian father who gets into trouble. This story relates to the “mixed multitude” that left Egypt and questions of identity and inclusion.

  3. The Nine Plagues and Egyptian Gods: The teaching mentions that the nine plagues before Passover corresponded to the nine major gods of Egypt, systematically deconstructing Egypt’s pantheon. A deeper study of this would illuminate God’s purposes in the Exodus.

  4. Ecclesiastes and “Chasing After the Wind”: Jesus’s reference to the wind connects to Ecclesiastes’s theme of hebel (vapor, breath, futility). How does Ecclesiastes’s wisdom literature inform our understanding of Jesus’s teaching on the Spirit?

  5. Genesis 3 and Clothing Imagery: Josh offers an intriguing reading that God’s “clothing” of Adam and Eve with skins might be understood as God removing coverings of darkness and clothing them in light (their own skin), saying “Let the light be on it.” This deserves deeper exploration.

  6. The Talmud’s Nicodemus: The hosts mention that a Nicodemus appears in the Talmud who might be the same person from John’s Gospel. What can we learn from later Jewish traditions about this figure?

  7. Temple as Mount Moriah: The connection between Abraham’s sacrifice on Mount Moriah and the later temple site deserves fuller treatment. How does this shape our understanding of temple theology and sacrifice?

  8. John the Baptist at the Jordan: The episode briefly mentions that John baptizes at the Jordan River, the crossing point into the Promised Land. How does John’s entire ministry echo and embody the themes of exodus, crossing over, and entry into promise?

  9. The Spies and Fear of Abundance: The rabbinic teaching that the spies feared the Promised Land would “devour” them because it would take up all their time and draw them into worldly concerns (unlike the simplicity of the desert) offers rich material for reflection on our own fears of engagement.

  10. Eternal Life as Present Reality: The hosts mention but do not fully develop the distinction between eternal life as a future hope versus a present reality we experience now. This connects to broader Kingdom theology.

Comprehension Questions

  1. How does understanding the context of Leil Shimurim (the night of watching during Passover) change the meaning of Jesus’s opening statement to Nicodemus about being “born again”? What is Jesus implying about what Nicodemus and others are able or unable to see?

  2. Explain the distinction Jesus makes between being “born of water” and “born of spirit.” What historical events do these correspond to in Israel’s story, and why is it significant that Jesus says both are necessary but different kinds of rebirth?

  3. In what ways was Nicodemus’s question about returning to the womb actually sophisticated rather than foolish? What multiple concerns or objections was he raising about Jesus’s call to be “born again”?

  4. How does the reference to the two spies (Joshua and Caleb) illuminate Jesus’s statement about “we speak of what we know and testify to what we have seen, but you do not accept our testimony”? What is Jesus claiming about himself and John the Baptist?

  5. How does Jesus’s use of the Abraham and Isaac story (particularly the detail that God provided the ram and Abraham’s naming of the place “The Lord Will Provide”) relate to his overall teaching about grace, exposure, and stepping into the light? What kind of God is being revealed in this story?

Personalized Summary

This episode transforms one of the most familiar passages in Scripture into something fresh and challenging by recovering its original Jewish context. Jesus is not primarily offering a simple plan of salvation to an individual; he is confronting a religious leader about whether Israel has truly completed its exodus and whether they remember their mission to the world.

The conversation revolves around Passover imagery, with Jesus distinguishing between physical deliverance (born of water through the Red Sea) and spiritual transformation (born of spirit at Sinai). Nicodemus’s objections are not foolish but reflect real concerns about starting over when you have baggage, experience, and weariness.

Jesus makes stunning claims: what he is doing is on the level of receiving Torah at Sinai. He and John are like the two faithful spies testifying to a Promised Land others are afraid to enter. The famous John 3:16 is primarily about Israel as God’s firstborn son, sent into the world so all nations might be blessed - the original Abrahamic promise.

The judgment Jesus describes is radically different from how we typically think of judgment. Light has come into the world as a new creation. People either step into it or hide in darkness. That choice itself is the judgment. We hide because we fear exposure, like Adam and Eve in Genesis 3.

But Jesus offers astonishing grace: if we practice truth and come into the light, our deeds will be revealed as having been performed in God - not just the good ones, but all of them. Even our failures become part of how God is working in us when they come to light in a community of genuine grace.

The Abraham and Isaac story culminates the teaching. Abraham’s willingness to expose his deepest fear allows him to experience God’s character: a God who provides rather than demands. This experiential knowledge of grace is the spiritual rebirth Jesus is talking about. It is why God sent Israel through difficult places - so they would have a story to tell about a good God.

The challenge is whether we are willing to step out of our comfortable religious systems, trust the Spirit to provide what we need, and engage in the messy work of putting the world back together. Only then can we truly ascend the mountain and be transformed.

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