Born of the Spirit

Today's Reflections 

 

 

Born of the Spirit 

 

Jn 3:7b-15

[Jesus said to Nicodemus,] ⁷“ ‘You must be born from above.’ ⁸The wind blows where it wills, and you can hear the sound it makes, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes; so it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.” ⁹Nicodemus answered and said to him, “How can this happen?” ¹⁰Jesus answered and said to him, “You are the teacher of Israel and you do not understand this? ¹¹Amen, amen, I say to you, we speak of what we know and we testify to what we have seen, but you people do not accept our testimony. ¹²If I tell you about earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you about heavenly things? ¹³No one has gone up to heaven except the one who has come down from heaven, the Son of Man. ¹⁴And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, ¹⁵so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.”

Just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert. Instructed by God, Moses made a bronze serpent and set it on a pole. The Israelites who were bitten by snakes were saved as they looked up to it (cf Nm 21:5-9). Undoubtedly, it was God, not the bronze serpent, who saved the people from death. Later on, however, the Israelites began to worship the bronze serpent as an idol, burning incense to it. Then came Hezekiah, king of Judah, who “removed the high places, shattered the pillars, cut down the sacred poles [asherah]. He smashed the bronze serpent called Nehushtan… He put his trust in the Lord, the God of Israel…” (2 Kgs 18:4, 5).

When we Christians look up to the cross of Jesus, we do not glorify it simply for itself. Rather, we are reminded that the cross by itself could not and, in fact, did not save us. Jesus, our true Savior, also saved the cross by rising from the dead. If Jesus did not rise again, lifting up the cross and venerating it would be fanaticism at its best and foolishness at its worst.

You make the sign of the cross in vain

if you don’t strive to be a sign of the resurrection.