Triumph of the Cross
With Temporary Profession
Nicodemus uses the majestic plural --
"we know that you are a teacher who comes from God --
you couldn't do these signs if you were not."
This passage is a warning to any of us
who would demonize all the Pharisees
as a bunch of ignorant hypocrites and legalists
who can't recognize the work of God.
Here we meet someone who has the beginnings of faith,
who wants to learn more about Jesus.
Jesus tells Nicodemus that in order for people
to really see God's presence and action in the world
they must be "born from above."
Jesus is saying that if we are going to come out of darkness
we need a whole new beginning,
a different way of seeing,
something we cannot achieve on our own.
Otherwise, like Nicodemus, we are in the dark.
Nicodemus doesn't understand Jesus.
Who could blame him?
How can a person, once old, be born again?
He is taking Jesus literally, rather than spiritually.
The new life that Jesus speaks of can only come from God,
through the Holy Spirit.
It is the Holy Spirit who takes us out of darkness
into the light of faith in Jesus,
who helps us to see that God doesn't have to follow our intuition.
Some theologians have called this
the equivalent of John's "infancy narrative,"
how we as believers are born into a new life.
Just as we can't cause our own birth to happen,
so we can't control our rebirth in the Holy Spirit.
We receive the Spirit as gift
and in the Spirit, we see differently,
understanding our lives differently,
judge and act differently.
So the Roman soldiers and the Jewish leaders
see the death of Jesus on the cross
as utter, total defeat, and annihilation.
In the Spirit, we see this awfulness
as the Son of Man being lifted up by God,
and this horrible humiliation becoming the seed of new life.
God is at work in the cross and brings new life from it.
We exalt the cross because God brings new life out of the cross,
not only for Jesus but for us, and for the creation itself.
This is why Jesus says that God so loved the world
that he sent his only Son,
and this only Son did not cling to his divinity
but emptied himself, gave himself over to death,
even on the cross.
The cross by itself is not holy.
It is an instrument of torture, humiliation, and death.
Only the strength of God's love
can make it a means of eternal life for us.
Only God's passionate love for his Son
can make Jesus' death not an ending,
but the path through which we are reborn.
God did for us what we could not do for ourselves.
The tree of our defeat becomes the tree of victory.
The child who is born with Down syndrome,
and who by some reckoning, lives less than a full life,
becomes the glue that holds the family together
and becomes a transforming grace for both parents and siblings.
The painful divorce of spouses for all kinds of reasons:
just not paying attention, endless conflict, or painful change,
opens these individuals to a new and rich sense of self,
and of the gift of relationship and family.
These readings show us Nicodemus
coming to faith in Jesus over a period of time.
Nicodemus leaves Jesus scratching his head,
puzzled by his words.
But he becomes a disciple, being with Joseph of Arimathea
to help him with the burial of Jesus.
He is no longer afraid.
This reading from John tells us that
a living, dynamic faith in Jesus Christ
is very seldom a slam dunk.
Note that none of these
reversals and transformations are automatic.
They are the moment of grace
and it is up to us to respond.
Faith, resurrection, and new life
are not the default positions --
we have to be engaged
with this mystery of God at work in our lives.
As we listen to Brother Aelred
speak his commitment to monastic life,
we renew our commitment
to be alert for God's work in our lives
in the saving mystery of the Cross.
Abbot John Klassen, OSB
September 14, 2008
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