John 3:1-6 “Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a member of the Jewish ruling council. He came to Jesus at night and said, ‘Rabbi, we know you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the miraculous signs you are doing if God were not with him.’ In reply Jesus declared, ‘I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again.’ ‘How can a man be born again when he is old?’ Nicodemus asked. ‘Surely he cannot enter a second time into his mother’s womb to be born!’ Jesus answered, ‘I tell you the truth, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit. Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit.’”

“You think you know who I am, Nicodemus.” Jesus is saying. “Do you really want to know who I am? You are not going to figure it out on your own just by watching me. Something needs to change inside of you. A new kind of life, with a new kind of mind and will, and a new way of thinking, has to be born in you. Then you will be able to see who I really am. Then you will be able to see what God’s kingdom is and enter it.”

Jesus wasn’t telling Nicodemus to go find this new life, with its new mind and will, himself. It has to be born in you. The Spirit has to give it birth. That’s a pregnant picture, pun intended. Birth is one of the most passive things that ever happens to us. You and I had no say in who our mother would be, or our Father for that matter. What’s the old saying? “You can choose your friends, but you can’t choose your family.” We had no role in determining when we would be born, and when the day came there was nothing we could do to stop it. At that point, there is little anyone else can do as well. My wife went into labor with our last child about three weeks early. The doctor gave her medications to try to stop the big event from happening, but to no avail. A few hours later our son appeared, alive and healthy, whether he wanted to be with us yet or not.

This is how we get our spiritual life, Jesus says, the one that allows us to see him and his kingdom. It is a kind of birth, a Spirit-birth. It happens to us. That’s not to say that we don’t understand the processes that make it happen, at least in part. The Spirit delivers this life. He mentions “water and the Spirit.” In this part of John’s gospel, baptism is a very central theme. So we believe that in baptism the Spirit is delivering new life in people. Years later the Apostle Peter also wrote about being “born again of the living and enduring word of God.” So we believe that by preaching, and teaching, and giving people Scripture to read, the Spirit is also delivering new life in people. They are born spiritually. But this happens to them. There is nothing “do-it-yourself” about the process.

Just in case Nicodemus missed the point, Jesus reaches for a second illustration. “You should not be surprised at my saying, ‘You must be born again.’ The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.” Ever try to control a tornado? Every try to stop a hurricane? Not much that you can do about them, is there. The weathermen can talk for hours, and the storm trackers can run around and look. With all our technology and radar we can follow and guess. But the wind blows wherever it pleases, and so does God’s Spirit. We can see where he is at work, in baptism and God’s word. But we have no control over his work. The Spirit-birth is the Spirit’s work from start to finish.

Jesus is leading us to repent of all our ideas about faith and salvation being some kind of spiritual do-it-yourself project. Maybe you have run into the gifted artist who could draw almost photographic reproductions of things from the time he first picked up a pencil, or the gifted musician who could play any piece of music she ever heard without taking lessons; or the gifted student who never had to study, but his brain just seemed to absorb and save everything he ever saw or heard–and these people were all full of themselves and their ability. They are kind of pathetic, because they act like they invented their bodies and gave birth to their talents, when it was all just a gift.

Don’t be the pathetic Christian who acts and talks as though he is somehow superior to everyone else because of a faith that was the Spirit’s gift. It’s a great thing, to be sure, but not something we have done. It is all the result of the Spirit-birth.