Homily 25 — John 3, verse 5

“Truly I tell you, unless a man is born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.” [a]

Little children go to their teachers every day. They receive their lessons and recite them, and they never stop working at this kind of learning. Sometimes they spend the nights on it as well as the days, and they are made to do all this for things that perish and pass away. Now we do not ask of you who are grown the kind of labor you demand of your children. It is not every day, but only two days a week, that we urge you to listen to our words, and only for a short part of the day, so that your task may be an easy one. For the same reason we also divide what is written in Scripture into small portions for you, so that you can easily take them in and lay them up in the storehouses of your minds, and take such care to remember them all that you can repeat them exactly to others yourselves — unless someone is sleepy and dull and lazier than a little child.

Let us now take up what follows from what was said before. Nicodemus had fallen into error. He dragged Christ’s words down to the earthly birth and said it was impossible for an old man to be born again. Now see how Christ, in answering him, reveals the manner of the birth more clearly. Even so, it was hard for an earthly-minded questioner to grasp; yet it was still able to lift the hearer out of his low opinion of it. What does he say? “Truly I tell you, unless a man is born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.” What he is declaring is this: “You say that it is impossible. I say that it is so entirely possible that it is necessary, and that there is no other way at all to be saved.” For the things that are necessary God has also made exceedingly easy. The earthly birth, the birth according to the flesh, is from the dust, and that is why heaven is walled off against it; for what does earth have in common with heaven? But that other birth, the one from the Spirit, easily opens the vaults above to us. Listen, all of you who are not yet enlightened! Shudder, groan! The threat is fearful, the sentence is fearful. “It is not possible,” he says, “for one who is not born of water and the Spirit to enter the kingdom of heaven.” For such a person wears the clothing of death, of cursing, of destruction. He has not yet received his Lord’s mark; he is a stranger and a foreigner; he does not have the royal watchword. “Unless a man is born,” he says, “of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of heaven.”

Even so, Nicodemus did not understand. Nothing is worse than handing spiritual things over to argument; it was this that kept him from imagining anything lofty and great. That is why we are called the faithful: so that we may leave the weakness of human reasoning below, climb up to the height of faith, and entrust most of our blessings to her teaching. If Nicodemus had done this, he would not have thought the thing impossible. What, then, does Christ do? To lead him away from his low, earthbound notion, and to show that he is not speaking of the earthly birth, he says, “Unless a man is born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of heaven.” He said this because he wanted to draw him to faith by the terror of the threat and to persuade him not to consider the thing impossible, and he was taking pains to move him away from his idea of a birth of the flesh. “I mean another birth, Nicodemus,” he says. “Why do you drag the saying down to earth? Why do you make the matter subject to the necessity of nature? This birth is too high for birth pangs like these. It has nothing in common with you. It is indeed called a ‘birth,’ but it shares only the name; in reality it is different. Take yourself away from what is common and familiar. I am bringing a different kind of childbirth into the world; I mean to have people begotten in another way. I have come to bring a new manner of creation. I formed man from earth and water, but what was formed turned out useless; the vessel was twisted out of shape. I will no longer form them from earth and water, but ‘of water’ and ‘of the Spirit.’”

And if anyone asks, “How of water?” I too will ask: How of earth? How was the clay divided into different parts? How was the material all of one kind — it was only earth — while the things made from it were varied and of every sort? Where do the bones come from, and the sinews, the arteries and the veins? Where do the membranes come from, and the vessels of the organs, the cartilage, the tissues, the liver, the spleen and the heart? Where does the skin come from, and the blood, the mucus and the bile? Where do such great powers come from, and such varied colors? These things do not belong to earth or clay. How is it that the earth, when it receives seeds, makes them sprout, while the flesh that receives them consumes them? How is it that the earth nourishes what is put into it, while the flesh is nourished by these things and does not nourish them? The earth, for example, receives water and makes it wine; the flesh often receives wine and turns it into water. How then is it clear that these things are formed from earth, when, by what has been said, the nature of the earth is the opposite of the body’s? I cannot discover it by reasoning; I accept it by faith alone. If, then, things that happen every day, things we handle with our own hands, require faith, much more do those that are more mysterious and more spiritual than these. For if the earth, which has no soul and no motion, was given power by the will of God, and such wonders were worked in it, much more, when the Spirit is present with the water, do all these things that are so strange and so far beyond reason easily take place.

So do not disbelieve these things because you do not see them. You do not see your soul, and yet you believe that you have a soul, and that it is something other than the body. [d]

But Christ did not lead him in by this example; he used another. He did not bring forward the example of the soul, because it is bodiless and his hearer’s disposition was still too dull for it. He sets before him another example, one that has nothing to do with the density of solid bodies, yet does not reach as high as the bodiless natures: the movement of the wind. He begins first with water, which is lighter than earth but denser than air. And just as in the beginning earth was the underlying material, but the whole work belonged to him who shaped it, so now water is the underlying material, and the whole work belongs to the grace of the Spirit. Then “man became a living soul” (Genesis 2, verse 7); now he becomes “a life-giving Spirit” (First Corinthians 15, verse 45). But the difference between the two is great. A soul gives life to no one except the one in whom it dwells; the Spirit not only lives but gives life to others as well. So, for example, the apostles even raised the dead.

Then, man was formed last, when the creation had been completed; now, on the contrary, the new man is formed before the new creation: he is born first, and afterward the world is fashioned anew. And as in the beginning he formed him whole, so now he creates him whole. Then he said, “Let us make a helper for him” (Genesis 2, verse 18, in the Greek Old Testament), but here he said nothing of the kind. What other helper will he need who has received the gift of the Spirit? What further need of assistance does he have who belongs to the body of Christ? Then he made man in the image of God; now he has united him with God himself. Then he told him to rule over the fish and the beasts; now he has raised our firstfruits above the heavens. Then he gave him a garden to live in; now he has opened heaven to us. Then man was formed on the sixth day, when the world was nearly finished; but now on the first, at the very beginning, at the time when light was made before. From all this it is plain that what was accomplished belonged to another and a better life, and to a state that has no end.

The first creation, then, that of Adam, was from earth; the next, that of the woman, from his rib; the next, that of Abel, from seed. Yet we cannot come to understand any one of these, or prove by argument how it happened, though they are of a most earthly nature. How then will we be able to give an account of the unseen birth that comes by baptism, which is far more exalted than these, or demand arguments for that strange and marvelous birth? Even angels stand by while that birth takes place, yet they could not tell the manner of that marvelous working. They only stand by, doing nothing, but watching what takes place. The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit do it all. So let us believe God’s declaration; it is more trustworthy than seeing with our own eyes. Sight is often mistaken; it is impossible for God’s word to fail. So let us believe it. The word that called into existence the things that were not may well be trusted when it speaks about their nature. What, then, does it say? That what is brought about is a birth. If anyone asks, “How?” stop his mouth with God’s declaration, which is the strongest and a plain proof. If anyone asks, “Why is water included?” let us ask in return, “Why was earth used at the beginning in the creation of man?” For it is quite plain to everyone that God could have made man without earth. So do not be overly curious.

That the need for water is absolute and cannot be done without, you may learn in this way. On one occasion the Spirit had flown down before the water was applied. Yet the apostle did not stop there. As though the water were necessary and not superfluous, notice what he says: “Can anyone forbid water, so that these should not be baptized, who have received the Holy Spirit just as we have?” (Acts 10, verse 47)

What, then, is the use of the water? This too I will tell you later, when I reveal the hidden mystery to you. There are other points of mystical teaching connected with it as well, but for now I will mention one of many. What is it? In baptism the pledges of our covenant with God are fulfilled: burial and death, resurrection and life; and these all take place at once. For when we plunge our heads into the water, the old man is buried as in a tomb below, and sinks out of sight completely, forever. Then, as we raise our heads again, the new man rises in his place. Just as it is easy for us to dip our heads and lift them again, so it is easy for God to bury the old man and bring the new one to light. And this is done three times, so that you may learn that the power of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit accomplishes all of it.

To show that what we say is no guesswork, listen to Paul saying, “We are buried with him by baptism into death”; and again, “Our old man is crucified with him”; and again, “We have been planted together in the likeness of his death” (Romans 6, verses 4, 5 and 6). And not only is baptism called a “cross,” but the cross is called “baptism.” “With the baptism that I am baptized with,” says Christ, “you will be baptized” (Mark 10, verse 39); and, “I have a baptism to be baptized with” (Luke 12, verse 50), which you do not know. For just as we easily dip our heads and lift them again, so he too easily died and rose again when he willed — or rather, much more easily — though he waited the three days for the arrangement of a certain mystery.

So let us who have been counted worthy of such mysteries show a life worthy of the gift, that is, a most excellent way of life. And you who have not yet been counted worthy, do everything you can to become so, so that we may be one body, so that we may be brothers. For as long as we are divided in this respect, even if a man is a father, or a son, or a brother, or anything else, he is no true relative, since he is cut off from that kinship which is from above. What good is it to be bound by the ties of an earthly family, if we are not joined by the ties of the spiritual one? What does closeness of kin on earth profit us, if we are to be strangers in heaven? For the catechumen is a stranger to the faithful. He does not have the same Head, he does not have the same Father, he does not have the same city, or food, or clothing, or table, or house; all are different. For the catechumen everything is on earth; for the believer everything is in heaven. One has Christ for his King; the other, sin and the devil. The food of one is Christ; of the other, food that decays and perishes. One has the work of worms for his clothing; the other, the Lord of angels. Heaven is the city of one, earth of the other. Since, then, we have nothing in common, tell me, in what shall we share? Were we born of the same labor pains, did we come out of the same womb? That has nothing to do with this most perfect kinship. [k]

Let us then be eager to become citizens of the city that is above. How long will we linger at the border, when we ought to reclaim our ancient homeland? The danger we run is no ordinary one. For if it should happen — God forbid! — that death comes suddenly and we depart from here not yet initiated, then even if we have ten thousand virtues, our portion will be nothing other than hell, and the venomous worm, and the fire that is never quenched, and chains that cannot be loosed. But God grant that none of those who hear these words may experience that punishment! And so it will be, if, having been counted worthy of the sacred mysteries, we build on that foundation gold and silver and precious stones. For then, after we depart from here, we will be able to appear rich in that place, when we do not leave our riches here but carry them over into treasuries no one can break into, by the hands of the poor — when we lend to Christ.

Many are our debts there — not of money, but of sins. So let us lend him our riches, so that we may receive pardon for our sins; for he is the one who judges. Let us not neglect him here when he is hungry, so that he may feed us there forever. Let us clothe him here, so that he may not leave us stripped of the safety that comes from him. If we give him drink here, we will not say with the rich man, “Send Lazarus, so that with the tip of his finger he may drop water on my scorching tongue.” If we receive him into our house here, there he will prepare many dwellings for us. If we go to him in prison, he too will free us from our chains. If we take him in when he is a stranger, he will not let us be strangers to the kingdom of heaven, but will give us a share in the city that is above. If we visit him when he is sick, he too will quickly deliver us from our weaknesses.

So, since we receive great things though we give only a little, let us still give the little, so that we may gain the great. While there is still time, let us sow, so that we may reap. When winter overtakes us, when the sea can no longer be sailed, we are no longer masters of this trade. But when will the winter be? When that great and manifest day is at hand. Then we will stop sailing this great and wide sea, for that is what the present life is like. Now is the time for sowing; then will be the time for harvest and profit. If a man does not put in his seed at sowing time, and sows at harvest, then besides accomplishing nothing he will make himself ridiculous. But if the present is the time for sowing, it follows that this is a time not for gathering but for scattering. So let us scatter, that we may gather in, and let us not try to gather in now, or we will lose our harvest. For, as I said, this season calls us to sow, to spend, and to lay out, not to collect and store up. So let us not let the opportunity slip, but let us put in abundant seed and spare none of our stores, so that we may receive them back with abundant reward, through the grace and love for humankind of our Lord Jesus Christ, with whom be glory to the Father and the Holy Spirit, forever and ever. Amen.