The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit. John 3:8
Jesus is talking to Nicodemus here about being born again, something our church presents as a black and white issue...which it is. But like most things about God, that's much too simple.
What Jesus says about the wind here is brilliant and mysterious...wouldn't it make you want to know more...motivate you to investigate what this whole conversation means for you? It does me.
The word for “wind” and the word for “spirit” are the same word in Hebrew – pneuma. What Jesus is saying to Nicodemus is this: The ways of God are mysterious, as mysterious as the wind. You can’t fully explain it; you can’t fully grasp it. Trying to fully comprehend the spirit (pneuma) is like trying to fully comprehend the wind (pneuma).
As finite people, we like to feel that we know the answers, and we fall in love with comforts of certainty.
Why do we think that in order to “know” something we need to have an ironclad understanding of it? We see questions that are left unanswered as quests to be conquered. The result is that we reduce divine (and human) mysteries to formulas....and then we get bored(Well, I do!) and start thinking that's all there is to know about life and God.
What's interesting is that Nicodemus walks away from Jesus without a clear understanding of what he's talking about...and that’s okay with Jesus! Nicodemus doesn’t leave with a three-step formula for being “born again.” The story, and Jesus' point, is unresolved, a mystery that forces Nicodemus to wander off, thinking, pondering, wondering, searching.
Faith is a lifelong journey of discovery. Just when you recognize a new understanding of the depth of who God is, you discover there is something still beyond. In fact, we can't have it all figured out, find all the answers, or work life into a nice, easy package.
Jesus says that faith as an open-ended quest, so pay attention and follow the Spirit where he leads you.
If we could have all the answers on this side of heaven, it wouldn’t be called faith!
God thank you for being infinite and unknowable. I really like that about you! Teach me to seek the discomfort of not knowing everything and to embrace wrestling with your unknowableness. Amen.
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