UPFRONT June 1, 2009 Issue

LEARNING AND HEALING

STEVE GRAHAM,

Chapter three of John's Gospel opens with a life-transforming dialogue. A man named Nicodemus approaches Jesus. Nicodemus is a Pharisee who belongs to the Sanhedrin, the Jewish ruling council. And he comes to Jesus under cover of darkness, to ask him earnest questions.

What Jesus says is frequently at odds with the Pharisees' strict adherence to the letter of the law. But the truth behind his words has attracted Nicodemus, who has noticed "the miracles"—the healings—that Jesus performs. Only divine power can explain them, he admits.

On this night, Nicodemus addresses Jesus as "a teacher come from God." And he begins to learn about the need to be "born again"—not in a literal sense, but by revising his face-value concepts of existence and coming to understand spiritual things.