John 3:5 Jesus answered, “Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit.”
John loves the word “life.” He uses it 41 times in this gospel. How does life start. Kids, go ask your parents. The short answer is that you are born. Birth and life are obviously interconnected and Jesus is connecting them here. What does it mean then to be born, achieve life, through water and the Spirit? Water could be baptism. Jesus was baptized. John the Baptist has been mentioned several times in the first two chapters. The early Christians found baptism important. So, it could be baptism. You get baptized in faith and the Spirit becomes part of you and you have life, you are born. But sometimes in the Hebrew culture water means the fluid that gets physical life going. Kids, go ask your parents. So, maybe Jesus is saying life is all about the physical and the spiritual, wrapped together, intertwined, forming the kingdom of God. How did you get to be who you are? Where did God enter your life and when did you become aware of it? Do you think of your physical self and your spiritual being as separate things? What do you think it means to be born of water and the Spirit?
Logan Memorial Presbyterian Church 