John 3:16 Reconsidered
Being born of water and breath
“For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life” is the most widely quoted and widely misunderstood scripture passage in our culture. The passage is usually read to mean that if we believe certain theological dogmas about Jesus – namely that he died in payment for our sins and that if we accept him as our savior – then we will go to heaven when we die. It is this belief that separates the saved from the damned. It is used to divide humanity. People wave signs with “John 3:16” printed on them at football games as a warning and to signal their piety.
This reading of the verse ignores the larger context of the passage in John 3, which is a dialogue between Nicodemus and Jesus. The Gospel of John is a mystical text. To read it literally is to miss the point altogether. That is the mistake that Nicodemus makes. He takes a mystical teaching literally. People have been misunderstanding Jesus in this way ever since.
Nicodemus starts out on the right foot. He recognizes that Jesus’ words and actions are authentic, rooted in reality. They point beyond themselves to God. Jesus replies that unless a person is born from the first or original source – the “In the beginning” of the Book of Genesis and the prologue to the Gospel of John – he or she cannot experience the illumination of God’s vision and power. The same language is used here as in the sixth Beatitude in Matthew’s Gospel – “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.” To perceive reality as God sees it, we have to be connected to the source.
Jesus is clearly talking about an experience, not a concept. He is inviting a relationship with God, not an idea about God. Contemplating the mystery of creation, “in the beginning,” and our sense of human impermanence, opens the heart-center to the abiding vision and power of God. We begin with wonder and awe. This is what opens us to the mystery of God.
Nicodemus misunderstands. He thinks Jesus is talking about re-entering our mother’s womb. He is stuck on a literal reading of the metaphor of birth. Jesus is not talking about identifying with our physical birth; our genealogy or nationality. He tries to make this clearer.
He is talking about our birth from water and breath, the “in the beginning “of Genesis when the divine breath blew over the primordial waters of the original womb. Jesus is recalling the birth of the living soul, the consciousness that becomes embodied in flesh. There is being born in the flesh – in time and space – and there is being born of spirit or breath – in the timeless “in the beginning” of each moment. We should not be astonished to realize that we are not only a transient self, but also an eternal soul.
Jesus is inviting Nicodemus – and us – to realign our self with our soul, to realize our identity as sharers in the divine consciousness that breathed us into life “in the beginning.” He is inviting us to reconnect with the source and to flow with it, to allow it to direct and shape our lives. Just as the wind follows its own natural rhythm, so it is with those who are born of the breath of God. We learn to flow, to move through life freely and gracefully, when we are attuned to the source. Then our heart’s desire is aligned with the Heart of Reality, our self is aligned with soul-force.
This bond is indissoluble, and it transcends our earthly sojourn. We mark the newly baptized with oil of chrism, saying, “You are sealed by the Holy Spirit and marked as Christ’s own forever.” The holy breath leads us into the fullness of Christ consciousness in this life and in the life of the world to come. The breath returns us to the source, now and forever.
At this point, you may be wondering along with Nicodemus, “How can these things be?” If we can’t understand these earthly metaphors, how can we understand the invisible dimensions of reality, the truths of the inner life to which these signs point? You can’t see consciousness, but it is real. You can’t see love, but it is real. You can’t see grace, but it is real.
So, Jesus reminds Nicodemus of an odd, little story from the Torah. The Hebrew people, freed from slavery in Egypt, are wandering in the desert and becoming disgruntled. Perhaps as a reflection of their inner state, snakes begin to appear and strike the people, killing many with their poison. God then instructs Moses to create an image of a snake and lift it high on pole in the middle of the camp. When people see the image of the snake, they are healed of the snakebite.
Invoking this metaphor, Jesus points out that human beings need to see an integrated human being, one who is elevated by transforming their consciousness, aligning their self with their soul to touch into eternal life, the life that is life. We need a model to emulate.
That is how we cure the snakebite of being human: our fragility, uncertainty and suffering. The antidote lies in reconnecting with the source, and manifesting the love that energizes its ever-renewing creativity.
God loved the world by giving us a fully integrated human, Jesus, aligned with the divine breath, so that all who have the same rooted trust in reality may touch into the soul-force that gives life to all things. In this heart-ful connection of self with soul, we can be confident in our own fulfillment – a fulfillment that does not fade with the death of self in its embodied form. Jesus does not come to judge the world, to divide it, but to unite it in this life-giving energy. We can reconnect with the source with every breath, now and forever.
The point is not to believe some intellectual theories about Jesus, but to cultivate the same heart-felt trust in reality, energized by love, that Jesus experiences. He does not point to himself, but rather to the Source, and invites us to reconnect with it in our own lives. This is what makes Jesus God’s great gift to us who are snakebit. He shows us what a whole life looks like, so that we can claim it too; not for ourselves alone, but so that others may see it and be healed.