"How can a man be born when he is old?" Nicodemas asked. "Surely he cannot enter a second time into his mother's womb to be born!"
The supreme example of taking things too literally! This seems to have been a common failing with the Jews, yet Jesus was a a wonderful teacher in his use of metaphor and other figures of speech. Today many of our greatest scientists are of Jewish extraction. Is it a genetic thing, the ability to think logically in straight lines? Yet the Bible shows us that Jewish literature is filled with flights of fancy and invention. Perhaps it is just down to individuals, but Nicodemus is being obtuse here.
I wonder if Nicodemus ever truly found his second birth. We all struggle around in the dark, often believing we are Christian (in the true sense of the meaning) and then .... Jesus whaps us betweeen the eyes and we see again. My acts of righteousness are but filthy rags and I could not see them. Only Christ washes them clean.
ReplyDeleteBut this also reminds me of why we in the west have such sparse world class chess players. It is said that the best players in order are:
Russian Jews
Non-Russian Jews
Russian non-Jews
and then the rest of us.
Even Bobby Fischer was half Jewish. I hope he had his eyes opened before he died.
Bless you Terry.