Born from above?

The Butterfly Nebula from the Hubble space scope

In classical Greek, the word "psyche" has two connotations. It can mean soul as in our spiritual self. But it is also the word for butterfly. The creature that metamorphoses from the earthbound caterpillar to the winged beauty of spring was for the ancient Greeks a symbol of our soul's development into its full potential and presence.
The ancient Greeks even had a story of the relationship between Eros and Psyche, and how Psyche gained eternal existence because her example of showing trust in another.
As we have been able to extend our gaze into the heavens, we have been both thrilled and awe struck as to what a vast universe there is beyond us. It is both above and beyond much of who we are in this earthbound abode.

In today's lectionary lesson from Matthew 3:1-17, Jesus speaks to Nicodemus, a very faith seeking and inquisitive man who wonders what it means to trust and what results from such a relationship. How do we look at being born from above? What does this have to say about our earthbound development and our expression of trust in others?


John 3:1-17
3:1 Now there was a Pharisee named Nicodemus, a leader of the Jews.

3:2 He came to Jesus by night and said to him, "Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God; for no one can do these signs that you do apart from the presence of God."

3:3 Jesus answered him, "Very truly, I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above."

3:4 Nicodemus said to him, "How can anyone be born after having grown old? Can one enter a second time into the mother's womb and be born?"

3:5 Jesus answered, "Very truly, I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit.

3:6 What is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the Spirit is spirit.

3:7 Do not be astonished that I said to you, 'You must be born from above.'

3:8 The wind blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit."

3:9 Nicodemus said to him, "How can these things be?"

3:10 Jesus answered him, "Are you a teacher of Israel, and yet you do not understand these things?

3:11 "Very truly, I tell you, we speak of what we know and testify to what we have seen; yet you do not receive our testimony.

3:12 If I have told you about earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you about heavenly things?

3:13 No one has ascended into heaven except the one who descended from heaven, the Son of Man.

3:14 And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up,

3:15 that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.

3:16 "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.

3:17 "Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.

Walter Morton for Journey Across the Line