Never Too Late John 3:1-17 Rev. Dr. Rhonda Abbott Blevins January 11, 2026
Now there was a Pharisee named Nicodemus, a leader of the Jews. 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.” Jesus answered him, “Very truly, I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above.” 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?” Jesus answered, “Very truly, I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit. What is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not be astonished that I said to you, ‘You must be born from above.’ 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.” Nicodemus said to him, “How can these things be?” Jesus answered him, “Are you a teacher of Israel, and yet you do not understand these things? 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. If I have told you about earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you about heavenly things? No one has ascended into heaven except the one who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life. 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. 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.
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We’re in week two of our preaching series “Forever Beginning: Stories of Fresh Starts.” Last week we met the first disciples who left their boats and their nets to follow Jesus, responding to an invitation that disrupted all their plans. Today we meet a very different kind of seeker—a man named Nicodemus. He’s older, established, respected. He’s a teacher, a leader, someone who has spent his entire life studying scripture and law. And yet here he comes, under the cover of darkness, seeking something more. His story reminds us that it’s never too late to discover something new about God, about faith, about ourselves. It’s never too late to begin again.
Remember when you were in your mother’s womb, how comfortable you were? How cozy you were? How warm you were? How you were never hungry? How you slept when you wanted to sleep? How you never felt alone? How you never wanted for anything? Yeah, me neither. I wonder why we can’t remember life in the womb, a common experience of all humans.
A friend once shared a story with me about two babies together in their mother’s womb:
One asked the other: “Do you believe in life after delivery?”
The other replied, “Why, of course. There has to be something after delivery. Maybe we are here to prepare ourselves for what we will be later.”
“Nonsense,” said the first. “There is no life after delivery. What kind of life would that be?”
The second said, “I don’t know, but there will be more light than here. Maybe we will walk with our legs and eat from our mouths. Maybe we will have other senses that we can’t understand now.”
The first replied, “That is absurd. Walking is impossible. And eating with our mouths? Ridiculous! The umbilical cord supplies nutrition and everything we need. But the umbilical cord is so short. Life after delivery is to be logically excluded.”
The second insisted, “Well I think there is something and maybe it’s different than it is here. Maybe we won’t need this physical cord anymore.”
The first replied, “Nonsense. And moreover if there is life, then why has no one has ever come back from there? Delivery is the end of life, and in the after-delivery there is nothing but darkness and silence and oblivion. It takes us nowhere.”
“Well, I don’t know,” said the second, “but certainly we will meet Mother and she will take care of us.”
The first replied “Mother? You actually believe in Mother? That’s laughable. If Mother exists then where is She now?”
The second said, “She is all around us. We are surrounded by her. We are of Her. It is in Her that we live. Without Her this world would not and could not exist.”
Said the first: “Well I don’t see Her, so it is only logical that She doesn’t exist.”
To which the second replied, “Sometimes, when you’re in silence and you focus and you really listen, you can perceive Her presence, you can hear her heartbeat, and sometimes you can even hear Her loving voice, calling down from above.”
Do you believe in life after birth? According to our scripture text today, Jesus believed in life after RE-birth.
To recap the story, the powerful and probably wealthy Nicodemus, a leader of the Pharisees, comes to Jesus under the cover of darkness seeking something, we’re not quite sure what. But it isn’t comfortable for him, and he certainly doesn’t want to be discovered talking to Jesus.
Think about Nicodemus for a moment. He’s not a young seeker still figuring out his path. He’s established. He’s spent decades studying Torah. He knows the law inside and out. He’s a teacher—people come to him for answers. And yet here he is, sneaking through the streets at night to talk to this controversial rabbi from Nazareth. There’s something both humbling and hopeful about that, isn’t there? Here’s a man who could have said, “I’m too old to change my mind. I’ve already invested my whole life in this way of understanding God.” But instead, he comes seeking. It’s never too late.
Jesus tells him, “No one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above.” Nicodemus doesn’t get this at all. “How can anyone be born after having grown old? Can one enter a second time into the mother’s womb and be born?” His question is almost poignant—he’s naming the very thing that makes this so hard. He’s grown old. He’s lived one way for so long. How does someone start over at this stage of life?
Jesus seems frustrated that Nic doesn’t get it, “Are you a teacher of Israel, and yet you do not understand these things?” But I have compassion for Nicodemus here. The metaphor is confusing. And more than that, the idea itself is unsettling. Being born is traumatic. It’s leaving everything you know. It’s being thrust into light and air and noise when all you’ve known is warmth and darkness and the steady rhythm of a heartbeat. Who wants to go through that again, especially when you’re older and set in your ways?
Nicodemus didn’t get the “born again” metaphor. But before we’re too hard on Nicodemus, I want to suggest that most people still don’t get the metaphor.
Much of Christianity has reduced the gospel to one verse from our pericope, John 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.” It’s a lovely verse. Billy Graham shared this verse time and again as he preached around the world.
This passage from John 3 and its “born again” language has become a bit polarizing. If you find “born again” language appealing, you likely love this familiar passage. If you find it off-putting, my guess is this language might make you squirm a bit. Like the person who once said to me, “I’m a devout Christian but I don’t want anything to do with that ‘born again’ stuff.” To that person, the “born again” language elicits thoughts of the pushy, judgmental, mean-spirited evangelist who is happy to believe that everyone who doesn’t see things his way is destined to an eternal pit of fire.
So what did Jesus mean when he told Nicodemus that “no one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above”?
First, let’s explore what Jesus didn’t mean.
My first point here deals with the “kingdom of God” language Jesus uses (“no one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above”). This “kingdom of God” language often makes us think of the afterlife—of heaven. But in the Gospel of John, and in some instances in the Synoptic Gospels, Jesus hints that the “kingdom of God” can be realized here, in this present life. In fact, in Luke 17:21, Jesus does more than hint when he says that the “kingdom of God is in your midst” or the King James Version, “the kingdom of God is within you.” This conversation is not just about the afterlife—it’s about this present life as well. Jesus is telling Nicodemus—and us—that it’s never too late to perceive God’s realm right here, right now. That’s the first misconception about this passage.
The second thing we miss in this passage has to do with translation. Most of the New Testament was originally written in Greek, and when translators try to put it into English, there’s inevitably a loss of meaning and/or nuance. In this passage, the word in question is, in English, “again,” as in (KJV) “except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” The NRSV we read earlier probably gets us closer to the original meaning, “no one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above.” So is it “born again” or “born from above?” Well, it could be either. It could also be “born from a higher place.” It’s the translator’s choice.
If I were translating this passage for contemporary Americans, here’s how I would translate it: “no one can perceive the realm of God without being born from a higher place.”
That’s a far cry from, “Be born again or spend eternity in hell!” don’t you think?
And here’s what gives me hope for Nicodemus, and for all of us: being born from a higher place isn’t about age. It’s about perspective. It’s about being willing to see things differently, even after decades of seeing them one way. Nicodemus came to Jesus in the darkness, but he came. He was willing to ask questions. He was willing to admit he didn’t have all the answers. That takes courage at any age, but especially when you’re established, when you’re the teacher, when people look to you for certainty.
Then skipping ahead to John 3:16. If too much has been made of John 3:16, perhaps too little has been made of John 3:17:
John 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.
John 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.
Jesus came not to condemn. Period. End of story. But so many Christians hold up “belief in Jesus” as a litmus test with believers going to heaven and non-believers going to a fiery pit for eternity. I believed that for a long time. Then as I kept reading my Bible, and I kept learning more about Jesus, and reflecting on the “God so loved” part—the thought of God condemning billions of people to eternal torment—it became unpalatable. Think about it:
There are over 8 billion people in the world today, 2.3 billion of which are Christian. That leaves over 5.7 billion people alive today who some Christians believe will spend eternity tormented in a fiery hell—and that God is the one who set up this system. I’ll say this as strongly as I know how to say it—if that’s what God is like, I want nothing to do with God. (Spoiler alert: that’s not what God is like.)
In his conversation with Nicodemus that day, Jesus revealed deep truth about the nature of God and God’s son—that it wasn’t about condemnation—it was all about salvation. The Greek word we translate as “saved” is sózó—meaning to make well, to make whole, to rescue. There is no condemnation. But you can’t perceive that unless you’ve been born from a higher place. If I were translating John 3:17 for contemporary Americans, it would go like this, “God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be made whole through him.”
And here’s what I love about this for Nicodemus, and for us: it’s never too late to discover this truth. Nicodemus had spent his whole life studying scripture through one lens. He had built his entire understanding of God on certain assumptions. And here comes Jesus saying, “There’s more. There’s a whole new way of seeing this.” It would have been easy for Nicodemus to say, “I’m too old. I’ve invested too much in my current understanding. I can’t start over now.” But he didn’t say that. He came seeking. He asked questions. And while John’s gospel shows us that Nicodemus struggled to understand, it also shows us that he kept showing up. Later in John’s gospel, Nicodemus speaks up to defend Jesus. And after Jesus’ death, it’s Nicodemus who brings seventy-five pounds of myrrh and aloes to prepare Jesus’ body for burial—an act of devotion, of love, of commitment.
Nicodemus was changed. It wasn’t instantaneous. It wasn’t easy. But he was willing to be born from a higher place, to see God and faith and life from a new perspective. And it was never too late for him.
Think back to the story of the twins in their mother’s womb—one believed in the Mother, the other did not. Belief or lack thereof did not change the fact that both twins were held in their mother’s womb. One could perceive truth, the other could not. Perception had no bearing on reality. And the reality, the truth is this: to be born again is to perceive the truth that all people are swimming in the amniotic fluid of God’s kingdom. If that truth makes you uncomfortable, that’s understandable. Ask any baby how comfortable the birth canal was! Truth often lives just outside the boundary of comfort.
So my friends, be born again! Be born from a higher place! Awaken to the truth of God’s presence all around, and the truth of God’s salvation for—let’s see what the Bible says here—ah! The world! Not just the Jews. Not just the Christians. “God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.” Good news for all!
And remember: it’s never too late. Whether you’re twenty-five or seventy-five, whether you’ve been following Jesus for decades or you’re just beginning to explore faith, whether you’ve always seen things one way or you’re ready to see them differently—it’s never too late to begin again. It’s never too late to seek. It’s never too late to be born from a higher place.