Now there was a Pharisee named Nicodemus, a leader of the Jews.
Verse 2:24 (from the end of chapter 2) says Jesus "would not entrust himself to them." It's interesting to see Jesus, in modern language, practicing boundaries. He knows that just because people are impressed by signs doesn't mean they're ready for deep relationship. He's selective about who he opens himself up to. This reminds me of his saying in Matthew 7: "Don't throw your pearls to swine." Jesus isn't universally accessible to everyone in the same way. There's wisdom and self-protection in that.
John's Gospel, for the most part, doesn't use "kingdom of God" language as often as Mark, Matthew, and Luke do. John usually talks about "eternal life" instead. But here in chapter 3, we see both. In verse 3, Jesus says you must be born again to "see the kingdom of God," and in verse 5, born of water and Spirit to "enter the kingdom of God." Then later in the chapter, the language shifts back to eternal life. It's worth asking: What's the relationship between these two concepts for John? Are they the same thing? Different aspects of the same reality?
From my perspective, Nicodemus isn't being dumb when he asks, "How can someone be born when they are old? Can they enter a second time into their mother's womb?" We're seeing typical rabbinic dialogue here - an intentional back-and-forth with provocative questions and answers. The student asks a question that seems to take the teacher's words absurdly literally, and the teacher uses that to push deeper into the real meaning. Think of Jesus' dialogue with the Syrophoenician woman in Mark 7, or his conversation with the woman at the well in John 4. This is how rabbis taught.
This chapter is one of many examples of feminine imagery being applied to God in Scripture. Jesus uses the metaphor of being born from above, born again, born of water and Spirit. Birth imagery. Womb imagery. Of all people, "Born Again" Christians should know that they are reborn by a God who transcends gender. You can't be "born again" without acknowledging that God performs the role of mother.
Verse 13 about no one ascending to heaven except the Son of Man connects back to verse 14's reference to Numbers 21. In the wilderness, when the Israelites were being bitten by poisonous serpents, God told Moses to make a bronze serpent and lift it up on a pole. Anyone who looked at it would live. Jesus says, "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." Jesus is comparing his crucifixion to that moment. The thing that should kill you becomes the thing that saves you. The serpent on the pole. The man on the cross.
What does it mean that looking at the crucified Christ brings life? What am I looking at instead?