Second Sunday in Lent – Year A
March 1, 2026
Gospel Lectionary Text
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.
Context
Welcome to the Second Sunday in Lent. In our Gospel, Nicodemus comes to Jesus under the cover of night. He represents the religious system. And he comes with questions. In response, Jesus gives him metaphors. Birth. Water. Wind. “You must be born from above.” The kind of answers that disorient more than anything else.
Nicodemus fades from the story almost as quickly as he appears. Except for a brief cameo in chapter 7, we don’t hear from him again until chapter 19. That’s when he shows up to help bury Jesus.
From covert conversation at night to public burial. From confusion to costly solidarity. John doesn’t narrate what happens in the middle. We’re left to imagine the long, slow work of transformation. “The wind blows where it chooses.” So it is with anyone born of the Spirit.
Spiritual transformation is rarely dramatic. It’s usually slow. Hidden. Offstage. Working beneath the surface of our religious certainty, pruning our projections about God and surrendering the systems that once made us feel secure.
And, sometimes, the clearest evidence of new birth is not what we say in the night, but where we stand when love looks crucified.
Question
How does Nicodemus' long slow path to transformation speak to your own story?
Reflections
The Only Heaven We Make
By Alicia R. Forde |
I was born on an island surrounded by the sea. I am possessed by what feels like an ancestral connection to salty bodies of water, to seas, to oceans. When I am lucky enough to commune with the ocean, I feel held – at home – embraced by something that I cannot see or understand...
Salvation
By Trisha Welstad |
As I read the text for this week, amid the cold and chaos, I can struggle to get past my childhood perspective of Jesus. It was shaped by a hyperfocus on the “eternal life” mentioned in John 3:16, often to the exclusion of other scripture that help complete our understanding of what life with God...
Lenten Blessings
By Kris Rocke |
God's blessing is the sacrament of the present moment that redeems both past and future.
Praying Eucharistically - Weekly Homily by James Alison:
Girardian Lectionary Weekly Reflection:
Understanding the Bible anew through the Mimetic Theory of René Girard.
Poetry
In Your Sight
by Rilke
I want to unfold.
Let no place in me hold itself closed,
for when I am closed, I am false.
I want to stay clear in your sight.
Prayer
This week, the call to prayer comes from the Street Psalms Prayer of Discernment:
You are Emmanuel—the God who is with us. Nothing can separate us from your love. Ease the fear that binds us and blinds us, keeping us from the truth that sets us free. Give us the courage and compassion to see things as they are: filled with your delight, moving in us and through us and, most joyfully, between us.
