Advent 2025: Deep, Deep Love

Photo by Davide Ragusa

We return one more time to the rhythm of Advent and the birth of a particular baby boy whose entrance into the world was as ordinary as it was astounding.

In the beginning was the Word, the Word was with God, the Word was God…and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us (John 1:1–3, 14).

Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will   conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call him Jesus. He will be great and   will be called the Son of the Most High (Luke 1:30–31)

In him was life–all things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made (John 1:4).

Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel, which means God with us (Matt 1:23)

In a supreme act of profound love, the Creator became the created—fragile, dependent, sleeping, squalling, wriggling—wrapped in swaddling cloths.

For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life (John 3:16).

Nicodemus, some thirty years after this miraculous birth, has a clandestine encounter with Jesus that discombobulates his religious sensibilities. Nicodemus, a Pharisee and ruler of the Jews, is devout, well-trained, and conversant in the Law and the Prophets. He knows well the story of Abraham, Sarah, Hagar, Isaac, Ishmael and the carefully compiled genealogy records. He is more than qualified to recognize the advent of the Messiah, Israel’s promised Deliverer.

But this Jesus confounds him.

Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him (John 3:1–2).

Jesus who knows Nicodemus better than Nicodemus knows himself, patiently listens and responds.

Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God (John 3:3).

Nicodemus is incredulous.

How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born? (John 3:4)

Jesus explains.

Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of the water and the Spirit, he or she cannot   enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, “You must be born again” (John 3:5–6).  

Here in an astounding reversal, the One who blessed Abraham and Sarah and brought forth life from Sarah’s lifeless womb, the One was born of the virgin Mary, is the very One who invites anyone and everyone who believes to be born again not of the flesh but of the Spirit.

For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whoever believes in   him should not perish but have eternal life (John 3:16).

Advent celebrates the miraculous birth of Jesus and sets into motion the possibility of a new birth for us, a whole life transformation made possible by Jesus through the Incarnation, crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension, contingent on belief.

For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life (John 3:16).

If you have yet to believe, if you have not been born again, I encourage you to take some time to read from the Gospel of John, follow Jesus as he encounters all kinds of people from every walk of life, and watch as he invites them to believe and marvel as their lives are transformed.

He loves us and invites us, still today, to believe and to be born again.

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