We meet Nicodemus in John 3. Nicodemus is a pharasee, a ruler of the Jews. He is influencial, well educated, and well to do. He comes to Christ at night - when others might not notice. He is observant and is aware of the miracles Christ has performed. He tells the Savior that he is aware no one could do these miracles except God be with him. Christ replys, "Except a man be born again he cannot see the kingdom of God." Nicodemus gives one of the stupidest replys in the scriptures: How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter his mother's womb again? For an educated man - this is a rather bizare answer, and yet he sincerely does not understand Christ's words. It is a real clue to Christ that this man does not understand spiritual things. He is a man of the world.
So Jesus begins to explain - A man born of flesh is flesh. A man born of the spirit is spirit. Still Nicodemus does not get it. So Christ goes down one more level: Do you know the wind? You can feel it but you cannot see where it comes from. So is man born of the spirit. Nicodemus understands the wind but he still does not get being born of the Spirit. Christ tells Nicodemus he is an educatied man, and yet he understands little of the spirit. He will not accept the witness of Christ. He is too full of pride to believe in such simple things. He cannot understand the spirit unless he desires to look.
In John 4, the next chapter, we meet the Woman at the well. This woman is the lowest of the low: a woman, a Samaritan regarded lower than a gentile, and we learn later a woman of ill repute.
Christ comes to the well and begins a conversation with her. Why are you talking with
me?(a woman, a samaritan, lowest of the low). Christ tells her if she knew who he was she would be asking him for water for he could give her living water. She doesn't get it. How can you give me water? You brought nothing to pull water from the well. So Jesus goes a step down and explains that her water will make one thirst again, but his water is that which will never make her thirst again and will bring everlasting life. Give it to me she says. Then he drops down another level - "Go and get thy husband". She answers that she has no husband. Jesus says "Thou hast spoken well, thou has five husbands and the one thou art with now is not thy husband. She replies that he must indeed be a prophet.
The point Elder Holland was trying to explain is that when Christ teaches he first discovers where the individual is spiritually and then gets down on their level until they feel the spirit. So often we have our own agenda of what we want to teach, and we don't make the effort to find out about the life of those we attempt to teach. If we will get down to their level and teach them something that will have an impact in their life we will touch their spirit. In order to do this we need to know the scriptures well.
The second thing he helped us discover was that Christ taught everyone. It did not matter who they were - rich - poor - woman - man - influencial - known by no one. He knows the worth of each individual soul. Everyone is a child of God. He desires that all journey back to Him.
It was not a mistake that these two stories were placed back to back. There is so much more we can take from these two stories, than learning how Christ taught. Let he who has eyes to see discover more. Do you see something else?
Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn't pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same, or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children and our children's children what it was once like in the United States where men were free.-Ronald Reagan
