Nicodemus pays Jesus a compliment, you are a teacher who has come from God. Jesus is not distracted by that but immediately challenges Nicodemus: what are you going to do about it. This is the pattern for the rest of St. John’s Gospel — Jesus proclaims who he is (I am the light of the world, the Good Shepherd, the true vine, the Bread of Life, etc.) and then demands a response on the part of his hearers. Too often this action step is one that we leave out of our spiritual life. Faith is not something we have as a possession that something that requires a response. We need to live, act, behave differently because of the challenge of God’s love in our lives.
