Unlike many other encounters in the Gospels, Nicodemus comes fully introduced. How ironic that the very one who sought the anonymity of a nighttime visit to Jesus is the one whose name we still know and whose social status is still recorded - "Nicodemus, a leader of the Jews" (v. 1).

Nicodemus at first appears to be a good candidate for discipleship, even perhaps a "plant" for the gospel inside the religious establishment. After Nicodemus' initial confession, Jesus opens to this Pharisee the possibility of a radically redrawn relationship with the divine that is imminent and immanent.

Jesus combines two distinct terms here, one familiar and one quite new. The phrase "the kingdom of God," while used frequently in the synoptic Gospels, occurs only here in John's text. As an enigmatic eschato…