If you had met with Jesus by night and heard the words he spoke to Nicodemus, would they have persuaded you to belief? Like the other long discourses in John, it’s an odd speech with some problematic aspects. I examine this question by filtering it through several second hand listeners, and come to the conclusion (perhaps too easy?) that you just had to be there.
This story holds an important place in the series because it’s the first time, chronologically, that the split between what people thought the Messiah was going to do for them and what Jesus was actually anticipating doing manifests itself. It also sets up a later play, The Women, in which Joanna decides to follow Jesus. (I’ve slightly rewritten that play to conform to the new history created by this one.)