Starting from today we will hear, over the coming weeks, from the Gospel of John, some of the most wonderful accounts from the life of Jesus. Today the passage is about a Jewish man named Nicodemus coming to Jesus at night. Next week is the account of Jesus talking to the woman at the well. The week after is the long detailed account of Jesus healing the blind man. And finally the week before Palm Sunday is the passage about the death of Lazarus.
In all these passage it is easy for us to say “we’ve heard this one before”, and not open ourselves to what God is saying to us anew. It is easy for us to read them and not consider how powerful both the actions of Jesus were, and the message he gave. It is easy for us see these accounts as being from the life of Jesus in a distant past, and struggle to see how they are relevant for the present. So each time I give the message over the coming weeks, and as we hear these wonderful passages, I’ll be asking us the personal question: “where are you in this account from the life of Christ?”
Well Nicodemus, this man who came to Jesus at night to talk with him, was, as the passage tells us, a Pharisee and a leader of the Jews. That means that he was one of the leaders of a devout Jewish group who believed fervently in the need to live out the law, but not so much the written law as the Jewish people had in the scriptures, what we call the Old Testament, but in the oral laws passed down from generation to generation. And of course oral traditions get embellished over time, so that the Pharisees had countless laws by which they piously lived. Very much they believed that to be saved depended on being able to live by the law.
Often in the Gospels Jesus confronted the attitudes of the Pharisees and their outwardly religious actions. There are many examples, and here’s just one from Luke’s Gospel where Jesus rants openly at the Pharisees … [11:42] 42 “But woe to you Pharisees! For you tithe mint and rue and herbs of all kinds, and neglect justice and the love of God; it is these you ought to have practiced, without neglecting the others. 43 Woe to you Pharisees! For you love to have the seat of honor in the synagogues and to be greeted with respect in the marketplaces. 44 Woe to you! For you are like unmarked graves, and people walk over them without realizing it.”
So in verse 1 of chapter 3 of John we are told that Nicodemus was a Pharisee, a leader of the Jews. There is another mention of him later on in John’s Gospel too, at the very end of chapter 7, where the Jewish leaders had tried to have Jesus arrested, and had failed, and it is actually Nicodemus who questions this action, almost defending Jesus. Because Nicodemus is mentioned in this passage about the attempted arrest of Jesus it shows that Nicodemus was a member of the Sanhedrin, or the court of the Jews made up of eminent leaders.
So putting all these cross references together, we get a picture of the importance of Nicodemus, the depth of the Jewish tradition in his life, the man of Jewish faith, the knowledgeable teacher of the law, someone so important that when Jesus is at the forefront of the attention of the Jews and Romans in Jerusalem, Nicodemus is there amongst them.
In our passage today about Nicodemus and Jesus, one of the most striking things for me, is not necessarily the often confusing conversation they had about being born again, not that wonderful passage from John 3: 16, 16 “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life”, but the fact that Nicodemus even came for the conversation in the first place, admitting that Jesus was from God.
We cannot imagine, what it would have been for this man, this Jewish Pharisee who belonged to the Sanhedrin, to come to Jesus one night and say… “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God; for no one can do these signs that you do apart from the presence of God.”
Who goes to the opposition and says… “You’re right?”
Who goes to someone so rejected as Jesus was and say… “We know you have come from God…”
Who goes to someone everyone around you hates, and says.. “the things you do happen because of the presence of God”?
And so Nicodemus comes to Jesus at night, it’s an inviting image, and who knows what else they talked about, in this intimate and isolated conversation.
There are only three places in the Gospels where Nicodemus is mentioned and I’ve told you about two of them; firstly in today’s account of him coming to Jesus at night. Secondly when the police try to arrest Jesus and Nicodemus defends his right to a trail, and then there is a third time. Right at the very end of John’s Gospel, after Jesus has died, there is this beautiful passage which shows just how much Christ had touched, impacted upon, spoken to, the life of Nicodemus.
8 After these things [crucifixion], Joseph of Arimathea, who was a disciple of Jesus, though a secret one because of his fear of the Jews, asked Pilate to let him take away the body of Jesus. Pilate gave him permission; so he came and removed his body. 39 Nicodemus, who had at first come to Jesus by night, also came, bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes, weighing about a hundred pounds. 40 They took the body of Jesus and wrapped it with the spices in linen cloths, according to the burial custom of the Jews. 41 Now there was a garden in the place where he was crucified, and in the garden there was a new tomb in which no one had ever been laid. 42 And so, because it was the Jewish day of Preparation, and the tomb was nearby, they laid Jesus there.
So we really begin to see here, the thing that is most remarkable about our Bible reading today is that Nicodemus came to Jesus at all, and the impact that Jesus had upon his life.
And after the conversation, did Nicodemus leave his faith and leave his position as a Pharisee – No.
Did he become one of the notable disciples – no.
Did he become one of the great saints of the Christian Church – no.
But he came to Jesus seeing God’s presence in his words and work.
He defended Jesus.
He was one of the two, who took the risk, and collected the body of Jesus after his crucifixion, and took the responsibility of burying him, according to the custom of the Jews.
As I mentioned earlier in the service, my Vitality of Call Consultation is approaching in the last week of March. As part of that I will be asked, as will the congregation, is the call of my Ministry here, still vital, alive, and relevant. I’ve just led another Vitality of Call Consultation for another Minister, and he was asked, is there a vitality to his call to ministry. In ways as Christians we all ask ourselves this question from time to time, sometime knowingly, sometimes in the hiddenness of our lives and faith. What do I believe? Is my faith still relevant? How do I express that faith in the church, and community, in which I live?
And we see these questions in the act of Nicodemus coming to speak to Jesus at night, and throughout the times and events that brought Nicodemus into the life and death of Jesus.
Nicodemus had to ask himself, what he believed.
What did he see, what did he hear, and where did he see God in it all.
Where did truth lie?
When was silence needed and when did he have to speak up?
When was it time to act?
How can Nicodemus hold to his faith and history and see God in that, as well as in this man Jesus?
Nicodemus had to ask himself, what is a vital faith going to look like for himself; Pharisee, leader of the Jews?
So let us now ask ourselves; “where are you in this account from the life of Christ?” Where do you see yourself and what part speaks to you the strongest?
Coming to Jesus in the darkness.
Asking Jesus questions.
Seeing God in our world where you feel others don’t see.
Standing against the tide of opinion.
Struggling with faith.
Struggling to understand.
Or is it just to hear some of Christ’s words…
“…what is born of Spirit is Spirit..”
“…the wind blows where it chooses…”
“… For God so loved the world…”
“… So everyone who believes…”
“where are you in this account from the life of Christ?”
Let pray.
As Nicodemus came to you, so we come Lord.
Open our ears to your word to us,
And our souls to your light, even in the darkness.
Amen.