Nicodemus has been hooked by Jesus.
He’s been watching him, listening to him, wondering about him. Nic
has also heard all kinds of criticism about him from his colleagues –
the Pharisees. (I hope you don’t mind me calling him Nic – he has
come to seem quite real to me, and Nic just seems too formal for
someone I have gotten to know quite well from a spiritual point of
view.)
Like the rest of the Pharisees (who
were the spiritual leaders of the Jews in Jesus’ time) Nic keeps
the Jewish law impeccably – not only the spirit of the law as given
by Moses, not only the prescriptions in the book of Leviticus that go
way beyond the Ten Commandments in detail and difficulty, but also
all the intricate details of the laws that the scribes wrote as
commentaries on the laws in Leviticus. Nic was a shining role model
among the Pharisees.
And yet something about Jesus caught
his attention and wouldn’t let it go. Jesus, who always seemed to
be stretching the limits of the law, like healing people on the
Sabbath when no work was to be done; Jesus, who liked sharing meals
with the ritually impure; Jesus who liked offending the social mores
of the day by sleeping on the road with his disciples having no fixed
residence; Jesus who told stories that seemed to make outsiders seem
more moral than the Pharisees, as in the parable of the Good
Samaritan.
We can guess what might have intrigued
Nic about Jesus. Maybe he had become a little discouraged or even
bored with his job studying the commentaries on commentaries on
commentaries about the law. Maybe he was longing for something more
fulfilling in his life, something that would light a fire in his
heart, not just be fodder for his brain. Maybe he deeply needed real
spiritual friendship, the kind that Jesus offered to his disciples.
In other words, maybe Nic is having a vocational crisis. Is he meant
to be a Pharisee – or a follower of Jesus?
But it’s dangerous to admit this up
front, or even to ask too many questions in public – and so he
comes to Jesus at night when he is less likely to be noticed by his
Pharisee colleagues. And you can hardly blame him. He’s exploring,
questioning, maybe even hoping that this Jesus has something better
to offer, that he might even be the Messiah. But he doesn’t know
yet and so unlike the other disciples he’s more cautious -- he
doesn’t want to burn his bridges until he knows more about this
handsome, charismatic young prophet Jesus.
He says to Jesus, ‘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.”
With the title “Rabbi” or “teacher”
Nic is acknowledging that Jesus has a certain personal and spiritual
authority even though he does not have an official place in the
establishment. But clearly he knows there is more to Jesus than
being a talented Rabbi. He is trying to understand. Like Abram in
our first reading from Genesis, he is responding to a call from God
to leave the place where he lives – not literally, but in terms of
his position and authority – and to go somewhere new, somewhere
unknown. It is a spiritual journey Nic sets out on when he comes to
see Jesus at night.
And what does Jesus say? “Very
truly, I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God without being
born from above.” Nic takes this very literally, and asks Jesus
how a person can possibly enter into the mother’s womb a second
time and be born again.
Jesus responds by trying to explain
that he is talking about a spiritual birth – a birth that comes
from the Spirit. And he seems amazed that Nic doesn’t understand
this. Jesus tries to help him by saying “The wind blows where it
chooses, and you hear the sound of it but you do not know where it
comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of
the Spirit.”
But this just seems more puzzling to
Nic. “How can these things be?” he asks. Remember he is a
Pharisee, a literalist, and he probably hasn’t had much practice in
understanding metaphors. So he just doesn’t get it. “Are you a
teacher of Israel, and yet you do not understand these things?”
Jesus asks. Well, we might feel the same way as Nic if we went to
Jesus and he responded that way.
Nic, like ourselves sometimes, has to
get the truth from his head to his heart, to know experientially that
the Spirit of God cannot be controlled by us. We have no control
over the wind, and even the most talented meteorologists can’t
always predict where it’s going to go next. Likewise we have no
idea how the Spirit might play in our lives, how God might use us, or
what will happen if we respond to God’s call.
Abram couldn’t have predicted how the
Spirit would blow through his life, nor could any of our ancestors in
the faith, ancient or modern. People like Martin Luther King, like
Gandhi, like Mother Teresa – all of them simply responded to God’s
call to go on a journey. They blessed more people than the stars in
heaven. But they couldn’t have known that ahead of time.
Nor can we. Nor could Jesus. The one
thing we do know is that somehow, mysteriously, we have a part in the
way God works out the divine purpose. The journey God calls each of
us to is a road that leads to the working out of God’s plan, the
Kingdom of God.
And that is summed up by gospel writer
John. After we have listened to this conversation between Nic and
Jesus, we are thrown back on the simple, glorious truth that “God
loved the world so much that he gave his only Son, so that everyone
who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.”
Martin Luther called this short verse
“the gospel in miniature.” And indeed, it sums up everything we
know about God’s self-giving love, about Jesus’ faithfulness and
obedience even to death, about the grace of forgiveness and new life
that we receive from this gift of God’s love.
Abraham left his home to go out into a
new, unknown world, and died of old age. Jesus followed God’s call
for him even though it meant death at a young age. Nic became a
follower of Jesus (at least we assume that because he brought Jesus’
expensive myrrh and aloes to anoint Jesus’ body after the
crucifixion).
May we have the faith of Abraham, the
courage of Nic, and the love of Jesus that allows us to say “yes”
to whatever call God puts in our hearts. And may we never forget
that God watches over our going out and our coming in, and will make
us a blessing to all those whose lives we touch.
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