Nicodemus. Nicodemus first shows up in John’s Gospel in the reading that we just heard. He is a religious leader, he is a man of great respect and great influence in the community, he is a well-learned man, and he has seen what Jesus has been doing. He is intrigued, he is drawn to it, but he’s not quite sure what to make of it. He knows that God is at work in this. He knows and he sees what Jesus is doing, what he is speaking, what he is up to. He knows that God is in the midst of this, but he is uncertain what that means. So Nicodemus goes to Jesus by night, John says. Now remember that the Gospel of John is a very metaphorical Gospel, and one of the more important metaphors in his Gospel is the metaphor of light and dark, day and night. Whenever John says something happened at night, he is not just talking about the hour, he’s talking about something deeper and richer. Nicodemus is not just going by night because that’s the time, he’s going by night because there is a darkness within him, a darkness in his knowledge and he wants Jesus to shine some light upon it. So Nicodemus goes to him and engages in a conversation. There is a sense that at the end of this conversation Nicodemus is still not quite sure what to make of Jesus. There are all kinds of beautiful lines in here that we love: being born again from the water and the spirit; for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son. These are touchstones, the centerpieces of faith. But they do not really resonate with Nicodemus. He is still not quite sure what to make of this. Dawn did not break during his conversation with Jesus.
Fast forward several chapters later. Jesus has gone back to Galilee, he’s gone to Jerusalem. It is now the Feast of the Tabernacles or the Feast of Booths, Jesus is there in Jerusalem teaching again, and the people are flocking to him and beginning to say that Jesus is the Messiah. This is making the religious leaders very nervous because their understanding of the Messiah is that he will come and lead a rebellion and throw off the yoke of Rome. But if a false Messiah comes and tries to do this, Rome is going to strike back and squash all of them. They do not want to be collateral damage, so they are very concerned. They are afraid they are going to get hurt in the process, so they want to be rid of Jesus. It is better to get rid of one before Rome squashes everyone. So they try. They try to have Jesus arrested to take care of this situation. There is a conversation about it. Now Nicodemus is not the only person there to hear this, he is not the centerpiece, but he raises his voice when the leaders claim they must take care of Jesus. Nicodemus says, just a second. Hold on. Doesn’t our faith teach us, doesn’t the law command that we give him a trial to hear what he has to say before we make a decision like this? The other religious leaders turn on Nicodemus and ask, what more do we need to know? We don’t need to hear from him. We don’t need a trial. We know what we need to know: we know he is from Galilee and we know the Messiah does not come from Galilee. Therefore he can’t be the Messiah. Nicodemus, are you from Galilee?
Fast forward again, many more chapters later, near the end of the Gospel. Jesus has been crucified, he has died, nearly every one of the disciples has abandoned him, and two people show up in order to bury his body: Joseph of Arimathea, who gives his tomb to Jesus, and Nicodemus, who brings one hundred pounds of myrrh and aloe, a ridiculous amount, in order to prepare his body for the burial. And all of this needs to take place before night falls, before it gets dark. When push comes to shove, Nicodemus comes through, and he does the right thing, and he does it in daylight. He knows that God is at work in all of this.
Nicodemus is such an interesting contrast of a disciple or follower of Jesus compared with someone like St. Peter, or most of the others. Jesus says, come and follow me, and what do they do? They follow him. They drop everything: they leave their family, their livelihood and they go and follow this guy. There is an amazing enthusiasm, much like we heard in the first reading today about Abraham. God says to Abraham, leave everything behind and go to this new place. And Abraham says, OK, let’s go do it. Just like that. Nicodemus is very different from this. Nicodemus knows that God is here, but he’s not quite yet ready, he’s not quite sure what to make of it. He’s attracted to it, he’s drawn to it, and yet he stays at a distance. But when push comes to shove, there he is. He makes the right decision because his faith is deep. Even if he has uncertainties, even if he’s going to hold back a bit at times, even if everything does not resonate with him, he still has a deep faith. He knows that God is at work in this person of Jesus Christ, and Nicodemus is going to be there for him, and he is going to follow him, and he is going to do it in the daylight.
This is such an interesting contrast, because Peter and others who so quickly followed Jesus end up scattering, end up abandoning him, and Peter denies Jesus three times when he is given his moment. But Nicodemus comes through. This does not mean that Nicodemus’s faith is better than Peter’s faith, it is simply to say that there are different ways to have faith. One is not better than the other. The important thing is to keep trying, to keep coming back to Jesus, to keep coming back and saying, I see God at work here. I want to know more. I want to understand, so I keep coming back to Jesus. If it is as enthusiastically as Peter, that’s wonderful. If it is as reticent as Nicodemus, that’s equally as good. Both are faithfully trying to understand where God is at work in this world, and they want to join in.
It is the same challenge that is put before us each and every day, to look for God at work in this world and to join in with what God is doing. Some of us do that really enthusiastically, and some of us take a few more chapters to get there. That’s OK, but keep coming back, keep coming to Jesus, keep looking to see how God is at work, and keep trying to join in.
AMEN
