This Jesus has been growing a crowd of people who follow him, hanging on his every word. Turning water into wine, eating corn on the Sabbath, healing people wherever and whenever he finds them,
So far the Sanhedrin had been keeping a watching brief on Jesus, but his latest actions struck at the very heart of the Temple system, the ancient system which kept the people on side with God, and, incidentally, kept members of the Sanhedrin and the Temple priests on side with the Romans and in a steady position of considerable wealth and power. So the seventy-one sages who met in the Chamber of Hewn Stones in the Temple, were unsettled. They were very unsettled indeed. What, they wondered, should they do about Jesus?
Nicodemus was a quiet elder. Usually, he sat in the back row of the meeting, listening, seldom adding much to the conversation. Sometimes he found himself wondering about some of the decisions the Sanhedrin in its wisdom made. But it was more than his job was worth, more than his life was worth really, to question any of them. Certainly not in public, anyway. But this Jesus had him worried. His words and actions niggled around the edges of Nicodemus’ soul, only to be smoothed over by the pressing concerns of the Sanhedrin’s meetings, his growing wealth and his anxiety about what would happen if anyone could see his thoughts. What if the Temple wasn’t the way to the heart of God? What if it was true that trying so hard to follow all the laws wasnt what God required? What if …. what if… It was all very unsettling.
What, he wondered, should he do about Jesus?
The dusk settles and Nicodemus realises that soon he will pass the place where Jesus is staying. It will soon be dark. No-one would see him going there. Perhaps he could talk to him… maybe warn him about what the Sanhedrin is saying, maybe just ask him how that water turned to wine, ask him what he is telling the growing crowd of followers who gather around him. Ask him what the heck he thought he was doing turning everything upside down in the Temple.
Nicodemus plans what he will say… flatter him, establish common ground… after all, they are both teachers of the law.
‘We (me and my fellow Pharisees, know that you are a teacher sent from God
Jesus sees straight through it and cuts to the chase. We will discover that Jesus seldom seems to answer the question that his questioner seems to be asking, on the surface. He often seems to be answering another question – the one the questioner is REALLY asking. Which in Nicodemus’ case might be summed up as ‘What are you on about?’
If you really want to know what I am on about says Jesus, you have to be born again, born from above. You have to start seeing things with new eyes, hearing with new ears, feeling with a new heart.
Nicodemus insists on taking Jesus literally. Maybe, like some of us, he is not quite sure about being ‘born again’. “What do you mean born again? How can anyone go back into his mother’s womb?”
Spiritual birth no less difficult than a physical one! Let’s try to imagine what physical birth might be like. From a more or less secure environment, cushioned from too many bumps, with food always there when you want it…even if it is a bit monotonous, suddenly there is a great upheaval. With great energy you are pushed from your comfort zone into a new world. Wet, blinking, limbs unbound, you suddenly find that you depend on a totally unexpected thing for your very life. Taking a huge lungful of air, you cry out. You are born.
Perhaps the spiritual re-birth Jesus is talking about is not so very different. From a world of security, and predictability, where everything you need is provided, you are thrust into an environment where nothing is predictable, where everything is up for question. Gasping for breath in this new world, exposed and vulnerable, you are born again.
Nicodemus is not yet ready for this new birth. He goes out into the night, bewildered.
What is it that Nicodemus is getting a hint of… and what is it that makes it so hard for him to take what Jesus is offering? I think he is beginning to discover that what is really important about his faith is not contained in the epicentre, the Temple, where ‘we’ that is he and his fellow Sanhedrin-ites belong. It is not found in the judgemental and legalistic pronouncements of those in the know. He is getting a niggle that what have always been the really important things – love of God and love of neighbour – are happening outside the temple precincts among the crowds that gather around Jesus. Where a wedding is made joyful when water is turned to the finest wine, where healings take place in the wrong place at the wrong time, where a crust of bread feeds a crowd of thousands. This is where the word of God is coming to life. Will Nicodemus ever be brave enough to meet Jesus in the full light of day? His own position in the centre of things makes it hard for him.
I am always glad that Nicodemus is there in the gospel story, reassuring those of us who are part of the religious establishment that Jesus will still welcome us even if we can only bring ourselves to approach him in the safety of the night-time, reassuring us that what Jesus is on about is at times bewildering and at times just feels too hard. He is there, showing us that being born again can take a while. He is there, reminding us that the answers to our pressing questions are unlikely to be found in the familiar ideas which created the centre of power which we now occupy.
Nicodemus makes two more appearances in John’s gospel. First, in John 7:35. At another daily meeting of the Sanhedrin, the controversy about Jesus is hotting up. Some temple police have been sent out to arrest Jesus. When they return empty-handed, the Sanhedrin say ‘Surely he has not deceived you, too?’ Nicodemus somewhat bravely enters the debate with a process question, ‘Our law does not judge people without first giving them a hearing to find out what they are doing, does it?’ But the others in the Sanhedrin are not deceived by his ploy. They replied, ‘Surely you are not also from Galilee, are you?
Nothing further is said, and unable to resolve matters, they all go out into the darkness, into their own homes. Nicodemus’ conversion takes another, quiet almost invisible step.
His last appearance is at Jesus’ crucifixion, and there, finally he knows what he must do. Taking Jesus down from the cross, he lavishes his wealth and his attention on his broken body. His heart is broken open and he is born again.
Rev Sally Carter