A Strange Encounter
Nicodemus comes to Jesus by night, in the dark, with its shadowy atmosphere giving a sense of mystery and nervousness to the encounter. What was he after? Coming to Jesus at night is perhaps a metaphor to express his search for truth, for understanding, for clarity about his life and its purpose. Was he in the dark about these issues and seeking answers through being enlightened by Jesus? Had hearing about Jesus aroused his curiosity and made him examine his own motives for living his life the way he did? These are all valid questions which we ponder, and they lead us to wonder whether or not each one of us stands in the shoes of Nicodemus. Is this the moment for us to come to Jesus and be similarly enlightened? Is this the time for us to make our choice and to come to our decision about him? All this talk of judgement seems to suggest that it must be. If the person of Jesus is central to the faith we profess, and through that faith to the life we live, then we must come to a decision about him. Yet in reading the gospels we can convince ourselves that there’s no need to be in such a hurry or to be so concerned. But listen to Jesus’ words and you find that there is an urgent imperative to choose.
God gave his only Son. Do we really understand what these words reveal? There is a sense within the words that God actually handed over his Son and this handing over becomes a constant undercurrent within the passion narrative. Jesus himself predicts it when he says that the Son of Man is to be handed over into the powers of men. The Jews hand him over to Pilate, and Pilate hands him over to be crucified. The question is to whom does Pilate hand him over – surely not to us? Well the reality is that actually yes it was to us, and frightening as this may seem, our responsibility, our implication in the deed as it was done, resounds down the centuries echoing as it does the words to Nicodemus. On these grounds is sentence pronounced: that though the light has come into the world, men have shown they prefer darkness to the light. We realise that the sentence touches us all and the passing of the sentence is implicit in our attitude to Jesus. The lifting up of Jesus is made present each time we are asked to make our judgement for good or bad, for right or wrong, for darkness or light; what is our choice to be?
The first reading from the Second Book of Chronicles tells us the story of the utter desolation felt by the Jews following the destruction of Jerusalem by the Babylonians, and of how the Temple itself was reduced to rubble, and the people were deported into exile. Such feelings of despair can of course haunt us too as we survey the brutality that we are capable of committing upon each other. But let us not forget another handing over which happens at the very nadir of this brutality. Having done unto Jesus all that it was cruelly possible to do, and to have raised him up onto a gibbet, he utters words which unveil the meaning at the heart of this mystery. It is accomplished is what he says, and in saying them he hands over the spirit. Here is the hope that Nicodemus sought. Here is the moment of re-birth in water and the spirit which now calls Nicodemus out of the darkness and into the light and brings him to confront the cross. This moment offers him the truth that he sought: the man who lives by the truth comes out into the light so that it may be plainly seen that what he does is done in God.
4th Sunday of Lent Laetare
A Strange Encounter
Nicodemus comes to Jesus by night, in the dark, with its shadowy atmosphere giving a sense of mystery and nervousness to the encounter. What was he after? Coming to Jesus at night is perhaps a metaphor to express his search for truth, for understanding, for clarity about his life and its purpose. Was he in the dark about these issues and seeking answers through being enlightened by Jesus? Had hearing about Jesus aroused his curiosity and made him examine his own motives for living his life the way he did? These are all valid questions which we ponder, and they lead us to wonder whether or not each one of us stands in the shoes of Nicodemus. Is this the moment for us to come to Jesus and be similarly enlightened? Is this the time for us to make our choice and to come to our decision about him? All this talk of judgement seems to suggest that it must be. If the person of Jesus is central to the faith we profess, and through that faith to the life we live, then we must come to a decision about him. Yet in reading the gospels we can convince ourselves that there’s no need to be in such a hurry or to be so concerned. But listen to Jesus’ words and you find that there is an urgent imperative to choose.
God gave his only Son. Do we really understand what these words reveal? There is a sense within the words that God actually handed over his Son and this handing over becomes a constant undercurrent within the passion narrative. Jesus himself predicts it when he says that the Son of Man is to be handed over into the powers of men. The Jews hand him over to Pilate, and Pilate hands him over to be crucified. The question is to whom does Pilate hand him over – surely not to us? Well the reality is that actually yes it was to us, and frightening as this may seem, our responsibility, our implication in the deed as it was done, resounds down the centuries echoing as it does the words to Nicodemus. On these grounds is sentence pronounced: that though the light has come into the world, men have shown they prefer darkness to the light. We realise that the sentence touches us all and the passing of the sentence is implicit in our attitude to Jesus. The lifting up of Jesus is made present each time we are asked to make our judgement for good or bad, for right or wrong, for darkness or light; what is our choice to be?
The first reading from the Second Book of Chronicles tells us the story of the utter desolation felt by the Jews following the destruction of Jerusalem by the Babylonians, and of how the Temple itself was reduced to rubble, and the people were deported into exile. Such feelings of despair can of course haunt us too as we survey the brutality that we are capable of committing upon each other. But let us not forget another handing over which happens at the very nadir of this brutality. Having done unto Jesus all that it was cruelly possible to do, and to have raised him up onto a gibbet, he utters words which unveil the meaning at the heart of this mystery. It is accomplished is what he says, and in saying them he hands over the spirit. Here is the hope that Nicodemus sought. Here is the moment of re-birth in water and the spirit which now calls Nicodemus out of the darkness and into the light and brings him to confront the cross. This moment offers him the truth that he sought: the man who lives by the truth comes out into the light so that it may be plainly seen that what he does is done in God.