In the Gospel of John, people and
names appear in it that don’t appear in any of the other Gospels. Nicodemus is
one of them. He is one of the 71 rulers of the Jewish people at the time of
Jesus. Today, marks the first of 3 times he shows up in this Gospel. Another particular thing about John’s Gospel
is that ‘time’ seems always to be a big deal.
Throughout the Gospel, St. John makes a definite point to tell us the
time of day something happened.
The scene of today’s Gospel is that
Nicodemus comes at night. It illustrates
that Nicodemus is cautious and afraid to be seen with Jesus in light of day; fearful
of what others might think of him if he acknowledges himself to be a believer
and follower of Christ. Like pressures
many of us experience today….you can believe in Jesus…just don’t’ be showy
about it! This attitude of Nicodemus will
change over time. It will be Nicodemus
who will be the only one to speak up against the rest of leaders challenging
them for not giving Jesus a fair trial at the time of His arrest. He is also
the one who will provide the nearly 100 pounds of burial ointment for Jesus
after He is taken down from the Cross…which, like the over-abundance amount of
wine made at the wedding feast of Cana when Jesus performed His first miracle,
this amount of burial ointment is totally over the top. Not only was it a lot,
but the cost was outrageous….costing much more than gold! [So, if gold is nearly $800+ per ounce today…imagine
what 100 pounds of this ointment would cost!] The point is in all this,
Nicodemus in his relationship with Jesus gradually moves from darkness to
light….from being scared about being associated with Jesus to becoming visible
beyond embarrassment and extravagant beyond imagination in honoring Him.
What does all this mean for us? Where do we stand in our relationship with
Christ? In what ways has this season of
Lent been a journey of moving from darkness or secrecy in our relationship with
Christ to a more visible expression to others…particularly, in how we stand up
to speak against injustice and wrongs?
Are we becoming more generous with what we have to help others
especially with those dealing with loss and pain in their lives?
Today’s Gospel passage follows
immediately upon last week’s cleansing of the Temple. The segment we just heard begins at verse
14. What goes before this is that
Nicodemus acknowledges Jesus as a teacher who has come from God. He wants to learn from Jesus. He wants to see
and experience this kingdom Jesus envisions Jesus tells him that in order to do
this, he has to be born again…not go back to the womb and start over, but born
in a new way with His Holy Spirit. This
Spirit is what leads us out of darkness. Nicodemus allowed this Spirit to take
hold of him and the remainder of the Gospel reveals what happened.
Now, at this time/this Lent, we are called to
allow this same Spirit to take hold of us. We are called to let go of the darkness in our
lives. A real way for it to happen is through the Sacrament of
Reconciliation. For many of us, we fear
this sacrament. Like Nicodemus, when he first came to Jesus, we are fearful of
being ‘too showy’ in coming to Jesus in this way. Yes, we pray in silence for
forgiveness, but we don’t want to be seen by others that we need this
sacrament. But, in reality it is by
being seen and professing what we believe that will prove to ourselves that Christ
has not come to condemn us, but bring us salvation. Nicodemus had the courage to do this. May we do the same.
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