The Nicodemus League

Text:  John 3:1-17

Theme:  “The Nicodemus League”
Holy Trinity Sunday

May 31, 2015

FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH

Denton, Texas

Rev. Paul R. Dunklau

+In the Name of Jesus+

Now there was a Pharisee, a man named Nicodemus who was a member of the Jewish ruling council. 2 He came to Jesus at night and said, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the signs you are doing if God were not with him.”

3 Jesus replied, “Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again.[a]”

4 “How can someone be born when they are old?” Nicodemus asked. “Surely they cannot enter a second time into their mother’s womb to be born!”

5 Jesus answered, “Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit. 6 Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit[b] gives birth to spirit. 7 You should not be surprised at my saying, ‘You[c] must be born again.’ 8 The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.”[d]

9 “How can this be?” Nicodemus asked.

10 “You are Israel’s teacher,” said Jesus, “and do you not understand these things? 11 Very truly I tell you, we speak of what we know, and we testify to what we have seen, but still you people do not accept our testimony. 12 I have spoken to you of earthly things and you do not believe; how then will you believe if I speak of heavenly things? 13 No one has ever gone into heaven except the one who came from heaven—the Son of Man.[e] 14 Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up,[f] 15 that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him.”[g]

16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.

From early reports, it looks as though the rains are coming to an end; there’s not a drop in sight for the coming week according to The Weather Channel!  So, with sunshine as an added bonus, we enter into a festival week!  Today is the Feast of the Holy Trinity, and we rejoice in the ways God is revealed as Creator, Redeemer, and Sanctifier, and as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  We do not have three Gods; that would be polytheism.  What we are given to believe is that we have one God who is manifested, made known, “epiphanied” in three persons.  Thus, we have the Holy Trinity.  “Trinity” is a compound word beginning with “tri” (which means three) and “une” (which means one)  Thus, we have the three-in-one and the one-in-three:  the triunity or the Trinity!  And you don’t have to look very far for hints of the Trinity in nature!  Look at the water.  How many forms does water take?  Three:  solid (which is ice), liquid, and gaseous.  You have three manifestations of the same, good old H20! 

Nicodemus, featured in today’s Holy Trinity Gospel, didn’t have to look very far for hints that God was on the scene.  Off he goes – not in broad daylight, but at night – to find Jesus.  And they have themselves a conversation.  Nicodemus goes first:  “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the signs you are doing if God were not with him.”

Alright, who are the folks that comprise the “we” that know that Jesus comes from God?  That would be the Sanhedrin, and Nicodemus – a Pharisee, we are old – was a member of the Sanhedrin.  The Sanhedrin was basically a Jewish court that settled religious matters.  Every city in Israel had a Sanhedrin.  Nicodemus sat on that court; it was almost like a grand jury.  The word “Pharisee” means “one who is separated”.  As a Pharisee, what did Nicodemus seek to separate himself from?  The idea was to be separate from fellow Jews who did not practice their religion and also to separate one’s self from non-Jewish people referred to as Gentiles. 

Put all this out there and what can we say of Nicodemus?  Putting the best construction on him, he was a religiously observant man, a civic man, an educated man, a fair man. 

Five years ago, I stood in front of what one might call a Presbyterian version of the Sanhedrin.  I was at a presbytery meeting.  They introduced me. I shared a bit of my faith journey.  Then came the super-nervous, nail-biting moment when they asked me ordination questions.  One I was prepared for; the other one I didn’t now anything about. 

The question I didn’t know was coming was this (in so many words):  Name three women in the Bible (at least one from the Old and New Testaments) who hainfluenced you in your faith journey and why they have.  First, I chose Ruth from the Old Testament.  She was influential because she had a simple yet strong devotion to people of faith who loved her.  And she knew that family was more than bloodlines.  The second woman I named was Rahab the prostitute.  Why?  Because God can – and will! – use anyone God wants to achieve God’s purposes.  And God used Rahab to assist the spies who were peering at the Jericho wall.  The third woman I mentioned, this one from the New Testament, was Lydia.  As recorded in the book of Acts, she was from a town named Thyatira.  She was a dealer in purple goods and a worshiper of God, we are told  She was an enterprising woman, a woman of business, (dare I say) an entrepreneur.  In those days, such a woman was breaking all kinds of glass ceilings. 

If they had asked me about the men from the Bible that influenced me, Nicodemus would be the first one mentioned.  I’d talk about him the longest since I admire him most. 

What I admire the most about this Pharisee and member of the Sanhedrin is that he had an open mind.  If someone’s mind is closed, they’ve got it all figured out.  Black is black; white is white.  If there are gray areas, they don’t matter anyway.  A closed-minded person often appears to be very confident in his/her views or about life in general.  When it comes to conversation with others, the hoped for outcome is rarely to grow in understanding or to see things from another point of view.  When push comes to shove, the closed-minded person does not seek understanding as much as he/she seeks conformity.  He/she wants you to conform to his/her point of view. 

I’m persuaded that Nicodemus had some colleagues on the Sanhedrin and among the Pharisees who were closed-minded.  They had already formed their negative opinions about Jesus, turned them into their own personal versions of the truth, and rejected Jesus out of hand.  That probably was, to use a phrase, the “group consensus” of the local Sanhedrin   But such, apparently, was not the case with one particular member:  Nicodemus.  His mind was open.  There was still a smidge of fear, though.  He went for a chat with Jesus at night.  It’s not as easy to be spotted at night. 

In the midst of that dark night, tinged with fear, laced in hush tones and seeming privacy, it was given to Nicodemus alone to hear these words uttered for the very first time: 

 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.

Some commentators – including such notables as the very theological John Calvin and the most philosophical Soren Kierkegaard – thought that Nicodemus was a “secret” follower of Jesus.  In fact, Calvin called folks who believed in Jesus but were afraid to “go public” with it “Nicodemites”. 

Before we get all Calvinistic and Kierkegaardian, all theological and philosophical,  and start segregating people into subsets and groups (like “secret” or “public” or anything like that), let’s get the full picture of Nicodemus.  Would not an open-minded person want that?  I thought so.

Apart from John 3, there are two other portions of the Scripture where Nicodemus is mentioned.  Here’s the irony:  neither of them are “private” moments, conducted under the cover of darkness, or done in secret. 

In John 7, the scene is set in Jerusalem’s temple – a very public place.  Jesus is teaching.  People are riled up over what He’s saying.  The chief priests and the Pharisees decide to have Jesus arrested.  But the temple guards ended up not arresting Jesus.  Why?  Because they, the guards, were amazed at what Jesus was saying.  “No one ever spoke the way this man does,” said the guards.  The Pharisees replied:  “You mean he has deceived you also?  Has any of the rulers or of the Pharisees believe in him?  No!  But this mob that knows nothing of the law—there is a curse on them.”

Who is out there taking in this entire exchange?  I think we know!  Enter Nicodemus with a question!  “Does our law,” asks Nicodemus, “condemn anyone without first hearing him to find out what he is doing?”  They reply:  “Are you from Galilee, too?  Look into it, and you will find that a prophet does not come out of Galilee.”  In other words:  “Our minds are made up. Our minds are closed.  They’re not open for business on this one.  Prophets don’t come from Galilee. Jesus is from Galilee.  Therefore, Jesus is a fake and a fraud.  Any questions?  Oh, my friends, would that life would be so simple as that!

And Nicodemus?  He goes off the Scriptural grid for a while. It’s kind of like “Where’s Waldo?”  Where is Nicodemus? 

He does show up a third time – in a most public place.  Fast-forward twelve chapters to John 19.  Jesus is hanging dead upon a cross.  Here’s what happens next:

With Pilate’s permission, he (Joseph of Arimathea) came and took the body away.  He was accompanied by Nicodemus, the man who earlier had visited Jesus at night.  Nicodemus brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about seventy-five pounds.  Taking Jesus’ body, the two of them wrapped it, with the spices, in strips of linen.  This was in accordance with Jewish burial customs.  At the place where Jesus was crucified, there was a garden, and in the garden a new tomb in which no one had ever been laid.  Because it was the Jewish day of Preparation and since the tomb was nearby, they laid Jesus there.

Let me get this straight.  Nicodemus  not only went with Joseph of Arimathea to Pilate.  He was also lugging around 75 pounds of spices and aloes.  Not only that, he has to carry the body of Jesus which, one might suspect, weighed more than 75 pounds.  In order to do all that, he had to be in pretty good shape. 

So take these things into consideration.  He had a strong body, a physicality to him.  He had an open mind – willingly to give people a hearing and even attempt to walk a mile (or two, or three!) in their shoes.  And what of his heart and soul – or, in other words, his spirit?  That spirit was curious, inquisitive, animated, filled with wonder. 

In the Feasting on the Word commentary series, Randall Zachman says this of Nicodemus:

Nicodemus is a complex figure who may not be reduced to a hypocritical believer or an admirer, but may rather be seen as a work in progress, on his way from being intrigued by Jesus to believing in Jesus.

Every single human being that has been, is, or will be in this sanctuary has a spirit, a mind, and a body – just like Nicodemus did.  Likewise, every single human being is a work in progress – like Nicodemus. 

My desperate hope is that the future Nicodemus’s of the world, when they come among us, will not be met with closed-minded attempts to make them conform – however polished or friendly those attempts might be.  My hope is that FPC will always be an atmosphere where the grace of the triune God is so rich and beautiful that it becomes a life-giving flood!  The Nicodemus’s of the world aren’t pushed or prodded.  Rather, they find themselves filled with intrigue.  That intrigue, then, fed by the Spirit, leads to faith and belief.  They did not conform.  They were just blessed.

By the way, now you know why the Men of the Church group at FPC is called “The Nicodemus League.”

Oh, and the name Nicodemus comes from the Greek nike (sound familiar), that means "victory”, and demos, which means “people”.

Holy Trinity Week is a great week to celebrate the nike that the triune God won for Nicodemus, for you, for me, for the demos, the people:  Victory to the people!  Victory for the people!  Victory of the people! To God alone—the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit – be the glory forever and ever.  All God’s people said: 

Amen.