There is so much in this chapter to get our attention and it is difficult to know where to focus. Should it be on Nicodemus, being born again, God’s loving the world so much that he sent his Son or even John the Baptist’s testimony about Jesus?

This morning I want to concentrate on the person of Nicodemus. Who is he? Why does John include him at pivotal points in the Gospel when others appear and then are gone? Why does John always introduce him in the same way every time as the man who came to Jesus at night? What is the relationship between Nicodemus and Jesus? Between John and Nicodemus? What, in the end, happens to him?

We first meet him when he comes to Jesus at night. Some people say he chose the night because as a Pharisee and part of the leadership of the Sanhedrin he did not want to interact with Jesus in public or be seen during the day talking with him. Others have said that night was the time set aside by devout Jews for study and contemplation and it makes perfect sense for Nicodemus to meet with Jesus as part of that tradition. It would be easier to find Jesus alone at night and not surrounded by crowds – especially after he had cleared the Temple and attracted so much attention. I’m not sure what I think his motivation was for coming at night but he came with an opening remark that was meant as a compliment or a way of giving Jesus credibility but it backfired on him. “Teacher, we know you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the miraculous signs you are doing if God were not with him.” What had Jesus said earlier about the accolades of men? He did not need their testimony or endorsements. He knew what was in their hearts when they did that. He knew what was in a man and to entrust himself to any of them was a fatal mistake – then and now. After all, that is exactly what the temptations in the wilderness had been. Trust someone other than God.

In the Catholic Church there are patron saints. For example:

Thomas the Apostle is the patron Saint of architects

Agatha is the patron saint of bakers

Damian is the patron saint of barbers

Eustace is the patron saint of firefighters

Joseph of Arimethea is the patron saint of funeral directors

Nicodemus is the patron saint of all who are curious

So, I do believe that Nicodemus was curious but there is more. A counselor told me that people typically do not reveal the real reason they come until the end of the session. They skirt it for most of the time and then on the way out the door they say why they came. So, Jesus ignores the small talk completely and knowing what is in the heart of Nicodemus (and it is far more than curiosity) he cuts to what is central. It’s the same as the rich young ruler. What must I do to see the kingdom of God? What must I do to inherit eternal life? What must I do to be saved? What can I do that I am not already doing?

What is the answer? Is it clear or confusing? Is it simple or impossible? Why would any teacher say something so incomprehensible to someone who had come with the most important but hidden question of his life? What did Jesus say to the rich young ruler? “There is one thing you lack” and it turned out to be impossible for him. What does he say to Nicodemus? “You must do what may be impossible for you.”

Born again was not an unfamiliar phrase to Nicodemus. Gentiles who converted were said to be born again. In fact, the Jews took it so seriously that a convert who had committed a crime as a Gentile would not be held accountable because by converting he had been born again as a new person. But, how could a man born a Jew be born again? There was no need for that. Nicodemus was not a Gentile converting.

I suspect Jesus was saying, “Nicodemus, I believe you came here tonight not only because you are curious but you are genuinely looking for the truth and I am going to tell you a truth that will likely be impossible for you to believe or act on. You must see yourself not as a righteous man lacking one thing that can be added to what you are already doing. No, I am telling you that you must take everything you have spent your life learning and believing to be true and throw it out. Throw out the baby with the bath water. Start from scratch. Dig up the foundations and begin again. You are going to experience an internal earthquake that will either break you or change your life so radically that you will be a new person. This is the only way to the truth you are seeking. You think because you are a Jew you do not need to be born again like a Gentile but there is nothing to add – no incremental change or discipline – to what you are already doing that will bring you into the kingdom of God.”

If, like Nicodemus, you have spent your life perfecting what you believe to be true and everyone around you believes the same, this is too much to ask. If you have earned the respect and regard for so many people that they have made you a teacher of all Israel and an influential leader in the nation this is not going to be without consequences. But for a few that is exactly what Jesus says. “Leave everything you know and follow me. Leave everything you have thought to be true and follow me. Leave the respect, the position, the esteem and the reputation you have rightfully earned. Disappoint, alienate and confuse everyone who has trusted you. Turn your back on that and follow me.”

If Jesus was marketing the gospel as we do today he would never make it this difficult. He would want to show Nicodemus the benefits of believing. He would make belief appealing and attractive. He would try to convince Nicodemus that God was relevant to his life and by tweaking a few things he could have the abundant and happy life of a believer. But he doesn’t, does he? We talk today about seekers and the church being seeker sensitive by having the answers to their questions about faith. That is not what Jesus does here. He is not interested in answering the questions of a seeker. He does not begin with, “What are your questions?”

Leslie Newbegin was a British theologian, missiologist, long time missionary in India and author. He wrote:

In discussions about the contemporary mission of the Church it is often said that the Church ought to address itself to the real questions which people are asking. That is to misunderstand the mission of Jesus and the mission of the Church. The world’s questions are not the questions which lead to life. What really needs to be said is that where the Church is faithful to the Lord, there the powers of the kingdom are present and people begin to ask the question to which the gospel is the answer.

The world, like Nicodemus, does not have the right questions and the response of Jesus is not the answer to their questions. It is something completely different and foreign. You must start from scratch. Even further than that. From before scratch.

The conversation ends. Nicodemus leaves and we do not meet him again until years later. We have no idea what goes on with him or his relationship with Jesus during those intervening years. But he reappears a second time when Jesus reluctantly returns to Jerusalem. Look at that in Chapter 7.

Jesus does not want to go to Jerusalem for the Feast but his brothers say to him, “You ought to leave here and go to Judaea, so that your disciples may see the miracles you do. No one who wants to become a public figure acts in secret. Since you are doing these things, show yourself to the world. For even his own brothers did not believe in him.”

This is a recurring theme in John. No one understands Jesus. Everyone assumes he wants to be a religious leader, a celebrity, an influential figure or someone with a large following and platform. His brothers are his first press agents and, again, while only repeating the original temptations. Do something big. Be something big. Take the big leap.

This week in “My Utmost for His Highest” by Oswald Chambers I read, “The Christian who is truly intimate with Jesus will never draw attention to himself but will only show the evidence of a life where Jesus is completely in control.” Nothing could be further from the way we work now. Everyone is scrambling for fame, a platform and recognition. We want likes and retweets. Everyone wants to be recognized and influential. We want a following and admirers. We want acclaim and a market for products. We believe the sincere advice of the brothers of Jesus. That might be a good name for a Christian ad agency: The Brothers of Jesus.

In “Celebrities for Jesus” Katelyn Beaty writes: “The right kind of fame arises from a life well lived, not a brand well cultivated. Obscurity may very well be the spiritual discipline the American church needs to practice the most in the next century.”

Jesus resists but then he goes after them in secret. Surprisingly, halfway through the Feast he begins to teach openly in the Temple courts. Everyone is amazed and yet everyone has a different response: “He is a good man. No, he deceives the people. He is demon-possessed. He is a prophet. He is the Christ.” There is nothing he can do to conceal the power of his presence. Now, not only is God with him as Nicodemus said earlier but his teaching is not his own but comes from God. He speaks for God. He is one step closer to claiming what will eventually lead to his death: he is not just a teacher or prophet. He is one with the Father.

But the leaders have heard enough to arrest him as a blasphemer and deceiver so they send the Temple guards to arrest him. But even the guards are overwhelmed by him. “No one ever spoke the way this man does.”

This sends the leaders into a fit.

And then we read:

“You mean he has deceived you also?” the Pharisees retorted. “Have any of the rulers or of the Pharisees believed in him? No! But this mob that knows nothing of the law—there is a curse on them.”

Nicodemus, who had gone to Jesus earlier and who was one of their own number, asked, “Does our law condemn a man without first hearing him to find out what he has been doing?”

They replied, “Are you from Galilee, too? Look into it, and you will find that a prophet does not come out of Galilee.”

If you wanted an illustration of the scene that day in the capitol city you could have watched the House of Representatives electing their Speaker over the last several days. The outrage, deceit, deals, near violence and abuse of the law was almost a reenactment of what was going on with the leaders here in Jerusalem. Was there no voice of reason or concern for respect and the rule of law?

Just one voice and that is Nicodemus. It does not say he was a believer. In fact, the leaders cannot imagine there are any believers but there were as John writes in Chapter 12 “Yet at the same time many even among the leaders believed in him. But because of the Pharisees they would not openly acknowledge their faith for fear they would be put out of the synagogue; for they loved human praise more than praise from God.”  Nicodemus is still the man who visited Jesus at night but the only one willing to risk his reputation and standing to call them to account to do the right thing. For that he is attacked personally and threatened. They don’t accuse him of being a believer but having a political motivation for raising the question. “What is your angle here? Do you have a vested interest in this? Are you part of this ignorant mob? Who has gotten to you?” He is not silent but in the end there is no indication that he goes against the majority. He is a good man. He is even a courageous man but maybe not a born again man.

The final time we encounter Nicodemus is after the crucifixion of Jesus. Along with another wealthy and influential man, Joseph of Arimathea, the two of them take Jesus off the cross. “Later, Joseph of Arimathea asked Pilate for the body of Jesus. Now Joseph was a disciple of Jesus, but secretly because he feared the Jewish leaders. With Pilate’s permission, he 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.”

Not a disciple. Not described as a believer but he alone is in the company of a disciple and by themselves they remove Jesus from the cross. Yet, he is still the man who had visited Jesus at night. I suppose that became the way the early church thought of Nicodemus ever after. I wish John would have written instead, “The man who defended Jesus to his enemies or the man who lifted Christ off the cross and buried him with honor.” He was not a traitor like Judas, He was not a denier like Peter. He was not a doubter like Thomas. He did not run naked from Gethsemane like Mark. He was simply the man who had visited Jesus at night.  We do know that all of the apostles were martyred and that many of the disciples were later persecuted and killed by Saul and the leaders. Nicodemus would have been well known by Saul and it’s not unlikely that he would have had a special hatred for him as he did for others. It may be that Nicodemus was one of those or it may be that he lived the rest of his life as simply the man who visited Jesus at night. A person could be known for worse but still it’s not very satisfying.

We do know this. We know how Jesus ultimately responded to the faint-hearted, the dubious and those who failed him. He walked alongside the disappointed disciples on the road to Emmaus until they turned around. He appeared to Thomas with proof. He made Peter the shepherd of the sheep. John Mark ended his life as a martyr and the patron saint of Venice. I cannot help but believe that Nicodemus came to faith and the man who came to Jesus at night was, in fact and miraculously, born again and entered the kingdom of heaven. Or, to paraphrase Paul Simon, “I have reason to believe Nicodemus was received into Graceland.”