It's an interesting encounter, especially when you consider who Nicodemus was in the great scheme of things in that day in Judea. The first thing I notice is that he is a Pharisee and a member of the Sanhedrin. This made him a very powerful man; one of the 70 most powerful men in Judea. It's also my thought that he did not get there without considerable wealth. And then there is his training as a Pharisee. He was, as Jesus indicated, a teacher of the law among the Jews; probably a doctor of the law. I would guess that he knew the law of Moses forward and backward as well as the Mishna which was the oral traditions of the Pharisees. He was a man dripping with power and clout that knew how to follow the rules.3 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. 18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son. 19 This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. 20 Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed. 21 But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God.
In his time, Nicodemus was a man that had made it. He was a success in terms of the society that he lived in. He was the epitome of what every Jew, ambitious to lead, would have aspired to.
And so he approaches Jesus by night. Odd behavior for a man of his importance. Perhaps he wanted to avoid the public scrutiny that Jesus endured daily in order to have a quiet discussion or maybe he just did not want to be seen. He may have been sent by the Council to learn more about the young Galilean, or perhaps he was curious himself about what would drive this rabbi from Nazareth to violently cleanse the temple. He may have thought the break up of the Bazaar of Annas was a good thing and a harbinger of the coming messiah.
Whatever his motivations, Jesus wasted no time on small talk. After some observations from Nicodemus, the conversation turns very quickly from dialogue to monologue. Jesus was seldom gentle with the Pharisees of His day and He was not easy on Nicodemus. This had to be a tough lesson for Nicodemus. Being lectured about the things he should know by a 30 year old Rabbi from Nazareth had to be hard, especially when he was probably 50+ years old.
The concept of spiritual rebirth was a hard one. The concept of faith as the only criteria for eternal life in God's Kingdom would have been doubly hard for man convinced that only good works could achieve that. But we do know Nicodemus listened. He became a silent friend of Jesus. He would later speak up for Him when others flung accusations and he would be one of two men that tended to Christ's burial needs after the crucifixion. It's my thought that he even became a full blown Christ follower after the resurrection, but that is extrapolation on my part.
Nicodemus is much like us; like those of us that grow up in the faith and in a church. We become successful Churchians, but do we really become Christ followers? We think we know the truth. We think if we do this and that and this and that, then we are holy, saved and sanctified. We look down on others that have no faith. We question brethren that do not tow the party line or violate the rules we have installed around the free grace of the Lord our God, Jesus Christ. We never really understand what it is to be reborn because we have always thought we were sort of holy in the first place.
Sometimes God has to tear us down and put up a whole new human being in our place. When the crisis point comes, it can be tough. My life is a testimony to such reconstruction. There are many of you Churchians out there right now that are going through this process. There are some of you that need to.
You may have confessed your faith and been baptized in obedience to Jesus' command, but rebirth did not happened. I hate to say it, but sometimes planted seeds do not germinate right away. It takes awhile for us to grock what Jesus and His Kingdom is all about. I am still learning new things everyday.
The most important thing that Jesus has taught me is this. He loves me. I was worth dying for. I don't know why He feels that way about me, but I know He does. I am happy with that. I am content to lean back into His everlasting arms like John did and accept His love that comes freely. I am His.
Paul, who was once a Pharisee himself, said this:
Therefore, in order to keep me from becoming conceited, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. 8 Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. 9 But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, forn my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. 10 That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
I have such a messenger in my life, and while I am not quite to the point of delight, I do know that when I am weak, then I am strong because God's power rests on me! His grace is sufficient. Praise His Name, His grace is sufficient. I have been reborn!
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Be Gentle.