Born in Love

February 17; Second Sunday in Lent(Genesis 12:1-4a; Romans 4:1-5, 13-17; John 3:1-17)There are many people in the Gospels and in the Bible who are overcome byGod’s presence and who appear to experience a sort of conversion or transformationinstantaneously. God came to Moses in a burning bush. Isaiah received an ecstaticvision. Paul was blinded by light. As we heard in our reading this morning Abrahamseems to have dropped everything at the call of God. Far from being a thing of the pastthese types of experiences continue to be expressed in various contemporary forms. Insongs, books and movies we hear about how love can turn someone’s world upside downor knock them off their feet. This is not the story of Nicodemus. Nicodemus is anambiguous character and I think an important character for us. It is hard to know justwhat to make of him. In our reading this morning things begin well. He comes to Jesusand tells him that many of the Jews recognize that he is a teacher from God. However, asthings progress Nicodemus becomes confused by Jesus’ responses. Jesus even criticizeshim for being a leader among the Jews and not understanding this. And finally Jesusenters into a long monologue and the character of Nicodemus seems to disappear and wenever find out what his response is. Nicodemus does however show up two other times in John’s Gospel. In chapter seven there is a controversy over what Jesus was saying and the Pharisees were askingwhy the guards did not detain Jesus. The guards thought that perhaps what Jesus saidwas true. And so the Pharisees pull rank on them and say confidently that none of themhave believed Jesus. Then it says that Nicodemus who “was one of their number” askedif it was appropriate to condemn Jesus without first hearing what he is doing. The rest of

2the group challenged Nicodemus and asked if perhaps he too was associated with Jesus.And again there is no last word from Nicodemus.Then at the end of the Gospel Nicodemus shows up alongside Joseph of Arimathea who asked for the body of the crucified Jesus. We find out here that Josephwas a disciple of Jesus but did so secretly for fear of certain Jewish authorities. We can perhaps assume this is also the case with Nicodemus but it does not say so explicitly.The only explicit statement connected to Nicodemus is that brought a huge amount of oilsand spices for the burial. This has been interpreted in two ways. Positively it could besaid that Nicodemus was preparing a burial as fit for a king with the large amount of spices. Others, however, have suggested that Nicodemus had respect for Jesus as ateacher and simply did not want Jesus’ body to decay too quickly out of respect for him.In this way Nicodemus did not acknowledge or understand Jesus’ claims to divinity or resurrection.However we might understand Nicodemus it does appear that he is in some senseambivalent about Jesus. He is sitting on the fence. He is neither quite here nor there. Nicodemus confronts us in our own ambiguity and ambivalence. If we cannot relate tothose who were overwhelmed by God’s presence or to those who outright rejected Jesusthen we would do well consider Nicodemus.He appears to come well intentioned to Jesus. Though what perhaps sets thewhole context for Jesus’ response is that it says Nicodemus came at night. It is our activities that we intentionally do in the dark that we want to keep separate from our livesin the daylight. Things that would threaten our security, things we are ashamed of, we perform in the dark. And so it is in the dark that Nicodemus confesses that he believes

3Jesus is from God. To make such a confession in the day time would risk his status in thecommunity. Jesus is a controversial character, odd, at the margins of everyday life. It isthe classic high school scenario of being treated like you can only be someone’s friendwhen certain people are not around. We are still careful not to associate too closely withsomeone who may have views that we think are unacceptable or may act in certain ways.Even now I find little expressions of this. For instance I notice in certain circles that theterm ‘evangelical’ is not used to identify a group but rather to label an expression in anegative light. Depending on where I am I can feel the temptation to be careful of howclosely I would identity my own experience in the evangelical Mennonite church despitethe fact that I admire much of what that conference stands for. This is a terrible tendencyfor many of us. Whenever we have that feeling we are essentially revealing the power that we give to certain groups or people. We are also revealing our insecurity of not belonging. Nicodemus has come at night thinking that he can preserve his relationship withhis fellow Pharisees and also learn what he can from Jesus. Before Nicodemus even hasa chance to ask a question Jesus says, “No one can see the Kingdom of God without being born from above.” Jesus already loses Nicodemus in this question as Nicodemusasks about the logistics of being born for a second time. What is happening here thatleaves Nicodemus without understanding? In his position as a Jewish leader he iscertainly an intelligent man with good reasoning skills. Jesus, however, is not interestedin imparting knowledge. Nicodemus is looking to learn something that will improve hisknowledge and not unsettle his life. His identity is already born in his peer group. To be born from above is to be released from the pressures of people and groups around us.