Whenever we examine biblical text, if we are not careful, there is an arrogance, based on hindsight, that we can apply that renders the scriptures useless to our lived experience. 

I submit that the story of Jesus’ encounter with Nichodemus qualifies as such.

By simply reading verses 1 and 2, we learn a whole lot about brother Nichodemus.  It says: “Now there was a Pharisee named Nichodemus, a leader of the Jews.  He came to Jesus by night and said to him, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God; for no one can do these signs that you do apart from the presence of God.”

The most obvious thing that sticks out is that like Jesus, Nichodemus was a Jew.  But the mere fact that we know Nichodemus was a Pharisee gives us a lot of information.  It tells us that Nichodemus was part of the intelligentsia; he was a learned man.  He was schooled in a strict environment that saw the world in the predictable contours of black and white.

The problem for anyone who sees the world in black and white, they cannot fully appreciate the world that is gray. 

For it is in the gray that we find grace and mercy, it is in the gray where compassion is realized, it is in the gray that hope is possible, it is in the gray where 2nd chances exist, it is in the gray where we find the cross, in the gray is where we find the resurrection, and it is in the gray where we find the unmerited love of Jesus.

Because he was a Pharisee, Nichodemus was a disciple of the 613 Mosaic laws.  This ancient code of laws that begins with the 10 commandments determined if one was in or out of favor with God.  It is these laws that determined if you were clean or unclean by societal standards.  These laws determined if you could enter into the Temple. And because Nichodemus was a Pharisee he had the power to enforce those laws.

Nichodemus also lived in a world in which he had to suppress his curiosity.  His peers, his co-workers, had already placed Jesus in the box of religious disproval.  For Nichodemus, whose theological training was shaped by this black and white perspective, to not go along with the dominant culture’s opinion of Jesus could have subjected him to ridicule, and more likely dismissal from his vaunted status in the community.

The problem with that, in Nichodemus’ world, there were only two status levels available: somebody or nobody.  A “nobody” was not allowed in the Temple.  A “nobody” was relegated to unclean status.  A “nobody” had no contact with clean folk.  A “nobody” was segregated to certain parts of the town.

A “nobody” had only 3/5 of their humanity recognized for reasons of political compromise.  A “nobody” did not have the right to vote.  A “nobody” was obligated to observe the Jim Crow laws.  A “nobody” had their land taken and was forced to march by foot from Georgia to Oklahoma to in order relocate to an affordable housing complex that I believe you call reservations.  A “nobody” was falsely suspected with out cause of plotting against the government and was placed in internment camps right here on American soil. This is part of Nichodemus’ dilemma.  The other part of his dilemma was his curiosity about Jesus. 

Notice it you will in verse 2 Nichodemus says: “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God; for no one can do these signs that you do apart from the presence of God.”

Nichodemus said: “we know.”  Now unless Nichodemus is speaking French, “we” suggests that he was not alone in his curiosity.  There were possibly some additional Pharisees with a question on their mind as it related to Jesus. As it was suggested in bible study Wednesday night, Nichodemus may have been serving as proxy for some other folk.

So it makes sense that he would go to Jesus while it was dark. Go to Jesus at a time that it would be less likely to be found out—in other words, it would be safer for Nichodemus and his curiosity to do a drive-by at night.

Nichodemus, like so many of us, was caught between what he was taught and what he was feeling.  Caught between what he knew on paper and the reality of the human condition.  What Nichodemus was feeling, which led him to do a drive-by at night, could not be located in the 613 commandments that he had been taught Synagogue School.

You ever feel like that? You got some real life stuff going on and just reading a verse of scripture alone is not going to help you—not with the absurdity that is hanging around your neck. There will be times when you and I will run up against what we feel versus what we have been taught—welcome to the complexity of the human condition.

We can choose to believe the fairy tale that life is simply paint by the numbers, but the human condition has a way of telling us that’s a lie.  That’s what Paul was talking about when he said: “When I try to do right, evil lies close at hand.”

We should not fool ourselves as to the dilemma of Nichodemus, for his dilemma is our dilemma.  It would be too easy and overly simplistic to talk about what Nichodemus should have done.  With hindsight, everybody knows what one should have done.  But to do so, we might miss the Nichodemus in us.  And for this reason, Nichodemus provides us with three lessons in the text that can be of great assistance to us while on this pilgrim journey.

Lesson Number One: Nichodemus was courageous.

Given what we know about Nichodemus’ background, his being a Pharisee, along with the social and theological ramifications, especially if he were found out, his visit to Jesus was one of courage regardless of the hour.

Faith cannot exist without courage.  Faith and courage go together, they are correlatives.  Anyone that professes to have faith without courage has not had his or her faith put to the test. 

There is some stuff that life can put you through that will make you almost afraid to go to God because if you don’t know what you would do if God didn’t take whatever it was that you were going through away.

There will be some things in this life that will shake you to your very core, that will make you ask: Why!  And the response that you will hear is “Why not?” or “Because!”  Can you go to God after that? Can you feel the Holy Spirit moving after that? Can you call on Jesus after that?

Having a meaningful relationship with God gives us confidence to face each day with strength. Obstacles blossom into opportunities, test become testimonies, and burdens are transformed into blessings.

For Nichodemus to go to Jesus his courage had to outweigh what his peers would think, his courage had to outweigh his standing in the community, his courage had to outweigh what he had been taught theologically. Courage requires that you risk something.   And know that just because you have courage does not mean that stuff is going to turn out they way you want it.

You must possess enough courage to know that in this world stuff will happen.  In this world, calamity will stop by unannounced.  In this world, tragedy will appear at the wrong time. In this world, you may be down more times than you’re up.  In this world, you can do everything right and still get it wrong.  But do you have the courage to believe that in this world you will have tribulation, but be of good cheer because Jesus has over come the world?

Lesson Number Two: Nichodemus was persistent.

It is not just enough to have courage your faith must also possess a persistent component. Notice if you will that after Jesus gives Nichodemus a response, Nichodemus ask in verse 4, “How can that be?”  Jesus gives a deeper response, and Nichodemus again in verse 9, “How can these things be?”

When you are toiling with things that you don’t understand, when the only answer to your question is because, it may require that, like Nichodemus, you persist in asking God questions.  That does not mean we keep asking God: Why?  First, the “why” question assumes that God is a God of cause and effect.  That’s where Job’s friends gave him bad advice.

“Oh Job you did something.  You would not be in this situation had you not did something wrong.”  This kind of thinking makes God nothing more than a cosmic bean counter—predetermining our outcomes based on whether or not we’ve been good or bad.

Why did 9/11 happen?  Why did the tsunami happen?  Why did Katrina happen?  Fact is beyond the obvious we don’t fully understand.

While the “why” question is understandable, it is not the question we should be asking.  All it will do is lead to frustration and confusion.

Nichodemus asks: “How can this be? because it goes against so much of what I have been taught.” 

Perhaps we would be better served by asking God: what does this mean or where to I go from here?  But those are questions that not only require courage, but also persistence.

We may need to ask persistently because the answer may be too big for us to grasp at one time.  The depth of pain that we’re wrestling with may also demand the balm of time, before we can engage in the healing of moving forward.

Our faith must be as persistent as God’s love for us.  It is faith in a God that so loved the world that God gave God’s only son.   It is a faith that reminds us that God did not send the son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved. 

Lesson Number Three: Nichodemus went to Jesus at night.

Verse 2 says: Nichodemus came to Jesus by night.  If you don’t leave here with anything else, remember that Nichodemus came to Jesus at night. Now we can embrace that literally, but there is something more important in that message.

Now by night I do not meant that period of darkness that occurs between sunset and sunrise.  I am referring to those times when darkness has covered the abyss of your soul. In the midst of your doubt, your uncertainty, your pain, your problems, your setbacks, and your failures you need to be able to go to Jesus at night.

Because it is at night when your soul is troubled.  It is at night when your heart aches.  It is at night when agony and disappointment are the only one’s that understand you.   It is at night where you bear the same old burdens, harboring the same old regret.

The mental image of Nichodemus going to Jesus at night is powerful indeed, not wanting to be seen, taking back alleys, constantly looking over his shoulder to see if anyone is following, knowing the risks involved if he is discovered, but realizes that he may be taking a greater risk if he does not go. Picking up his pace, going over in his mind the questions that he wants answered, worrying whether or not he should turn back.

And is that not what happens to us at night?  We’ve been trying to hold on, trying to appear that we’ve got it all together, knowing that if we go to Jesus it will take some courage and some faith that we are not sure that we still have.

But what will get you to the Nichodemus moment, is when you realize for yourself that you can’t press on by asking: Lord why me?  It is realizing that even if you understood the “why me” question you would still be stuck if you did not have the courage to trust God to help you move forward.

It was at night when Abraham Lincoln said to a nation that was hanging by a slender thread, it cannot survive half slave and half free.  It was at night when Harriet Tubman, our 19th century Moses, led slaves to freedom by way of the under ground railroad.

It was at night when the nation was covered by the darkness of Jim Crow, that Rosa Parks sat down so the country could stand up for justice.  It was at night when the evening news showed innocent men, women, and children being attacked with fire hoses that Martin Luther King told America about a dream that he had.

It was at night, when a portion of the country had laws that were the antithesis to the Jeffersonian notion that all are created equal that Fannie Lou Hamer gave us the mantra for anyone authentically ready for change by saying: I’m sick and tired of being sick and tired.

It is at night when we realize that Dante is right. “The Hottest places in hell are reserved for those who in a period of moral crisis maintain their neutrality.

It is at night when the burdens of injustice are the heaviest, when life’s disappoints are the strongest, when the roadblocks of the human condition are the highest, when the needs of our brothers and sisters are the greatest that we realize that John Kennedy was right: Here on earth God’s work must truly be our own.

It is at night when we find out that David was right: “Weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning. It is at night we find out that Isaiah was right: “They that wait on the Lord shall renew their strength.”  It is at night when we find out that Paul was right: “I do not consider the suffering of this present time to be compared with the glory that is about to be revealed.”