Good Wednesday morning! How are you today? The weather is nice this morning with light breezes and cool temps. We are watching the corporate minions head off to work for another exciting day in Cubeville or Corporemia depending upon whether you prefer the Dilbert term or my own. I found some corn growing in an unusual place this morning on my walk. Someone may have lost their garden in the big storm back in July, but the beauty of the seed is that it grows where it is planted... even if the planting is transplanted by a big rainstorm. Keeping an eye on the few corn plants seems like fun, I'll try to see how well the corn grows where it is. Some of our brothers and sisters in Christ are facing a transplanting right now. We grow where God has planted us, but sometimes our Lord wants to move us to a bigger pot in a manner of speaking. We can resist the move of course, but we know by now that everything God wants or commands us to do is for our own benefit.
What wisdom awaits us in today's verse?
After dark one evening, [Nicodemus] came to speak with Jesus. "Rabbi," he said, "we all know that God has sent you to teach us. Your miraculous signs are evidence that God is with you." John 3:2
Many times I have heard that Nicodemus came after dark to be sneaky, to avoid being seen by his colleagues in the Pharisees, or something to that effect. However, I had one other idea this morning: Perhaps Nicodemus worked late that night, or even many nights. He may have been a workaholic. Many men and women face this in their careers. Do we have to assume that Nicodemus used the cover of night on purpose? Why do we often assume the worst of people in the Bible and in life? Whatever the reason, Nicodemus approached Jesus after dark to speak with our Lord. Jesus may not have been available until then or the reason may simply be that Nicodemus was indeed trying to sneak around, trying to get a little more evidence and training under cover of night as it were. Nicodemus greeted Jesus with the traditional honor due a traveling teacher, "Rabbi", and then included a group.
"We all know..." Who is this group that knows about Jesus? Is it the group of those who had begun to trust in Jesus, but that Jesus knew could not be trusted yet? Is Nicodemus referring to the Jewish religious leaders or the Pharisees? Wouldn't that have changed the Gospels and Acts! Nicodemus may have been a leader of an underground group of Christians, perhaps even the first house church as we call these small groups now. A house church is a small group of believers who meet in someones house to worship together; the main reason being to avoid persecution from a government or ruler, but other reasons exist as well. Nicodemus may have been seeking something to bring back to the group, a bit of wisdom from the master. One thing we can read is that Nicodemus was among those who recognized the Messiah by his miraculous signs.
Nicodemus had examined Jesus from afar. He gathered evidence before making his approach to Jesus. Nicodemus may have been a first century scientist or private investigator; he had to know the facts by gathering evidence. Later, even the non-believing Jewish leaders would admit that Jesus did many miraculous signs. Nicodemus read the signs correctly as proof of Jesus being the Messiah foretold in the Scripture. But the question remains for us: How much did Nicodemus believe? Did he, like many at the time, expect Jesus to come as a conquering messiah who would immediately drive the Roman occupation army (and the hated imperial tax collectors) out of Israel? Did Nicodemus fear losing his credibility and position should Jesus be found to be a fraud? What did Nicodemus expect to learn from Jesus?
Praise God that Jesus was sent to do more than just "teach us" as Nicodemus said. At this point, Nicodemus seems to have arrived as a learner, but will that prove to be the case? Nicodemus has not yet asked a question, but like us, he probably has many in mind ready to go for his first meeting with Jesus. What kind of question will this man of high position ask of Jesus. Surely we can expect something special from this educated and learned man! We'll see tomorrow!
Have a wonderful and peaceful day!
Bucky
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