He was part of an elite and powerful group. While often quiet, he would often ask questions in the search of truth and justice. He had two very different encounters with Jesus – one dealing with birth, one dealing with burial.
His name was Nicodemus.
Following the connection with Jesus and Nicodemus can be somewhat messy. Nicodemus appears three times in the Gospel of John at pivotal moments in Chapters 3, 7, and 20. One of those pivotal moments is Chapter 3 after Jesus has cleansed the temple. If one takes a very literal approach to the Gospel of John, treating it like a modern-day biography, then you’ll think that Jesus cleansed the temple twice – once early on in his ministry and then a second time during Holy Week, and for whatever reason, each Gospel writer only mentions one encounter. But if we view them as literary gems, then it seems that author of John has purposely moved the Temple Cleansing from the back of the gospel to the front of his gospel, much like how a modern-day movie maker, will use flashbacks and flashforwards to emphasize a point. The author is seemingly making a contrast between true worship and fake worship.
With that theory in mind, I start out in the autumn of the Jesus’s last year in Jerusalem at the Jewish Feast of Shelters (or Booths) in John 7. At this point in his career, Jesus has a reputation of either being a fraud or a mighty miracle worker. He tells his critics “I did one miracle on the Sabbath, and you were amazed.” (John 7:21 NLT) referring to the healing of the lame man by the pool of Bethesda in John 5:1-15. Later, the author tells us that many people believed in Jesus because, “after all, would you expect the Messiah to do more miraculous signs than this man has done?” (John 7:31). This line of reasoning frightens both the Pharisees and priests. They order the temple guards to arrest Jesus. When the temple guards return empty-handed, they explain, “We have never heard anyone speak like this man.” This angers the Pharisees who retort, “Have you been led astray, too? Is there a single one of us rulers or Pharisees who believes in him? This foolish crowd follows him, but they are ignorant of the law. God’s curse in on them!”
And that’s when Nicodemus speaks up. He doesn’t argue with colleagues. He asks a question. And most of the time when Nicodemus speaks, he’s asking a question. He asks, “Is it legal to convict a man before he is given a hearing?” Nicodemus has a strong sense of justice and fair play. He does not like it that this fellow Pharisees have already judged and condemned this Nazarene without hearing his side of the story. His colleagues angrily replied, “Are you from Galilee, too? Search the scriptures and see for yourself – no prophet ever comes from Galilee!”
The Pharisees were wrong on two accounts. One, while it is true that most prophets did not come from Galilee, there was at least one – Jonah, the same Jonah that sailors had left for dead, swallowed by a giant fish, only to wash ashore three days later. Two, apparently Jesus had several admirers in the Pharisee party. Jesus often dined with Pharisees. He shared their belief in a resurrection of God’s people. On one occasion, some Pharisees came to Jesus with a word of warning to save his life.
And apparently there was a small group of Pharisees located in Jerusalem who followed Jesus’s career with interest. Perhaps, they were present that December when at Hannukah, Jesus healed a man born blind. When the critics said, “This man is not from God, for he is working on the Sabbath,” his defenders asked, “But how could an ordinary sinner do such miraculous signs?” (John 9:16). I strongly suspect that Nicodemus was once again asking a question.
In a fascinating literary style, Jesus reappears in Jerusalem in John 12 for Palm Sunday, but the author tells us very little about that dramatic week, for in John 13 Jesus is washing his disciple’s feet and is soon betrayed.
I think that in between his triumphant entry and the washing of his disciples is where the events of John 2:13-21 actually takes place. In John 2:13-22, Jesus cleans the temple.
I suspect that this small group of Pharisees in Jerusalem recognized the temple cleaning as a prophetic act and wanted to learn more about Jesus. Having discussed the matter among themselves, they agreed that Jesus’s mighty miracles, his acts of healing, were proof enough that he was sent by God, but they had questions about his teachings about kingdom of heaven. Therefore, they decided to send a representative to speak to Jesus one-on-one. He would go by himself, at night, to avoid the crowds.
Sounds like a job for Nicodemus.
Now Nicodemus was no ordinary Pharisee. He was also a member of the Sanhedrin, the governing body of the Jewish people – within Roman Empire limitations. Having to work with his fellow Pharisees and across the aisle with Sadducees, and occasionally with the Roman governors, he was a master of diplomacy. So instead of just asking how a person could enter the kingdom of God, Nicodemus breaks the ice by saying, “Teacher, we know you are a man sent by God for not one can work the miracles that you perform if God wasn’t with him,”
Then Jesus surprises Nicodemus, by answering his question, before he asked his question. “Unless a person is born again, he cannot enter the kingdom of heaven.”
Nicodemus is impressed. Jesus just answered his question, but leads to another question. “What do you mean ‘born again’? Can a man be physically born again?”
Jesus explains how a person must be born both of water and spirit. Humans can only give physical life, but the Holy Spirit gives spiritual life. And just as you can’t see the wind, but yet see it at work, so a person cannot see how the Holy Spirit works.
Once again, Nicodemus asks a question, “How are these things possible?”
Jesus gently points out to Nicodemus that he’s supposed to be the respected Jewish teacher. So Jesus being a good teacher, if somewhat unrespectable, reaches way back into Jewish history to find an example that a Jewish scholar like Nicodemus would understand. He refers to Numbers 21:4-9. In this story, the Hebrew people are still wandering in the desert and are still complaining. The Lord responds to this ingratitude by sending venomous snakes into their camp. Dying from snake bites, the people ask Moses, once again, to pray for them. The Lord answers Moses’s prayer with a most unusual response. He commands Moses to have the craftsman to make a snake out of bronze metal. This bronze snake is to be attached to a pole, and “all who are bitten will live if they simple look at it!” Strange, isn’t it? To be healed from snake bites, the people had to look at a snake.
In the Jewish book “The Wisdom of Solomon” written about 100 years before Jesus, the author also comments on this accident:
“For when the terrible rage of wild animals came upon your people and they were being destroyed by the bites of writhing serpents, your wrath did not continue to the end; they were troubled for a little while as a warning, and received a symbol of deliverance to remind them of your law’s command. For the one who turned toward it was saved, not by the thing that was behold, but by you, the Savior of all. And by this you also convinced our enemies that it is you who deliver from every evil. (The Wisdom of Solomon 16:5-8 NRSV).
Jesus explained it this way, “And as Moses lifted up the bronze snake on a pole in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, so that everyone who believes in him will have eternal life. For this is how God loved the world; He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through him.” (John 3:14-17 NLT).
I’m sure when Nicodemus met up with his colleagues again, they had a most interesting debriefing.
Throughout the week, Jesus continues his teaching and answering questions. Then either late Thursday evening or early Friday morning, Nicodemus is summoned to an emergency meeting of the Sanhedrin. Jesus has finally been arrested and placed on trial. High Priest Caiaphas point-blanketly ask Jesus if he is the Messiah, the Son of the Living God. Jesus, who has remained silently, quietly answers “I am. And you shall see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of the Father, coming in clouds of glory.”
The Sanhedrin take their vote. Did Nicodemus vote to condemn Jesus? Or did he abstain? I think he and a few others probably abstained.
On Good Friday, Nicodemus watches Jesus being nailed to the cross beam, and then watches the cross beam physically lifted and attached to a Roman cross, possibly an olive tree. That powerful visual brings back to mind, what Jesus had said earlier that week. Nicodemus catches his breath in his ah ha moment. Now I understand….just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must Jesus the Son of Man be lifted up….and all who look toward him will be healed. With this new insight, Nicodemus quickly runs through his mind any other scriptures that would serve as a clue to what was unfolding before him. He quickly comes to what we now know as Isaiah 53, the funeral dirge, the Song of the Suffering Servant. The Man of Sorrows. Acquainted with bitterest grief. He barely looked human. We thought his punishment came from God. But it was the sins of my people that he carried. It was the iniquities of my people that he bore. He was led like a sheep to the slaughter. By his condemnation, we were forgiven. By his scourging, we were healed. By his death….we are born again.
Standing at a distance from the cross, the scriptures came together for Nicodemus, like a giant puzzle missing the box. Somehow, this terrible death was part of God’s will, part of his good plan, an act of love. Somehow Jesus had taken on the sins of the people in order to heal his people.
At this point, the easiest thing for Nicodemus to do, would be to walk away. But he couldn’t. The great love that Jesus had for him and for their people, stirred a love in Nicodemus for Jesus, even in death. He would perform one last act of kindness.
Justice led Nicodemus to defend Jesus. Curiosity led Nicodemus to question Jesus. Love led Nicodemus to bury Jesus.
Nazareth was too much far away for Jesus to be taken home and given a proper burial. Besides, his brothers would have nothing to do with him. His mother Mary was at the foot of the cross, sobbing and weeping. She did not have the physical or the emotional capacity to carry out that task. The thought of Jesus’s body being tossed into a wheelbarrow and thrown into the local dump was unacceptable.
So Nicodemus and his good friend, Joseph of Arimathea devised a plan. Joseph of Arimathea had an unused tomb that was nearby in a garden. Joseph would use his Sanhedrin credentials to ask the Roman governor Pontius Pilate for the body of Jesus. It was a risky gamble. Legally, Jesus was a Roman rebel who was sentenced to death. But Joseph gambled that Pontius Pilate would grant permission, given his seemingly reluctance to have Jesus crucified. In the meanwhile, Nicodemus would hastily purchase the burial supplies – the clothes and anointments.
The sun was setting. They quickly applied spices as well as some flowers from the garden. They wrapped Jesus’s body in a long cloth, and his head in a smaller cloth. But before they wrapped the head, following Jewish custom, Nicodemus takes a feather and places in front of Jesus’s nose. The final test to determine if someone had truly died. The feather did not move.
Finishing the job, they leave the tomb, and Joseph’s servants roll the stone in front of the entrance. Standing nearby were a handful of women fighting tears. Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus exchange sympathetic glances with the women. The women understand that Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus had done the best they could in the little time that they had. They were grateful that two men and quickly and generously provided a final resting place for their teacher. The women silently vowed that they would return at first daylight on Sunday to give Jesus a proper burial.
For Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus, there would be a political fallout when High Priest Caiaphas learned what they had done. The political price was no longer a concern for them. All Nicodemus could focus on was that he had just buried the man who told him that he must be born again.
Unbeknownst to them, they have a provided an invaluable service. Early Christians would not have invented a story that two men of the Sanhedrin that had condemned Jesus were the ones who had actually buried him, while his disciples were hiding. That would have been embarrassing. But it was the truth and proves the historicity of the event.
In their act of compassion, Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea had set the stage for the story of Easter. Joseph thought that as the years went by, he and his family would rest near Jesus in the tomb. Instead, Joseph had to purchase another tomb for his family for family to rest in him. And not because Jesus needed the tomb all to himself. On the contrary, Jesus proved that he just needed to borrow the tomb for the weekend!
One of the reasons that we celebrate Easter is because Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus are witnesses that yes, Jesus truly died on a cross, was buried, and on the third day rose again.
The Keith Church Blog 