Nicodemus

By Phil Wood

Please open your Bible and read John 3:1-14. And keep it open for reference as you read through the following meditation.

Nicodemus was curious. He had heard about the many signs Jesus had been performing there in Jerusalem during the Passover celebration. He was probably there at the Temple when Jesus came and, you know, stirred things up.

Maybe Nicodemus was actually listening, and took note when Jesus called the temple his "Father's house." Perhaps he, too, remembered the messianic prophecy of King David who said, "Zeal for your house will consume me." I believe Nicodemus suspected that Jesus was the Christ. So he came to Jesus, though he did not want others to know.

And the two of them were engaged in a discussion about things of the Spirit, things that Nicodemus was obviously struggling to understand, especially the notion that one must be born again...in order to see the kingdom of God. Nicodemus was a linear, literal, black-and-white kind of guy. He knew all the rules. But the concept of entering a second time into his mother's womb, well, it just kind of freaked him out.

Then Jesus dropped this one on him. Jesus said, "Just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life."

I wish we could have seen Nic's face.

Nicodemus was probably aware of the story Jesus was alluding to, when Moses and the sinful, grumbling people were wandering in the desert. But I'm pretty sure Nicodemus had no idea that by talking about being "lifted up," Jesus was referring to his own death, when he would be lifted up on a cross, and later lifted up in resurrection, so that God's people could be rescued from their persistently recurring sin – once and for all.

The story of the serpent being lifted up in the wilderness goes something like this. After about 38 or 39 years of wandering in the desert and grumbling, God finally said enough is enough. Well, he didn't really say that, but...he sent snakes.

You can read the story in Numbers, Chapter 21. But I'm going to paraphrase. The Israelites were traveling along the route to the Red Sea to go around Edom (basically because the Edomites had made it clear that if the Israelites tried to pass through their land they would come out and kill them). So the Israelites were going the long way – the scenic route, as it were – and the people "grew impatient." Impatient! And they spoke against God and against Moses, and they said (again), "Why have you brought us up out of Egypt, to die in the wilderness? There is no bread! There is no water! And we detest this miserable food!"

So God sent venomous snakes among them; they bit the people and many Israelites died. In their suffering they realized once again how much they needed God's mercy. So they came to Moses saying (and remember I’m paraphrasing), “Snakes! Why did it have to be snakes?! Now we know that we sinned when we spoke against the LORD and against you. Pray that the LORD will take the snakes away from us."

The people see that their sin has led to suffering. They submit to God's sovereign rule and repent. Moses prays for them...and God, in his never-ending mercy and love, gives them a way to be saved.

God told Moses to make a snake out of bronze, lift it up, set it high on a pole. And people who have been bitten by the serpent, if they lift their eyes to this symbol, will live. And so it was.

Even in this early time in the life of God's people, God here foreshadows his plan for the ultimate salvation of his people. In this "lifted up" bronze serpent, we see an anticipation of what would happen when Jesus was "lifted up" in crucifixion.

And now when we look again at this conversation between Jesus and Nicodemus, we begin to see that when Jesus is lifted up on the cross, and lifted up from the grave, it will not just be to rescue us from the suffering resulting from our most recent sin, it will make available to us a new life. An eternal life that begins when we lift our eyes to the one who is lifted up. A life that comes with the power to overcome sin. A life that comes with the power to act rightly, and do the things God has planned for us to do since the beginning of time.

Nicodemus no doubt went away from this encounter with Jesus still struggling to comprehend what Jesus was saying. But the word was at work in him. And by the time he had gone through the first Lent, the original 40 days leading up to the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus, a time of terrible soul searching that must have just torn him apart, he came away repentant, made new.

He witnessed Jesus being lifted up and was healed. He came with Joseph of Arimathea, bringing myrrh and aloes, and took the body of Jesus away from the cross, bound it in linen cloths with the spices, and placed him in a tomb in the garden.

This is the stuff of Lent.

Lord, as you did with Nicodemus, bring us out of the darkness and into the light. Amen.