From Where I Sit                           Judith Lynch (Melbourne)                  Judith's previous articles        Judith's website                            

March 17, 2012                                              Nicodemus                          4th Sunday of Lent – Year B    

If the Nicodemus in St John’s Gospel was around today, he might be a politician – one of the quiet ones, rarely seen on TV, but respected by his peers for his sincerity and intelligent approach to important issues. He would probably have a law degree and live in an up-market house in a leafy suburb. The Nicodemus portrayed in John’s Gospel was all of those things, but he was also anxious, timid about new ideas, worried about being seen with the wrong people, uncertain about new ideas,
a practical man who thought clearly and rationally, thoughtful and  reflective, serious about his religion.     

There’s something very appealing about Nicodemus. Maybe it’s because we can recognise something of ourselves in him. Jesus was so patient with this serious man who had trouble with creative language, words meant to encourage Nicodemus to see God’s Kingdom in a different light. But the words went straight over his head. His thinking went on a single track, and he had trouble hearing strange and unfamiliar expressions like “born again” as anything but literal. Jesus was confronting Nicodemus with the need for a totally new beginning, like starting life all over again, if he wished to be a disciple.  

To be able to see God like this Nicodemus needed to become a different type of person. His rational mind coped wonderfully with Jewish law, but what Jesus asked for and offered was faith – faith that can embrace the mind boggling fact of God’s love for each and every person. For a Pharisee like Nicodemus that was a big ask. But by the time Jesus died Nicodemus was able to accept that the Kingdom of God was a kingdom of love, where the weak were strong and a cross was a king’s throne.  

I am a Christian today because my parents and my grandparents handed down their faith to me. As a child I believed in God because my Catholic and Methodist family did. When I was confirmed in Grade 6 my teacher told me that I was personally accepting the gift of faith given me at baptism – I was now an adult Christian.  

Nothing could have been further from the truth. All journeys from childish to adult faith need to wrestle with lots of God questions. We struggle to recognize God in the ups and downs of life, in the shadow and the light. Some days faith and being faithful seem a breeze, occasionally a bit of despair creeps in, more often there’s a kind of indifference or forgetfulness because the God stuff gets swallowed up by our everyday.  

Nicodemus can be a model for us as we struggle to deepen and broaden how we live the God relationship formally gifted to us in Baptism. One day we will leave the shadows and darkness behind and move into the light that is God.