if you got something that sheds some light

use it tonight

The Holy Gospel according to St. John, the 3rd chapter!

Poor Nicodemus. 

So little to show for all his efforts that night he went to meet Jesus…

But really, I think the reason we have sympathy for Nicodemus is because the truth is, we’re a lot more like Nicodemus than we care to admit…

After all, Nicodemus was the kind of guy who, like you this morning, would show up to church on a crummy January day…

And there’s more we have in common with old Nicodemus. 

First, Nicodemus was a leader. In other words, he had managed to climb up the ladder a little. BUT, good Nicodemus didn’t let it go to his head. In fact, he comes across as altogether sincere. Humble even, as he meets Jesus.

BecauseNicodemus lives by the very virtues we’ve been reared on!

And secondly, we can’t help but admire Nicodemus for his work-ethic.

Nicodemus shows up to meet Jesus by night. In other words, after the nine-to-five! Because Nicodemus isn’t afraid of a little extra work. 

Nicodemus is a hard worker, the kind midwesterners like us, can’t help but tip our hat nod to.

So yes, we’re more like Nicodemus than we may care to admit…

And that’s the rub, isn’t it?

Because that night Nicodemus decided to lace up his boots and put in a little extra effort, undid everything Nicodemus had been building  his life on…

Nicodemus ends worse than when he began, doesn’t he?

When Nicodemus first comes to Jesus he confidently asserts, “We know.” 

“Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God…”

BUT! But, when Nicodemus leaves, he walks away muttering, “How.” 

“HOW can these things be,” Nicodemus asks Jesus. Only to hear in reply, “Are you a teacher of Israel, and yet you do not understand?”

Nicodemus gets a lot of things, but not what Jesus has to sat that night…

And that’s the trouble for Nicodemuses like us, isn’t it?

Because we get achievement. We get humility. And we get effort, too.

That’s why you’re here today, isn’t it? Getting up early on a Sunday morning, earnestly coming to try and understand Jesus a little better…

But what we don’t get is being told none of that will be of any help when it comes to Jesus!

Not our efforts, and not our achievements… 

And that makes us more like Nicodemus than we know…

But we hate it when, like Nicodemus, we can’t figure something out, don’t we? When we can’t put the pieces together. When we don’t understand… 

In other words, when we’re helpless. 

We avoid that at all costs, don’t we?

The words that baffles the likes of us as much as anything else Jesus told Nicodemus that night, is to hear our efforts, our work ethic, even our wonderful minds are not the tools Jesus chooses to use…

Rather, like Nicodemus, we find that Jesus chooses to use our helplessness of all things!

That being helpless isn’t the worst thing that could happen to us. That it might even do us a little good!

In fact, Jesus himself, might be the one pushing our back against this wall. That he may be using our inability to get it to create an opportunity to give us everything he has…

What rubs the likes of us wrong on a day like this, is the very thing that gave Nicodemus his life back that night. Or rather, not his life, but a new life. The second birth he and Jesus spoke of.

Albeit, in a way Nicodemus, and so us, could NEVER have understood before that night…

Nicodemus turns up twice more, as I’m sure you smarty-pants know.

In chapter seven when the chief priests and pharisees try to arrange Jesus’ arrest, Nicodemus sticks his neck out for Jesus. Asking, “Our law does not judge people without first giving them a hearing to find out what they are doing…”

And then, in chapter 19. Nicodemus shows up with Joseph of Arimathea, as they are only ones left standing with the crucified Jesus, as they prepare his body for its burial…

In the end Nicodemus walks away a little better, or at least more faithful, for that night when all his efforts did him no good!

Because that night Nicodemus learned something he could only understand by not getting it, by not understanding; by being helpless…

And that’s what really makes you like Nicodemus! 

That your effort or understanding; they are not what help you get what Jesus is talking about. Only the one who meets you in your night, when you don’t get it.

Jesus, who meets you, and just gives you his life that no amount of effort can grasp!

And that’s something the likes of us will never understand. 

Which is okay, because Jesus is perfectly capable of using that…

What Nicodemus really needed to figure out, was the one thing he couldn’t! The one thing that made no sense! The one thing that would be utter foolishness for the likes of him (and so us). The one thing he couldn’t: be born AGAIN.

Or, to say it another way; to Die. To die…

Yes, Nicodemus and all his achievements, his work-ethic it all had to die before Jesus could give him all he had to offer. A new life. A second birth. 

What Nicodemus was looking for couldn’t be found by figuring it out or putting in the effort. No, the only way to receive what Jesus has to give that night, is to die and then be born again. Born in his name. By his power. Of his Spirit. 

And that’s what really makes you like Nicodemus! 

Jesus comes along calling you to be born again. But Nicodemuses like you and me, we never understand what he’s talking about. Because we don’t want to undergo the one thing that will bring about our new birth, we don’t want to die…

So instead Jesus just gives Nicodemuses like us what we really need. And he does so by putting us at a crisis. Making his light to shine on our lives. Telling us something we can’t make sense of. Offering us something that makes us ask, “How can this be.” 

Because when Jesus does this, he puts the kind of prayer on our’ lips that God loves best to answer. And you know these prayers. Because you’ve prayed them. Although, we always hate it when we have to pray these prayers. 

The “I’m helpless, God,” prayers. The “I don’t get this, God,” prayers. 

The “I need you, God. Help me. Deliver me. Save me, God,” prayers.

As we can come to see God answered that prayer of Nicodemus’.

But not by helping Nicodemus figure it out. Instead, by letting all Nicodemus’ efforts and achievements come to Nothing. And when Nicodemus had nothing to offer, Jesus gave him everything he has!

And just as that is true for Nicodemus, so is it true for you too!

In the night Jesus takes our death, and from that gives his new life! 

We’re more like Nicodemus than we care to admit. 

But hopefully we’ll get over that. Hopefully we’ll just admit it. 

Like Nicodemus, we don’t understand. We’re in the dark. We’re helpless.

We need Jesus. 

And when we confess that, we pray the sort of prayer Jesus loves best to answer. Not the confident, “Jesus, I know,” but the “ How Jesus.” 

The, "I can’t do this, Jesus.” The, “I need you, Jesus.”

And when those prayers are uttered, our night, like Nicodemus’ is transformed into a new day. A new life. 

For in these prayers we are given a new life we could never earn or achieve.

In these prayers, the old us who insists on living by our own efforts, is put to death. And in its place is raised a new saint who lives by all Jesus has to give!

In these prayers we are born again! Not by flesh, but by the life that comes from Jesus. By the Spirit he breathed as his bowed his head and died, when he was lifted up on the cross!

And that, that’s makes you amore like Nicodemus that you’ll ever know.

Because hidden in your death, too. In your inability to understand, is the new life Jesus gave on the cross! 

So you who have come to Jesus by night, trying and put your life back together. Only to walk away worse off; know that Jesus gave you something better than your old life in that night. In it he has hidden a new day, your new life!

When you lose it all, Jesus gives you everything he has!

And I know that sounds like bad news; but only at first. 

Because after Jesus hands over the new life that can come only from him; you will see how good this is, that it’s the best thing that could happen to you—to receive the new life that can only come from Jesus’ cross. 

Jesus’ cross that transforms night into day. Death into life.

Yes, this message may hav you leaving here wondering, “How can this be.” And that isn’t all bad. 

Because later you will turn up again, ready to anoint Jesus’ body for its burial, too. Because you will have found out, for yourself, that hidden in that death, is the new life only Jesus can give. 

Oh just admit it! You’re a lot like Nicodemus!