[Journey with Jesus – Day 5]
This has been inspired significantly by the wonderful depiction of this encounter from the Chosen
I came to him in the middle of the night. I’d seen him at a distance before; been there when he’d engaged in debates with the other religious leaders. He was extraordinary. Whenever he spoke, something burned within me. He also performed the most incredible miracles – healing the sick, turning water into wine – that only someone inspired by God could do. I had to come and see him. I had to find out more about him. The problem was that I was rather important – I was a Pharisee, part of the group of people who wanted to ensure we lived lives befitting of God’s holy people – we wrote rules so people would be able to observe our faith. I also had a place on the Jewish ruling council – and I didn’t want others to find out I’d met with him. They were threatened by him, you see. So, I requested to see him, but in the middle of the night, so I wouldn’t lose face. I’m not proud of it, but that is simply how it was.
After we had greeted each other, he had this open, expectant expression – a half-smile – on his face. “You wanted to see me?”
“Yes, thank you for agreeing to see me,” and I opened with the statement I had prepared in my head.
“Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the signs you are doing if God were not with him.”
I don’t know what I was hoping for him to say in response – I guess I thought he might be pleased to be addressed with such respect. But he cut through my comment –
“Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again.”
I have to say, I was not expecting that response. What did he mean? What was this kingdom of God? I didn’t understand.
“How can someone be born when they are old?” I asked. “Surely they cannot enter a second time into their mother’s womb to be born!”
Jesus answered, “Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. I’m talking about that spiritual part, that is what needs to be born again into new life. Don’t be surprised that I’m saying that you must be born again.”
“How can this be?” I asked. He hadn’t really explained my puzzle, but rather had made it worse. I found myself wading into deeper water than I had been expecting.
“You are Israel’s teacher,” said Jesus, “and do you not understand these things?” (No, I don’t, I thought to myself, I understand far less than I thought I did – I wish I had the courage to ask him to stop and slow down).
He paused for a moment. “You hear the wind, don’t you? Well, it blows wherever it wants, you can hear it, but you don’t know where it’s come from, or where it’s going. That’s the way it is with people who are born of the Spirit. The Spirit works in a mysterious way. Like the wind, you can’t see the Spirit, but you can see the way it works.”
This was new teaching – I hadn’t heard anything like this before at all. My mind felt like it was about to explode. All I could think about was how some of my colleagues would react to what this Rabbi was saying. As if reading my mind, Jesus continued, “I am speaking of what I know and what I have seen, and the religious leaders haven’t received this – you’ve not accepted my testimony. If I am talking to you about earthly things and you don’t believe, how can I tell you of heavenly things? You won’t believe them either?”
I would love to, I thought, but it was so costly. I knew that many people would violently object to his words. Such teaching could have him killed. “This teaching is dangerous,” I began to object.
“I’ve not just come to teach,” he replied. “Do you remember in the wilderness when the people of God complained God at Paran because they wanted to return to Egypt?”
I nodded. I remembered that story well. “They cursed God and as a punishment for their complaints they were bitten by serpents and were dying.”
“What happened then?” he asked.
“Well, Moses made a bronze serpent that if they looked on it, they would be healed.”
“Exactly!” Jesus exclaimed. “Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life. People are dying, Nicodemus – not from snakes in the wilderness, but from sin. Sin brings spiritual death. I’ve come to deliver people from this. God loves the world in this way: He gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.”
I was overwhelmed. I still had so many questions. I understood so little. But I knew that I wanted to believe so badly. I wanted to follow this man. Looking back now, I wish I had dropped everything there and then to do so, but I was full of fear and questions. I had my position on the council, my reputation, to think about and I confess that they were the things still foremost on my mind. I didn’t become a disciple, not then, but I knew my life had somehow changed that night, that if I hadn’t been born again in that moment, something was being born anew in me.
Halwill Publishing 