John 3:1-2 (NIV): Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a member of the Jewish ruling council. He came to Jesus at night and said, “Rabbi, we know you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the miraculous signs you are doing if God were not with him.”
Nicodemus was a good man who feared God and obeyed Him scrupulously, without the self-righteous attitude that was characteristic of so many Pharisees. He came to Jesus, not to cross-examine Him, or accuse Him, but to simply find out who He really was, and what He had to say about Himself.
Some believe that Nicodemus came to Jesus at night because He was afraid to be seen with Him. But this event happened very early in Jesus’ ministry, and no strong opposition to Him had yet coalesced. Admittedly, some of the Jewish leaders were angry at Jesus for His “impertinent” clearing of the temple a few days earlier. But many more were merely curious about this man who had suddenly burst onto the scene, and who was now astonishing the people with His teachings and with the miracles that He was doing. Nicodemus was one of those.
He came to Jesus at night because Jesus would not then have been surrounded by the crowds that were thronging Him in the temple every day. He found out where Jesus was staying, and went to Him on behalf of some of the others who were just as curious about Jesus as he was.
In his opening statement, Nicodemus tells us three things:
- He calls Jesus “rabbi,” a title of respect normally reserved for those who had received formal education in the law. Nicodemus had no way of knowing whether or not Jesus had been trained, but he had heard His teachings, and was obviously impressed.
- He calls Jesus a “teacher who has come from God.” This title is very close to calling Jesus a prophet. At this juncture in history, true prophets were very scarce and had been for some time. But Jesus’ authoritative actions that He claimed were on God’s behalf, His profound teachings that were deeply affecting people and that obviously had God’s power behind them, and the miracles that He was doing, all pointed to the distinct possibility that He might be the real thing.
- He knew about the miracles that Jesus was doing. Again, miracles had been very scarce over the last few centuries. Apart from the miracle of the oil that had occurred during the rededication of the temple after it had been defiled by the tyrant Antiochus Epiphanes (memorialized in the celebration of Hanukkah), there really hadn’t been anything in the way of real certifiable miracles since the return from the Exile. But now here was Jesus, healing diseases and infirmities in plain sight, and effortlessly casting out demons.
All of these pieces of evidence had led Nicodemus and some of his fellow Pharisees to one conclusion: whether Jesus was a prophet, the Prophet, or the Messiah Himself, He had clearly been sent by God, and God Himself was powerfully present in Him and working through Him.
Father, I wish that more people had the kind of openness that Nicodemus had. So many, even in the face of incontrovertible miracles, pull away from a supernatural explanation, resorting to the safe havens of “chance,” or “luck,” or “sometimes things like that just happen.” (As in, “Sometimes cancer just disappears and nobody knows why!”) Lord, continue to pour out mighty miracles through Your people all over the place. Confront those who will not be persuaded with such miracles that they must at least entertain the notion that it is only by Your hand that such things are happening. Amen.