Ash Wednesday sermon 3/1/06 "Nicodemus"
Ash Wednesday
3/1/06
Text: John 3:1-21 and 19:39
Title: Nicodemus
Grace, mercy, and peace to you from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen
Today, Ash Wednesday, marks the start of Lent, a time of self-reflection, a time when we focus not only on our sinfulness, but on the grace of God, who through Jesus Christ made us holy. Yes, we are truly saint and sinner. Saint in the our souls have been cleared of guilt. Sinner in that we still live in bodies that do not want to fully trust in God, bodies that want to live the way of the world.
This Lenten season we are going to take a close look at six people who are mentioned in the Passion story. The six are Nicodemus, Judas Iscariot, Pilate, Simon of Cyrene, the thief on the cross, and the centurion.
We will study their interaction with Jesus as he makes his journey toward the cross so that we will see how each of their lives were touched by Jesus and in doing so our lives will be enriched by him.
The first person we will look at is Nicodemus. I found it interesting, that in John’s Gospel of Jesus’ passion, that Nicodemus is identified in an unusual way, as the man who earlier had visited Jesus at night. You have to go back to an earlier meeting with Jesus to find out more about him. John 3:1-2 tells us, “Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a member of the Jewish ruling council. He came to Jesus at night.”
In that passage we see that Nicodemus is a Pharisee. In many ways, the most moral people in all Israel were Pharisees, for they spent their lives observing every tradition of the law.
Nicodemus was also one of the 70 Pharisees that made up the Sanhedrin, the Jewish ruling council. The Sanhedrin was the highest court in the land for dealing with Jewish Law. One of the Sanhedrin’s duties was to examine and then deal with anyone suspected of being a false prophet, and according to Josephus, the Jewish historian that lived during this time, there were quite a few of them running around the countryside.
We also see that he was afraid of anyone finding out that he was talking to Jesus, so he visited him under the cover of darkness.
There is one more thing we know about Nicodemus. He was more than likely a wealthy man, for as we read earlier that when Jesus died Nicodemus brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes weighing about 75 pounds for his burial. Only a wealthy man could have afforded that much of them.
Nicodemus came to eventually recognize Jesus for who he is, but even while we rejoice with him, we also see tragedy in his life, for Nicodemus, being a member of the Sanhedrin, must have kept quiet at that fateful meeting where the Sanhedrin voted to kill Jesus.
Now I have to admit that even if he had spoken up, it might not have even mattered, for the Sanhedrin was set on killing Jesus. The tragedy is that, all things being equal, on this particular night, uncertainty, fear, or whatever it was, silenced the voice of Nicodemus, the voice that might have said, “Truly, this is the Son of God.”
We can understand his silence, can’t we, or at least we can explain it away, for we know from our own behavior that we too, too many times are silent when we are uncertain in our belief. Or when our security, our comfort are put ahead of telling others about Jesus, the one we publicly confess each Sunday to believe in. We have much in common with Nicodemus.
Nicodemus’s problem was that he was undecided about Jesus, a problem many people face today. They look at Jesus. They believe. They want eternal life and all that God promises, but to actually accept the fact that that God came into the flesh as an ordinary human being, is well, just simply too much to ask. That he actually died on the cross for their sins, well that just doesn’t make sense.
Nicodemus found that being born again was too much to ask, for he was not thinking spiritually. He couldn’t figure it out, until that is, Jesus delivered the eye-opener when he told him, “I tell you the truth, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit. Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to the spirit.”
Nicodemus found out that believing is more than seeing signs and miracles, and being somehow drawn to him who performs them. He found out that being a sympathetic spectator is not the same as having faith. He found out that the head nod showing agreement lacks the certainty of faith, for it only says, “There is something here, but I don’t know what it is. I will just wait and see what comes of it all.”
Nicodemus left his first meeting of Jesus without the certainty of faith. We know this because later when the Pharisees shout, “Has any of the rulers or Pharisees believed in him? No!” Nicodemus only responds with “Does our law condemn anyone without first hearing him to find out what he is doing?” You see Nicodemus is curious, he is fair, an open minded spectator, but certainly not a certain believer who says, “Truly this is the Son of God.”
Believing is more than having sincere religious interests in Jesus as the Son of God. Believing is more than merely accepting the facts about Jesus. Believing is more than keeping the rules and traditions of the church. Believing is having faith in Jesus to do what he promised he would do.
I want to tell you a little story about a certain tightrope walker that strung a cable across Niagara Falls. After a crowd had gathered he proceeded to cross over to the other side. First he just walked across, then he walked across balancing a table. He then grabbed a wheelbarrow and started for the cable. Just before he started across, he turned and asked the crowd, “Do you believe that I can push this wheelbarrow across?” The crowd answered back, “Of course we do”. The tightrope walker said to them, “Okay which one of you will get in the wheelbarrow?” There was a rather long silence, then a single voice rang out, “Are you nuts!”
You see they believed in him, but had no faith in his ability to do what he said he could do. Belief says, “God is able. Maybe he can do what he says he can do”. Saving faith says, “God has kept his promises and so I can stake my life on him.”
Saving faith says, “I will ride in your wheelbarrow.” for saving faith is being completely dependent on God to care for you. Saving faith will never be solid if it stands back and asks with Nicodemus, “How can this be?” That is the question that comes from the sinful flesh, the old nature that still resides in the world.
We don’t know for sure when the Holy Spirit entered Nicodemus, but I would put forth that it was when Jesus was hanging on that cross. Nicodemus in the death of Jesus saw something in him that he had never seen before. He saw Jesus as his Savior.
Gone was the uncertainty. Gone was his spectator type attitude. Gone was his timidity. Gone was his cowardice, his hesitation, the careful hiding and the silence. It was all gone. It was gone because Jesus, in his death on the cross, fulfilled his own prophecy, the prophecy he made when he said, “When I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw all men to myself.”
It was not anything that Nicodemus had done, but the power of cross as it started to operate. The power of the cross was turning doubt into certainty and a spectator into a participant. Nicodemus made a confession of Jesus as the Christ as his actions told the world, “Truly this is the Son of God.”
You and I too have the privilege of meeting Jesus in a personal way, as he comes to us today in, with, and under the bread and wine. Jesus comes to us to not only to assure us of the forgiveness of sins and to strengthen us in faith, but also to enable us to love one another.
It is through his death that Jesus saved us from damnation. It is through his resurrection that he comes to us as he promised. We come and receive Jesus into our bodies as we eat this bread and drink this cup, and in doing so we proclaim the Lord’s death until he returns.
This is our confession of faith in Jesus’ life, death, resurrection, and living presence, for we don’t have a dead god, or a god who sits up there someplace watching us fumble around. We have a God who is active in our lives on a minute by minute basis, who enables us to stand with Nicodemus and say through our words and actions, “Truly, this is the Son of God.” Amen
3/1/06
Text: John 3:1-21 and 19:39
Title: Nicodemus
Grace, mercy, and peace to you from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen
Today, Ash Wednesday, marks the start of Lent, a time of self-reflection, a time when we focus not only on our sinfulness, but on the grace of God, who through Jesus Christ made us holy. Yes, we are truly saint and sinner. Saint in the our souls have been cleared of guilt. Sinner in that we still live in bodies that do not want to fully trust in God, bodies that want to live the way of the world.
This Lenten season we are going to take a close look at six people who are mentioned in the Passion story. The six are Nicodemus, Judas Iscariot, Pilate, Simon of Cyrene, the thief on the cross, and the centurion.
We will study their interaction with Jesus as he makes his journey toward the cross so that we will see how each of their lives were touched by Jesus and in doing so our lives will be enriched by him.
The first person we will look at is Nicodemus. I found it interesting, that in John’s Gospel of Jesus’ passion, that Nicodemus is identified in an unusual way, as the man who earlier had visited Jesus at night. You have to go back to an earlier meeting with Jesus to find out more about him. John 3:1-2 tells us, “Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a member of the Jewish ruling council. He came to Jesus at night.”
In that passage we see that Nicodemus is a Pharisee. In many ways, the most moral people in all Israel were Pharisees, for they spent their lives observing every tradition of the law.
Nicodemus was also one of the 70 Pharisees that made up the Sanhedrin, the Jewish ruling council. The Sanhedrin was the highest court in the land for dealing with Jewish Law. One of the Sanhedrin’s duties was to examine and then deal with anyone suspected of being a false prophet, and according to Josephus, the Jewish historian that lived during this time, there were quite a few of them running around the countryside.
We also see that he was afraid of anyone finding out that he was talking to Jesus, so he visited him under the cover of darkness.
There is one more thing we know about Nicodemus. He was more than likely a wealthy man, for as we read earlier that when Jesus died Nicodemus brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes weighing about 75 pounds for his burial. Only a wealthy man could have afforded that much of them.
Nicodemus came to eventually recognize Jesus for who he is, but even while we rejoice with him, we also see tragedy in his life, for Nicodemus, being a member of the Sanhedrin, must have kept quiet at that fateful meeting where the Sanhedrin voted to kill Jesus.
Now I have to admit that even if he had spoken up, it might not have even mattered, for the Sanhedrin was set on killing Jesus. The tragedy is that, all things being equal, on this particular night, uncertainty, fear, or whatever it was, silenced the voice of Nicodemus, the voice that might have said, “Truly, this is the Son of God.”
We can understand his silence, can’t we, or at least we can explain it away, for we know from our own behavior that we too, too many times are silent when we are uncertain in our belief. Or when our security, our comfort are put ahead of telling others about Jesus, the one we publicly confess each Sunday to believe in. We have much in common with Nicodemus.
Nicodemus’s problem was that he was undecided about Jesus, a problem many people face today. They look at Jesus. They believe. They want eternal life and all that God promises, but to actually accept the fact that that God came into the flesh as an ordinary human being, is well, just simply too much to ask. That he actually died on the cross for their sins, well that just doesn’t make sense.
Nicodemus found that being born again was too much to ask, for he was not thinking spiritually. He couldn’t figure it out, until that is, Jesus delivered the eye-opener when he told him, “I tell you the truth, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit. Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to the spirit.”
Nicodemus found out that believing is more than seeing signs and miracles, and being somehow drawn to him who performs them. He found out that being a sympathetic spectator is not the same as having faith. He found out that the head nod showing agreement lacks the certainty of faith, for it only says, “There is something here, but I don’t know what it is. I will just wait and see what comes of it all.”
Nicodemus left his first meeting of Jesus without the certainty of faith. We know this because later when the Pharisees shout, “Has any of the rulers or Pharisees believed in him? No!” Nicodemus only responds with “Does our law condemn anyone without first hearing him to find out what he is doing?” You see Nicodemus is curious, he is fair, an open minded spectator, but certainly not a certain believer who says, “Truly this is the Son of God.”
Believing is more than having sincere religious interests in Jesus as the Son of God. Believing is more than merely accepting the facts about Jesus. Believing is more than keeping the rules and traditions of the church. Believing is having faith in Jesus to do what he promised he would do.
I want to tell you a little story about a certain tightrope walker that strung a cable across Niagara Falls. After a crowd had gathered he proceeded to cross over to the other side. First he just walked across, then he walked across balancing a table. He then grabbed a wheelbarrow and started for the cable. Just before he started across, he turned and asked the crowd, “Do you believe that I can push this wheelbarrow across?” The crowd answered back, “Of course we do”. The tightrope walker said to them, “Okay which one of you will get in the wheelbarrow?” There was a rather long silence, then a single voice rang out, “Are you nuts!”
You see they believed in him, but had no faith in his ability to do what he said he could do. Belief says, “God is able. Maybe he can do what he says he can do”. Saving faith says, “God has kept his promises and so I can stake my life on him.”
Saving faith says, “I will ride in your wheelbarrow.” for saving faith is being completely dependent on God to care for you. Saving faith will never be solid if it stands back and asks with Nicodemus, “How can this be?” That is the question that comes from the sinful flesh, the old nature that still resides in the world.
We don’t know for sure when the Holy Spirit entered Nicodemus, but I would put forth that it was when Jesus was hanging on that cross. Nicodemus in the death of Jesus saw something in him that he had never seen before. He saw Jesus as his Savior.
Gone was the uncertainty. Gone was his spectator type attitude. Gone was his timidity. Gone was his cowardice, his hesitation, the careful hiding and the silence. It was all gone. It was gone because Jesus, in his death on the cross, fulfilled his own prophecy, the prophecy he made when he said, “When I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw all men to myself.”
It was not anything that Nicodemus had done, but the power of cross as it started to operate. The power of the cross was turning doubt into certainty and a spectator into a participant. Nicodemus made a confession of Jesus as the Christ as his actions told the world, “Truly this is the Son of God.”
You and I too have the privilege of meeting Jesus in a personal way, as he comes to us today in, with, and under the bread and wine. Jesus comes to us to not only to assure us of the forgiveness of sins and to strengthen us in faith, but also to enable us to love one another.
It is through his death that Jesus saved us from damnation. It is through his resurrection that he comes to us as he promised. We come and receive Jesus into our bodies as we eat this bread and drink this cup, and in doing so we proclaim the Lord’s death until he returns.
This is our confession of faith in Jesus’ life, death, resurrection, and living presence, for we don’t have a dead god, or a god who sits up there someplace watching us fumble around. We have a God who is active in our lives on a minute by minute basis, who enables us to stand with Nicodemus and say through our words and actions, “Truly, this is the Son of God.” Amen
posted by Pastor Rhoads | 6:44 PM
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