If you have ever been in Sunday school, you know Nicodemus’ name. Usually, we only remember him for coming to see Jesus at night. But he appears in the gospel more than once… as a believer embedded in the Sanhedrin. He was one of the religious leaders. He worked with them. He understood how they thought. And so, he witnessed first-hand how many of his colleagues – possibly even close friends – chose to blind themselves and reject Jesus. Sometimes I think he is a good picture of our lives as believers living in the world.
We left off chapter 7 of John with the officers returning to the Pharisees emptyhanded, unable to apprehend Jesus. And the only explanation they could give was: Never man spoke thus, as this man [speaks].
John 7:47-49 The Pharisees therefore answered them, Are ye also deceived? Has any one of the rulers believed on him, or of the Pharisees? But this crowd, which does not know the law, are accursed.
But then, to prove them wrong, one of their own rulers indeed speaks up:
John 7:50-53 Nicodemus says to them (being one of themselves), Does our law judge a man before it have first heard from himself, and know what he does? They answered and said to him, Art thou also of Galilee? Search and look, that no prophet arises out of Galilee. And every one went to his home.
Nicodemus’ comment may not appear to be a forceful defense of Jesus, but it actually is in keeping with the way Jesus spoke to Nicodemus and to many other people.
In response to their question (has any religious leader believed in him?), Nicodemus asks them a question. The point is to get them to think, to try to get them out of the rut of hostility they have dug themselves into by appealing to what they claim to believe.
Of course, they avoid his question. And their offhand reply to him is actually wrong. Jonah, the prophet, came from Galilee. And if Nicodemus was from Galilee (although the Pharisees may mean their comment as an insult), he surely would know it. So, Nicodemus could have retorted to them, and said, “What about Jonah? Duh!” In other words, he could have argued with them if he had wanted to. But he didn’t.
As it is, Nicodemus’ attempt to get through to them did not get too far here. But it is included here for us to see and learn.
How are we called to defend the Faith?
Jesus has started the escalation. From now on, whenever necessary, He is going to force His challengers to see themselves in the mirror. He will call them out, even call them unbelievers (as He did in John 7:28) if that is what He needs to do to shake them up… because His time is short, the crisis is coming, and He needs everybody to hear and understand what is going on… especially when it comes time for the cross.
But… though it is true that Jesus is sending us the way He was sent. And though it is true that the world will react to us with the same hostility that it reacted to Him. We are not Him.
When Jesus said that the bondservant is not greater than his master, He said it in the context of us not getting complacent to the point that we live thinking that the world will leave us alone. But it isn’t only true in that context. In fact, the statement should be a truism, completely obvious to us. It should have shocked us, shamed us, to think that He had to remind us of this Truth:
There is only One Savior.
There is only One Son of God. No other Savior will ever be needed. And, certainly, no human being should ever pretend to take on the mantle of a Savior. (Nor should any human being ever dare to assign another human being that mantle.)
Why did Jesus have to remind us of something that should be obvious? Because He knows the human heart: And we, all of us, are always liable to being seduced by power. And there is no power more dangerous, more seductive, than the one that claims to have Divine sanction. Just think of the Pharisees; think of the wars that have been waged throughout History in the name of religion. Just think of the Inquisition.
Yes, we have a mission just like Jesus had a mission. But we are His bondservants. And just as the Father spelled out the parameters of His mission, Jesus also spelled out for us the parameters of ours. He taught us how we are meant to carry out our mission. Our parameters are not the same as His.
When the Father sent the Son, He said:
Isaiah 42:1-6 Behold my servant whom I uphold, mine elect [in whom] my soul delighteth! I will put my Spirit upon him; he shall bring forth judgment to the nations. He shall not cry, nor lift up, nor cause his voice to be heard in the street. A bruised reed shall he not break, and smoking flax shall he not quench: he shall bring forth judgment according to truth. He shall not faint nor be in haste, till he have set justice in the earth: and the isles shall wait for his law.
Thus saith God, Jehovah, he that created the heavens and stretched them out, he that spread forth the earth and its productions, he that giveth breath unto the people upon it, and spirit to them that walk therein: I, Jehovah, have called thee in righteousness, and will take hold of thy hand; and I will preserve thee, and give thee for a covenant of the people, for a light of the nations…
Note how in that description, side by side with the Mercy and Compassion (a bruised reed shall he not break, and smoking flax shall he not quench) Jesus is also given the mission to bring Justice to the world. He is The Judge.
In our study of the gospel of John, we already went through the passage where Jesus Himself revealed this:
John 5:21-22, 26-27 For even as the Father raises the dead and quickens [them], thus the Son also quickens whom he will: for neither does the Father judge any one, but has given all judgment to the Son … For even as the Father has life in himself, so he has given to the Son also to have life in himself, and has given him authority to execute judgment [also], because he is Son of man.
And though Jesus made it clear that in His first appearing He did not come as Judge…
John 3:17-18 For God has not sent his Son into the world that he may judge the world, but that the world may be saved through him. He that believes on him is not judged: but he that believes not has been already judged, because he has not believed on the name of the only-begotten Son of God.
… at the end of days, He will take on that role:
Matthew 25:31-33 But when the Son of man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then shall he sit down upon his throne of glory, and all the nations shall be gathered before him; and he shall separate them from one another, as the shepherd separates the sheep from the goats; and he will set the sheep on his right hand, and the goats on [his] left…
If you have read that passage, you know that on that day He will indeed Judge, and He will send away for eternity all those that condemned themselves by rejecting Him. That was, that is, part of His mission. But what about ours? Has He called us to judge?
Not at all:
Matthew 7:1-2 Judge not, that ye may not be judged; for with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged; and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you.
Why not? Because we are not God:
Matthew 7:3-5 But why lookest thou on the mote that is in the eye of thy brother, but observest not the beam that is in thine eye? Or how wilt thou say to thy brother, Allow [me], I will cast out the mote from thine eye; and behold, the beam is in thine eye? Hypocrite, cast out first the beam out of thine eye, and then thou wilt see clearly to cast out the mote out of the eye of thy brother.
Only God has the right to judge. Paul the apostle had to remind the Romans of this truth:
Romans 14:44 Who art *thou* that judgest the servant of another? to his own master he stands or falls. And he shall be made to stand; for the Lord is able to make him stand.
Then how is our mission like Jesus’ mission?
It is like His in every aspect that it can be carried out by human beings.
First and foremost, it is characterized by Love and Compassion.
How do we know? Again, the Sermon on the Mount is a good place to start. But even that scary passage about the sheep and the goats makes it perfectly clear. Look at the actions for which the sheep were praised:
Matthew 25:34-40 Then shall the King say to those on his right hand, Come, blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from [the] world’s foundation: for I hungered, and ye gave me to eat; I thirsted, and ye gave me to drink; I was a stranger, and ye took me in; naked, and ye clothed me; I was ill, and ye visited me; I was in prison, and ye came to me.
Then shall the righteous answer him saying, Lord, when saw we thee hungering, and nourished thee; or thirsting, and gave thee to drink? and when saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in; or naked, and clothed thee? and when saw we thee ill, or in prison, and came to thee?
And the King answering shall say to them, Verily, I say to you, Inasmuch as ye have done it to one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it to me.
They fed the hungry, quenched the thirst of the thirsty, took in those that had wandered out into strange lands, clothed those who had lost it all, even visited those who, having stumbled and fallen, ended up in prison.
It would be real easy to look at each of those suffering people and come up with a way to blame them for the state they landed in. I mean, clearly at least some of those who ended up in prison deserved it. And we know how drugs and other addictions often lead to destroyed families and individuals ending up homeless, wandering as strangers, hungry and alone. It would be real easy to judge them… But nowhere are we called to do that.
In fact, I would be willing to bet that the problem among many of the goats, the ones the King condemned for not having had compassion, was precisely that they gave in – even if unconsciously – to that temptation to judge. It is so easy to do… “Look at the mess they made of their lives. Well, I didn’t. I worked hard. I took care of what I had to take care of; I acted responsibly with my life… why should they benefit from my hard-earned money? Why should they infringe on my well-deserved comfort?”
Speakable and unspeakable
By and large, Jesus showed Love and Compassion. But we cannot deny that on many occasions He also spoke as The Judge, especially when His adversaries’ folly threatened to carry the innocent away in their error. Thus, when His enemies were claiming that the miracles He was performing were really tricks of the devil, He said:
Matthew 12:32-34 … whosoever shall have spoken a word against the Son of man, it shall be forgiven him; but whosoever shall speak against the Holy Spirit, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this age nor in the coming [one]. Either make the tree good, and its fruit good; or make the tree corrupt, and its fruit corrupt. For from the fruit the tree is known. Offspring of vipers! how can ye speak good things, being wicked? For of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.
And when talking about people who would lead the innocent astray, He likewise had harsh words:
Luke 17:1-2 And he said to his disciples, It cannot be but that offences come, but woe [to him] by whom they come! It would be [more] profitable for him if a millstone were hanged about his neck and he cast into the sea, than that he should be a snare to one of these little ones.
Harsh words? Yes. But He had every right to speak them because
He was both the Lamb of the Sacrifice that would die for those very people and He was also the Judge.
We are neither.
Jesus could speak those words; but those words don’t belong on our lips. On His lips, that Judgment was True but on our lips such words, used as threats, are blasphemy because when we utter them, we are claiming that we have the right to utter them. We are taking upon ourselves the mantle of The Judge.
This is why, immediately after the verses above, where He talked about sins against God, Jesus tells His disciples how they are to deal with the sins that they can deal with, sins against their own persons:
Luke 17:3-5 Take heed to yourselves: if thy brother should sin, rebuke him; and if he should repent, forgive him. And if he should sin against thee seven times in the day, and seven times should return to thee, saying, I repent, thou shalt forgive him.
And the apostles said to the Lord, Give more faith to us.
How are we called to defend the Faith?
Jesus told us when He told the disciples, as He sent them out:
Matthew 10:16 (NIV) “I am sending you out like sheep among wolves. Therefore, be as shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves.”
Or as another translation says: subtle as serpents, gentle as doves. You see, a serpent is among animals at a disadvantage: It has no legs. It cannot run; hardly pounce on its prey from any distance. So, it has to be subtle: It has to use strategy, camouflage itself, bide its time, think, until the opportunity is right. And doves, well, doves are gentle. They threaten no one.
I think this is how Nicodemus lived, making every move for the Kingdom part of a careful plan. Think about this: When Friday evening was approaching, and Jesus’ body was still on the cross someone had to have the guts to approach Pilate and ask for His body…
John 19:38-42 And after these things Joseph of Arimathaea, who was a disciple of Jesus, but secretly through fear of the Jews, demanded of Pilate that he might take the body of Jesus: and Pilate allowed it. He came therefore and took away the body of Jesus. And Nicodemus also, who at first came to Jesus by night, came, bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about a hundred pounds [weight].
They took therefore the body of Jesus and bound it up in linen with the spices, as it is the custom with the Jews to prepare for burial. But there was in the place where he had been crucified a garden, and in the garden a new tomb in which no one had ever been laid. There therefore, on account of the preparation of the Jews, because the tomb was near, they laid Jesus.
Someone level-headed planned all this, even to the making of connections with powerful Roman rulers.
