“Don't Hide in the Shadows”
Sermon Preached by
The Rev. Dr. Andrew Stirling
Sunday, March 20, 2011
Text: John 3:1-15
The alarm went off at six in the morning and for a university student that is exceedingly early. It was dark outside, March, the beginning of autumn in the southern hemisphere, and when the alarm went off I knew as I awoke that the day ahead would be one filled with uncertainty and probably challenges but a day I had to embark upon. So, under the cover of darkness I, and a number of friends gathered in the quadrangle of the university and placed banners on the walls and pillars before the security guards did their rounds, before even the milk trucks went around delivering milk to the houses nearby, we put up banners saying what we needed to say. On the banners were three words: Release Nelson Mandela. It was the March of 1980. As the day progressed a number of students and faculty gathered in that courtyard around 11 a.m. in the hope that someone would actually notice our request. We were hoping for a groundswell of support and encouragement. On the other hand, I remember that day so well because I really didn't want to be recognized. I wore a hat that was so large it covered almost my entire face. I had sunglasses as were very popular in those days that were almost twice the size of my face. I sat in the shadows under the portico and hoped that no one knew that I was one who placed the banner in that courtyard. I wanted to remain incognito.
I was able to do that quite successfully until the professor of the Greek course at the divinity school where I was studying realized my absence from his course and decided that he was going to dock me major points for not having attended his class. “How could you fetter away your life and a day like this on something as unimportant as asking for the release of a political prisoner?” Some divinity school, I thought. Nevertheless it was a day I remember. It was not particularly successful. It ended, in many ways in tears. The next day the banners came down. It was as if nothing had happened and hardly anyone knew I was part of it.
I don't know if you've had similar days to that. I don't necessarily mean demonstrations and major statements of political purpose but those moments in your life when you would just rather hide incognito at certain events. You know when you go to a political fundraiser for someone that you actually admire as a politician but realize that most of your friends and family vote for another party and you'd rather not be seen there. Or, you belong to a fraternity or organization that has some peculiar rituals and you hope that even though you find meaning in them no one would see you participating in them. Or, that you happen, God forbid to be in the company of someone of ill repute and you'd simply rather not be seen in their presence. Whatever it might be, it could be anything, attending something, being with someone but not wanting to be recognized. If you feel that way or have ever felt that way then you are like Nicodemus in today's passage, who came to Jesus, according to the Gospel of John, at night under darkness. Or, maybe, you have an exam to write and you get up in the morning and pack your knapsack only to realize that you haven't read one single book from the curriculum. You head off to the exam site and sit down at the desk and it appears that the grim reaper is standing over your right shoulder. You look at the exam and it's like hieroglyphics, you don't even understand the questions, let alone the answers. Your heart begins to race and perspiration is pouring down, then… you wake up. Have any of you had a dream like that? I am 52 years old and I still have that dream after all these years. That feeling of having to write an exam and knowing absolutely nothing.
In my case it was probably not fiction, nevertheless that fear that you don't know anything and that you are ill prepared. If you have ever felt like that than you feel like Nicodemus, who came to Jesus at night, who was incognito, had night sweats, was uncertain. This character, Nicodemus, only appears in one of the gospels: the gospel of John but it's a major encounter. It is actually the first encounter between Jesus and one of the religious leaders, the first face to face meeting with one of the great religious leaders. Now when they met some things had already happened: Jesus had already in Cana turned the water into wine at the wedding. He had already been proclaimed as the bringer of the kingdom of God by John the Baptist and Jesus, according to the chronology of John, had already turned the money changers out of the temple and accused them of making the house of the Lord into a place of materialism. A lot had happened and by the time that Nicodemus gets there was a lot going on.
Nicodemus, we're told, was a member of the Sanhedrin, the upper court, the religious establishment, a Pharisee. He would be a good man, a clever man, but most of all, he would be a faithful man. Like a number of Jews who came to know and follow and respect Jesus throughout his life and throughout the New Testament, Nicodemus was one who earnestly wanted to know more about Jesus. It is often said that it was only the religious leaders who rejected Jesus. And yet there were religious leaders who were quite open to Jesus: Simeon, Gamaliel, Nicodemus, the apostle Paul later on, all of whom came to an appreciation and an understanding of Jesus. Nevertheless this singular character, this Nicodemus stands out, for he came to see Jesus at night.
There was a lot of buzz about Jesus and some had already made up their minds about him. They'd discounted him, probably as an apostate, an idolater, as someone who was a poseur. They'd made up their minds quickly about Jesus and rejected him. Not Nicodemus. His was an enquiring mind, he wanted to know more. Was this Jesus in fact doing God's will or was he an apostate? Was he someone who's miracles and signs were a symbol of Yahweh doing great things or was it merely a mirage. Was Jesus the Messiah that Israel had long waited for or was he a fraud? Nicodemus wanted to know. Not like the prejudice ones, not like the ones who had discounted Jesus as having no meaning whatsoever, Nicodemus wanted to know.
John tells us that he came to Jesus at night. He came to Jesus in the shadows. Why? I think because in many ways Nicodemus was unsure. As a religious leader he did not want to be seen in the company of a charlatan. He did not want to be seen rubbing shoulders with someone who was an idolater. The last thing Nicodemus needed for his career was to be seen with this Jesus if Jesus wasn't legitimate. Yet, Nicodemus saw in Jesus and had been led by the spirit to see in Jesus, something special. He thought that you can't be doing these great things if God were not with you, if you had not come from God. Nicodemus was searching.
I love what Martin Luther says about Nicodemus: “With responsibility comes caution.” The more powerful, the more prestigious, sometimes the more intelligent you are the more cautious you are. Nicodemus was a well trained man. He was educated in the Torah. He was knowledgeable of the things of God so he had this caution as he approached Jesus. I thought about that because I think Luther is correct. I think there is a reserve and a caution in Nicodemus that is understandable.
A couple of years ago I was on a flight to Nova Scotia to take a course at Acadia and as I was moved into business class and I found myself sitting there with a hot towel next to a politician. Every one would recognize him. If I told you who he was you would all know his name. He sat next to me and we began to talk. He actually knew who I was, which was amazing, and I certainly knew who he was. We talked about many things over two-and-a-half hours. I actually discovered that he was going to Acadia too, to deliver a lecture and a public speech. He was a member of the opposition, a fascinating and interesting man and we had much to talk about. Then it dawned on me, Oh my goodness, I remember a few years ago a minister of the crown had been on a flight from Moncton to St. John's and had been overheard talking about important matters to a member of the press and actually lost their place on the cabinet. I thought to myself, “Good gracious me, what is it that I perhaps know, having talked to this Member of Parliament that I shouldn't know or divulge. ” I contacted someone who knows about government protocol and he said, “Oh, Andrew, don't worry about it. He's a member of the opposition, he doesn't know anything. But a member of the cabinet is a member in this case of the Privy Council, they know everything. They have all the responsibility. Don't worry about an ordinary MP, they don't matter.”
That helped me relax a little bit, although I must say that I felt I was with someone more important than my friend had suggested. I realize that there was a difference and that was the one who was a member of cabinet is party to such internal knowledge, such special things, that they cannot in any way express or articulate them. Those who have less responsibility are freer to be able to speak openly and share their ideas. I think Nicodemus was like the cabinet minister. He was like a member of the Jerusalem Privy Council. He was the one who had a great deal of knowledge and therefore to approach Jesus he would have to do so with caution.
This has been interpreted in two ways. John Calvin says that Nicodemus was guilty of excessive timidity, that he was frightened for his own reputation and came to Jesus at night for fear others would see him showing that he was weak. Oliver Wendell Holmes however takes the opposite opinion. He says Nicodemus is “the right kind of man.” He's thoughtful, he's reasoned, he's questioning, he's seeking. But he doesn't want to reveal his hand until he knows the fact. But Calvin and Oliver Wendell Holmes are both right, Nicodemus was both, he was both timid and frightened. Understandably, but nevertheless, wanting to be incognito. On the other hand, he came seeking, he wanted to know for himself, is this Jesus, the Messiah that our nation has been waiting for?
However, Nicodemus could not stay in the shadows forever. There was a moment when he had to come into the light and come into the light he did. In Matthew's gospel, Jesus said, “Blessed are the pure of heart for they shall see God.” In many ways, Nicodemus was someone who eventually saw what God was doing in Jesus. Jesus had taken seriously Nicodemus seeking, he responded to it, for Jesus there was no question that the Holy Spirit had sent Nicodemus to him. He's quite clear about this, he says to Nicodemus, “No one knows where the wind blows, Nicodemus, but you must be born again.” We don't hear anything more about Nicodemus after Jesus had this discourse with him. It seems as if he just falls off the face of the earth. We don't know how he responded to Jesus until later.
There came a moment in John, Chapter Seven, where Jesus was being persecuted and called into question and at that very moment Nicodemus stands up for Jesus. He says, “If this man is from God then let us hear what he has to say.” Nicodemus came to Jesus' aid. And in one of the most touching stories in the New Testament when Jesus is about to be buried in the tomb of Joseph of Arimathea Nicodemus, we're told, is the one who put the myrrh and the spices in the grave. It was he, who was there, when Jesus died.
Even there, at the end of John's gospel, John still writes, “Nicodemus, the one who had previously come to Jesus at night.” In other words, what he was trying to show was that Nicodemus had been changed, transformed. Even though he had come at night, even though he had come incognito, eventually he was able to see the power and the presence of God at work. In his seeking, in his desire to know, in his wanting to find out more about Jesus God honoured his seeking. I think there are many of us who are like Nicodemus, who approach Jesus from the shadows, who would rather not be identified too closely with him but would rather do so from a distance. There comes a point where you have to be willing to step into the light like Nicodemus did.
It is amazing how the spirit can lead us in that direction. There is a marvellous story told of the great St. Augustine, who, at 16 in 371, decided to leave home and go on a boat to Rome. When he embarked on this boat, his mother, Monica was deeply grieved. Monica was a Christian and she wanted her son, Augustine to be a Christian and she felt if he went to Rome she would lose him once and for all. She was heartbroken. But in his Confessions Augustine wrote that his mother's prayers were answered but not in accordance with what she thought. Augustine wrote:
And what did she beg of you, my Lord, with all of those tears, if not that you would prevent me from sailing? But you did not do as she asked you. Instead, in the depth of your wisdom you granted the wish that was closest to her heart. She saw that you had granted her far more than she used to ask in her tearful prayers. You converted me to yourself so that I no longer placed any hope in this world but stood firmly upon the rule of faith. And you turned her sadness into rejoicing, to joy fair fuller than her dearest wish, far sweeter and more chaste than anything she had hoped to find.
You see, when Augustine went to Rome he met his Lord, he was converted. The spirit was at work in Augustine's life. It seemed that he was wandering into a dark place when, in fact, he was on a search for something and by the spirit's prompting found Christ and returned home to Carthage, home to North Africa, as the great Christian that he was going to become. All through the power of the spirit, all through his own search and desire to know, all being led by the power of God.
That's what happened to Nicodemus. He went under the cloak of darkness but the Lord would not leave him in the dark. He drew him out into the light.
There is one final thing that strikes me about the Nicodemus story and it is something that I am sometimes at odds with fellow Christians and it is this: That while Nicodemus came to Jesus at night it was not overnight that he became a Christian. While Jesus said to him, “You must be born again.” We have no account in the gospel of Nicodemus having a moment of great revelation of the spirit pouring into him. I'm sure it did, I'm sure there was such a moment but it wasn't an immediate moment, it wasn't right there. Nicodemus had to grow into a realization of who Jesus was and is. It was something that took time. Therefore I think that the walk with God and the walk with Christ and the seeking of God and Christ is not something that we just do once, it is a life long pursuit, it is one of seeking to allow the spirit to reveal the will and the purpose and the nature of Jesus. We need patience to do it.
I was very influenced in this regard a couple of summers ago, and I've mentioned before that I met with Thomas Hallock, the Czech writer. He really believes there is a need for patience and as he sees his own nation that had grown in the stronghold of Communism and is now trying to reintroduce Jesus to a new group of seekers, a new generation, he says that there needs to be patience and writes the following great definition of faith: “Faith is not something we do, faith is reliance. In our faith we ought not to take ourselves too seriously or the degree of our knowledge and forms of our conviction. Instead we ought to take the Lord very seriously, even in religious seeking it is possible for people to go fatefully astray if their so absorbed with their own seeking that they ignore the crucial fact that God is already seeking them.”
Nicodemus was already being sought by God when he me with Jesus under cover but Nicodemus had a lifetime walk with Christ from the moment he encountered him to the moment he lovingly, faithfully placed the myrrh and the spices in the tomb of the crucified Lord. Nicodemus had come out of the shadows into the light.
That's one of the things that gave me hope. In March of 1980 it seemed that our banners on those walls were futile and I felt foolish. On February 11, 1990 when Nelson Mandela was released from Robben Island I felt it had been worth it. Believe you me, if you will take the time to earnestly seek Jesus, he will make it worth it and draw you from the shadows into the light. Amen.And what did