Jesus spoke with him in the middle of the night. Jesus joined Nicodemus in the darkness, providing some understanding and some light. Jesus loves Nicodemus enough to join him in the darkness. Jesus loves the whole world that much.
I think about this often, how Jesus went ahead and joined Nicodemus in the darkness. It seems obvious to me that Nicodemus chose to come to Jesus at night because he did not want to be noticed. He did not want to be seen associating with Jesus. Who knows what might have happened to Nicodemus had he been seen associating with such a man: loss of standing in the world; loss of notoriety; loss of privilege. Jesus knew this of course. Jesus knew of Nicodemus’ shame. Yet, Jesus still chose to meet him and engage Nicodemus in conversation; revealing the mysteries of God and revealing the heart of God to him.
Think about this: Jesus could have chastised Nicodemus. He could have called him weak of faith. He could have refused to meet with him all together. He could have condemned Nicodemus, sent him away, and banished him for dwelling in the darkness.
After-all, Jesus is the light of God. Jesus did not need to dwell in the middle of the night with dark figures who prefer to hide. But, if Jesus never entered into the darkness, never entered into our darkness, how would any of us in this dark world be saved? How would the Nicodemuses of the world come to know anything about the heart of God? Jesus “did not come into the world in order to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him” (John 3:17).
Do we get that? Do we truly understand that? Do we get that Jesus does not look upon our neighbors with distain; “Tisk, tisk, tisk,” dripping from his lips? Do we get that he does not look at the shady dealings of the house next door and use his cosmic powers to make the people within disappear? Do we get that he sat down with prostitutes, and ate with tax collectors, and healed sinful people, and had conversations with women with whom no one else was willing to speak. “Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him” (John 3:17).
Do we get that Jesus chose to sit with people in dark places so that they might be saved? I am not sure that I always do. If the thoughts of my mind had the ability to eliminate the people who I deem as “unworthy” on a daily basis, this town would have a pretty sparse population. Not only that, I wonder just how much time I have wasted, condemning people rather than…oh, I don’t know…connecting with them and connecting them to the one who can lift them out of the darkness, Jesus Christ our Lord? “Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him” (John 3:17).
That makes me think of the quote from the late David Huskins, “If God didn’t send Jesus into the world to condemn it, I doubt he sent you.”
That seems a little too true for comfort.
“If
God didn’t send Jesus into the world to condemn it, I doubt he sent you.” What is striking about these words is that
they came from the mouth of a minister who experienced some of that
condemnation himself. The pastor
struggled to care for himself properly for years. He soaked in all of the criticisms of others
which affected his health and his life.
In the end took his own life. He
struggled with the darkness of his life and hoped beyond hope that the words of
scripture are true, that Jesus meets when us in dark places. He hoped beyond hope that we are not
condemned, no matter how dark the place in which we find ourselves. “Indeed, God did not send the Son into the
world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through
him” (John 3:17).
Jesus meets us in our dark places and like Nicodemus, we are offered a glimmer of light, we are offered something new. Jesus offers us a different vision. He offers us a different life. He offers us a reality that is not the darkness of this world, but is the light of God. Jesus reveals that we will get to see the kingdom of God when we are born again, or as our bibles say, “born from above” (John 3:3).
It is almost as if Jesus wants us to experience a complete change in how we see things. It is as if we are so used to the way that things work down here in this world that we have to die and clear away everything we know so that we can be born again with a clear mind in order to see things the way that God sees them.
In fact, Jesus says that in order to live in the kingdom of God we need to be born of “water and the Spirit.” That water of the Lord needs to drown out the old, like your own personal flood of the soul, and then the Spirit of God gets to blow new life into you once again. It is a second birth that allows you to see and to enter into the kingdom of God. Only then will you see things the way that God sees them.
But, this is not just about you. God can renew any one of us at any time that God chooses. “The wind blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit” (John 3:8).
God can renew even the most unlikely of us. Remember how Moses, the murderer of that slave driver, was transformed into one of the greatest prophets? Remember how Peter was transformed from a Jesus denier into a brave preacher? Remember how Saul was transformed from a persecutor of Christians into one of the most prolific evangelizers of the faith? The Spirit blew into them all, giving them vision from above, making them servants of God. Remember how the Spirit blew into you, transforming your weakest moments in life into one of your greatest strengths? God can renew even the most unlikely of us, and God does.
One of the best trauma therapists that I know was brutally traumatized herself. I will not get into the details; you can certainly imagine the worst. The dark world in which she lived as a child transformed her into a destructive teenager. Her mind was consumed by the need to get back at the world. The world was cruel, she thought. The world was evil, she thought. The world needed to be destroyed, she thought. And, work to destroy it she did. One night she set fire to her neighbor’s garbage can, and the siding on her neighbor’s back porch caught fire as well. The old woman saw the fire in the back of her house and quickly put it out with her garden hose.
In an inexplicable act of compassion, rather than pressing charges, the neighbor invited the girl help her put up new siding on her back porch. Each morning started out with milk and cookies, and then the work would begin. While they worked, the old woman asked the teen about her life. She listened to the teen’s pain. She hugged her when she revealed the worst over cookies and milk. She was there for the teen’s high school graduation. And the old woman was there when the newly educated therapist graduated from college.
It was almost as if the old woman had been born from above. It was almost as if the old woman knew a couple of holy truths, that God loves “the world,” even the dark parts of the world, and that Jesus has no intention of “condemning” the world. Rather Jesus desires to save it. The old woman herself had once been born out of the cleansing waters of God and filled with the breath of the Holy Spirit. Because she had been born from above and understood God’s vision for the world, the therapist was also given a chance to be born anew.
The therapist now lives a new life, so different than the dark one she had inhabited before as a youth. Now, she looks upon the world with love, not hate. Now, she sees the darkness within people as something that needs to be healed, not condemned. Now, she looks to Jesus to provide that healing and eternal life, just as the Israelites looked to the snake for healing and forgiveness in the wilderness. She trusts in Jesus, who refuses to condemn, because his life and death is all about salvation. She looks upon the world with love, because Jesus looked upon her with love and sent her neighbor at the right time. She refuses to condemn, because that is not what seeing with the eyes of Jesus and living in his kingdom is actually about. The Spirit continues to breathe new life into her through the words of scripture that she memorized soon after having her life turned around by Jesus.
“For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life” (John 3:16).
She also memorized this phrase, because she thought it was just as important as the first:
“Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him” (John 3:17).
Jesus spoke to her in the middle of the night, in the middle of her darkness, and she had been saved.
Jesus breathes new life into you also. Jesus is there in your darkness also. Allow your darkness to be drowned, and be ready for all that the Spirit has in store as Jesus fills you with new breath and new life.
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