March 5

Thursday, March 5

“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. The words of our Lord, the cornerstone of Christian faith, spoken not to the great masses but to a Pharisee named Nicodemus.  

Nicodemus appears three times in John’s Gospel. The first time, John 3:1-21, he comes at night intrigued by what he has seen and heard from this great teacher. He confesses that Jesus is sent from God. Jesus teaches about the foundation of salvation, baptism in the Spirit and accepting Christ as the Son of God. 

John’s next account of Nicodemus, 7:45-51, has him defending Jesus to the other Pharisees. The Pharisees wish to condemn Jesus in absentia; they feel that Jesus has been blasphemous. Nicodemus asks “Does our law judge a man without a hearing and learning what he does?” The other Pharisees turn on him quickly asking Nicodemus if he is also from Galilee and rebuke him with “no prophet is to rise from Galilee."

Finally, John tells of Nicodemus assisting Joseph of Arimathea in preparing our Lord following the Crucifixion, 19:39-42, bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes and preparing his body according to the Jewish customs of the day. They laid his body in the tomb, and that’s where our story starts.                                                                                                                                               

We hear this passage every week prior to the Peace; I know it is the foundation of our faith. Imagine hearing these words from Nicodemu's shoes. His journey was just beginning.