Some
of us familiar with faith, comfortable in the pew of our choice, are more like
Nicodemus than we care to admit. Not ready to come out of the church closet
where we wonder if our concrete answers rest on shaky ground we do our seeking at
night, so to speak, so as not to be exposed as doubters. But the same Spirit
that drove Nicodemus to risk his standing in the Sanhedrin drives us. There is
something more to Jesus than our catechisms can contain or explain. So in the
same way that the teacher of Israel seeks out the peasant preacher at night to
ask the question most on his mind, “who are you?” we come with our own
questions. Jesus, who is not one to give an easy answer, is surprisingly
straight forward. “God so loved the world…” is all one needs to know. That is the
same world (cosmos) that loving the darkness “knew him not”. The same world
that John tells us hated Jesus, the world in which one will have troubles, the
world from which disciples will need to be protected, etc. etc. The feel good
John 3:16 on coffee cups and t-shirts and banners in the end zone cannot be
fully appreciated without recognizing that the world God loves is hell bent on destruction and not interested in anything God has to offer. It is for that reason that God allowed the
world to do its worst so that in his dying the world might receive life whether
it wants it or not. But isn't there a choice to make? Of course there is and
God was the one who made it. We live God’s choice when loving God we love the
world. It takes some time but eventually the love of God in Nicodemus sees the
light of day and he risks everything to ask Pilate for the body of the
crucified Christ. What he didn't know then, but of course knows now, is that
Jesus (God saves) made Nicodemus (the people’s victory) possible.
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