God’s Minor Characters
Opening Prayer
Lord, we thank You for our journeys of faith and Your grace
working in our lives. Help us to recognize how much the pace of journey can vary between us.
Read John 7:45—8:1
45 Finally the temple guards went back to the chief priests and the Pharisees, who asked them, “Why didn’t you bring him in?”
46 “No one ever spoke the way this man does,” the guards replied.
47 “You mean he has deceived you also?” the Pharisees retorted. 48 “Have any of the rulers or of the Pharisees believed in him? 49 No! But this mob that knows nothing of the law—there is a curse on them.”
50 Nicodemus, who had gone to Jesus earlier and who was one of their own number, asked, 51 “Does our law condemn a man without first hearing him to find out what he has been doing?”
52 They replied, “Are you from Galilee, too? Look into it, and you will find that a prophet does not come out of Galilee.”
[The earliest manuscripts and many other ancient witnesses do not have John 7:53—8:11. A few manuscripts include these verses, wholly or in part, after John 7:36, John 21:25, Luke 21:38 or Luke 24:53.]
53 Then they all went home, 8 1 but Jesus went to the Mount of Olives.
New International Version (NIV)
Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Meditate
As the temple police admit that even they were too impressed by Jesus to arrest him, the pompous Pharisees retort that none of
them, nor the other leaders, have believed in Jesus; and they dismiss the crowd as an ignorant mob. Yet onto the stage steps someone who actually is a leader—“one of their own number” (50), Nicodemus.
Think Further
I wish that we knew more about Nicodemus. Only John records his
involvement with Jesus, and there are few additional details, though many stories were told about him later—there’s even an apocryphal Gospel of Nicodemus! His slim mention is highly thought-provoking, however. His first visit at night revealed genuine confusion as Jesus spoke about being “born again” (John 3). Perhaps he came at night because he was fearful of being seen by others, but it could owe to a desire for deeper conversation
without the distraction of crowds badgering Jesus for attention. Certainly, we remain forever grateful for Jesus’ interaction with Nicodemus, including the unforgettable 3:16.
Here Nicodemus shows courage in asking that Jesus be given a fair hearing (according to Jewish law), thereby incurring a mocking rebuke. His willingness to face such derision by his peers reveals some conviction, and in his final appearance with Joseph of Arimathea he brings a large amount of spices for Jesus’ burial (John 19:38–42). The disciples had run away, but not Nicodemus.
Several times in the gospels minor characters like Nicodemus remind us of how Jesus often operates on the scale of the individual. His cosmic claims have personal consequences. We marvel that Jesus never browbeats people into accepting him. Nicodemus is left with responsibility for his own faith-commitment. Perhaps, ultimately, he makes it. Grace grows slowly but deliberately. In our Christian belief system Jesus draws us to himself by his Father and the Spirit, yet he will never force himself upon us.
Apply
“Grace may grow slowly, as in the case of Nicodemus—but does it grow at all? Better move slowly than stand still in sin and the world” (J. C. Ryle, 1816–1900).
Closing prayer
Lord, help me to sidestep all the division that still lingers over You and to major on the paramount, namely, that You died for me personally.
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