Lent 4 B Nicodemus

Today in the Gospel we see Nicodemus, a Pharisee, a member of the Sanhedrin of Jerusalem, the upper class of the political elite, a teacher of Israel, an intellectual, an educated man, a ruler of the Jews. He was a lover of truth, searching for what is right, humble, and, unlike others, he acknowledged that Jesus performed miracles, therefore God was with him. We too should be like him trying to find the truth in our lives, knowing that Jesus is the Way. It is so easy in our society to be biased, to spread half truths, to foster misinformation, to cloud the net with false news. Nevertheless the truth always wins, always comes out, eventually it manages to find the light. That is why we should fight for what is right and acknowledge that we don’t have all the answers.

Nicodemus went to see Jesus by night for fear of the Jews. He spent the whole night with Jesus. We too would like to spend hours with Jesus, talking to him, but we don’t need to go at night. We can go any time we want; he is waiting for us 24/7. We too have human concerns and we are worry what people will think about us. We forget that all of us are going to die and we are going to face God. A man who recovered from an almost certain death, commented: “Before I had human respect. Now I have lost it. Now I talk about God to everyone. I saw judgment so close that I am not ashamed of anything.” Let us get rid of the silly fear of spreading the good news to other people.

Saint John in his Gospel only gives us a summary of that long conversation. We would like to know more, but the Gospels can only give us a few ideas. The main one is the declaration of God’s love for us: “God so loved the world that he gave us his only Son.” We have heard many times that God is love, but it is not easy to live it, or experienced it personally. God not only gave us his most precious treasure, but he let him be with us in the Eucharist. The deeper we go in our spiritual life, the more we experience God’s love. Somebody said that the devil knows our name but he calls us by our sins; God knows our sins but he calls us by our name. We are his children and for him we are like his only begotten Son, a unique child.

The second idea of that conversation is also very important: “As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.” Moses showed the serpent to the Jews to cure the ones who were bitten by the snakes God sent to punish their unbelief. God gave us his Son and all we did was to kill him. We lifted him up on to the cross, not to be healed of our physical ailments, but to have life eternal. Therefore we need to do the same, lifting him up to the pinnacle of our lives, making him our centre and summit, root and source.

After the crucifixion, when everybody had run away, Nicodemus was there, asking Pilate for the body of Jesus to bury him. He had the courage and the honour to be close to Jesus in his last moments. We too must follow Nicodemus to be with Jesus till the last moments of our lives.

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