Nicodemus
Based Nicodemus encounters with Jesus in John 3, 7 & 19
This is a first person narrative. Feel free to get into costume. I simply came out in jeans, sweatshirt and baseball cap because I didn’t want to be recognized.
Read this first – The Pharisee, Nicodemus, is mentioned three times in the gospel of John. All three of those are incorporated in the message you are about to hear. Some creative liberties of Nicodemus’s exposure to Jesus have also been taken from all four gospel accounts of Jesus’ ministry. Mary’s story is taken from John 20 but her encounter with Nicodemus was a creative liberty taken by the author of this message. Now listen closely to Nicodemus as he shares his encounters with Jesus of Nazareth.
Are they all gone? Is it safe for me to come out? Maybe I don’t care anymore. I’m not really sure what I believe anymore. I think all of the other Pharisees are gone so it is safe for me to come out.
Why so secretive you ask. Things are really messed up right now. It is a very tense time here in Jerusalem. This should have been a time of celebration during the Passover but instead it has been crazy and it all centers around Jesus of Nazareth. Who would have thought that a son of a carpenter could cause such a stir?
Oh, wait a minute. How rude of me to not introduce myself. My name is Nicodemus. I am what is referred to as a Pharisee. I have studied the scriptures all my life. I have memorized them and meditated upon them. I have learned all of the laws and have kept them all, all six hundred and thirty one laws. Well, so I am not perfect in keeping all of these because there are so many of them, I do my best to keep all of them. I teach all of the people about the importance of keeping all of these laws.
As a Pharisee they are always watching me. Do you know what it is like to have your every move scrutinized? I mean really who in the world can be expected to keep all of these laws. I sometimes wonder what God was thinking with all of these laws. There were times when I was younger and I was studying under the Rabbis I would question some of these laws. I would ask, “Is this really what you think God meant in this law? Don’t you think we have taken things a little bit too far? I mean really who is expected to count the amount of steps we can take on the Sabbath?
I was reprimanded by my teachers to not question the Law of Moses and the teaching scriptures. I think they might have kicked me out if not for my family. I came from a pretty wealthy family. I studied hard too. I had a knack for memorizing the Torah. The words were so beautifully penned by Moses. All of the scriptures were so full of teachings and promises.
My people are followers of Yahweh. We kind of have a checkered past of not always following him very well. At times my people have turned away from God and we have faced his wrath. God has always delivered us though. We have come back to him and he delivers us. He sent judges, prophets and kings but we could never seem to get things quite right.
My people have been crying out to God for their own nation again. We want to be the strong Jewish nation of Israel again. Then we can throw out all of these Romans and their pagan gods. We can become pure again and worship our God in peace.
We have been crying out to God for over four hundred years for this deliverance. It is promised to us in the scriptures. The prophet, Isaiah says, “A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse, from his roots a Branch will bear fruit. In that day the Root of Jesse will stand as a banner for the people; the nations will rally to him, and his place of rest will be glorious. In that day the Lord will reach out his hand a second time to reclaim the remnant that is left of his people. (Isaiah 11:1 & 10-11a)
That is where we are. We are waiting. Although, I had begun to wonder if our period of waiting was finally over. There was a man by the name of Jesus who had been causing quite a stir amongst the people. Many had begun to claim that he was the long promised Messiah.
I guess it all started about three years ago with John the Baptizer. That guy was crazy, living the in the wilderness and all, but he could really preach. He talked a lot about the coming kingdom and to ready yourself for it.
As the religious leaders we went to check on this guy. I must admit that I was quite intrigued by his teaching. He was so passionate about his message. He was getting quite a following. People were coming out and listening to his message. He would tell them to repent and be baptized. The day that I was out there listening to him was the first time I saw Jesus.
Now, at the time I didn’t know who Jesus was. We would become much acquainted with Jesus in the coming years however. I even discovered that the two of them were related somehow. When Jesus approached John to be baptized they seem to know each other. John didn’t seem to know what to do with Jesus. I thought I even heard him say that Jesus should be the one baptizing him. Jesus said something back and John went ahead and baptized him. There was something different when Jesus was baptized. It was a serial moment. It was almost as if the heavens opened for a moment. I couldn’t place my finger on it at the time; it was one of those goose bumps moments.
Well like I said I didn’t really know who Jesus was but we, I became much acquainted with him and his ministry. It was an interesting one to say the least. He didn’t much care for us Pharisees. Jesus was such a mystery to me. You see I studied for years under the Rabbis. I spent hours and hours a day memorizing the scriptures but Jesus, he seemed to know them better than me. I knew of no Rabbi who had spent time teaching Jesus.
Not only could Jesus quote the scriptures but he seemed to understand them. He spoke with authority. At times it made me begin to question if I truly understood them correctly. I mean you should have seen the confidence this guy spoke with. He was passionate, commanding and tender all in the same.
The problem was that Jesus was a rule breaker. He made a lot of waves. I sometimes wish he could have just followed all the rules. He hung out with such filth. This guy ate with all the commoners and even worse. He hung out with tax collectors and it was said that he socialized with prostitutes and even a Samaritan women. You just didn’t do that.
His disciples gathered some grain to eat on the Sabbath. He healed people on the Sabbath. These things just infuriated my fellow Pharisees. They would go out and listen to Jesus teach and look for times to trap him. They would question him and Jesus would always shut them up. I would have just quit asking because they usually walked away frustrated and looking a little silly.
I became came quite conflicted when I would listen to Jesus teach. Like I said there was something so different about him. I had never witnessed someone do a miracle. I heard all about them. Jesus was restoring sight to those who were blind, casting out demons, healing the lepers and much more.
(Luke 5)In particular there was a time when Jesus was teaching to a house full of people. A group of us Pharisees were there that night. These guys brought their friend who was paralyzed to Jesus. The problem was they were a little late to the party. They couldn’t get to Jesus so they took this guy on the roof and tore a hole it in and then dropped him in front of Jesus on this matt. Now, those are some devoted friends.
Jesus looked at this guy and said, “Your sins are forgiven.” It got real quiet in there after that for only God has the power to forgive. This was blasphemy! And then he looked straight our way as if he knew what we were thinking and said, “Why are you thinking these things in your hearts? Which is easier to say, your sins are forgiven or to say, “Get up and walk?? But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins.” And then he turned back to the man and said, “Get up, take your matt and go home.” And he did!
I was stunned. I didn’t know what to do with it and it was then that I knew I needed to speak to this teacher, Jesus.
I went to him one night when no one would know because I had to speak with him. He had to be from God because no one could do what he was doing without being from God. When I questioned him he said that no one could see the kingdom of God unless he was born again. I didn’t get it. How can one be born again. We are only born once in this life, I could never enter into my mother’s womb again. He talked of being born of water and the Spirit. I must admit that it was all very confusing to me.
He seemed frustrated with me that as a teacher that I didn’t understand the very scriptures that I studied and that I didn’t understand what was happening right before me. It was what he said next that hooked me,
“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stand condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son. This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what he has done has been done through God.”
I was ashamed that I had used the dark of night to come to talk to Jesus but I was afraid of what the others might say. They were convinced that Jesus was a fraud. He was causing so much controversy. He was standing up to us Pharisees and we didn’t have an answer for him. The Pharisees wanted him arrested and imprisoned. I even spoke up once saying that our own laws didn’t condemn anyone without first hearing from them. I thought if they could hear him speak like I had heard that maybe they would begin to change their minds about him like I had begun to.
As I continued to follow Jesus, sometimes as a Pharisee, sometimes disguised as a commoner I became convinced that this man was not just a man. He truly was sent by God. He talked about love like I had never heard it before. He referred to himself as the Son of Man, the Bread of Life, the Light of the World, the Good Shepherd.
Just last week he came into the city. It was quite an event. I had heard that Jesus had raised a family friend to life. I mean this guy, Lazarus, was dead. Like in the tomb dead for a couple of days and when Jesus got there he called him out. Well, you can imagine the people that started to jump on board with Jesus now. The promised Messiah.
Then he came into Jerusalem riding on a donkey. People were waving palm branches and putting their cloaks out in front of him. It was a procession fit for a king. The people around him were shouting, “Hosanna, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, Hosanna!” I was screaming it on the inside but because I was there with the other Pharisees I didn’t dare to join in. Some of the Pharisees asked Jesus to quiet down his disciples. I think they were afraid that Rome would come and put down this uprising. Mostly though I think they were jealous of Jesus. He told them that if the people didn’t praise him that the very rocks would cry out. I could tell the others had seen enough. They wanted Jesus dealt with once and for all.
Somehow, they got one of Jesus’ disciples to give him up. They only had to pay Judas, thirty pieces of silver. They arrested him and brought him in. They were determined to end things. There were people in the crowd testifying falsely about Jesus and he just stood there and said nothing. One of the chief priests finally said to him, “Are you the Christ, the Son of God?” Jesus responded with, “Yes, it is as you say.” Pandemonium ensued. Blasphemer! They slapped him and spit on Jesus. That was all they needed and they tore their robes and off to Pilate they went.
The rest is kind of a blur. Jesus stood trial and Pilate couldn’t really find anything that Jesus was guilty of but the chief priests were persistent and in the end very persuasive. Pilate finally asked the crowd which they would rather see crucified, Jesus or the notorious criminal, Barabbas. I think Pilate was as surprised as I was when they wanted Barabbas released. At this point Pilate had no choice. He then asked, “What should I do with Jesus of Nazareth then?” The chief priest beside me held up his staff and yelled, “Crucify him! Soon others began to join him. I think Pilate was afraid they would riot so he granted their request.
I don’t know how well you know the Romans. As much as we hated them they were very good at many things. One of the things they were good at was torture. They took Jesus away and beat him mercilessly. I hardly recognized him the next time I was him. His flesh had been torn open. His face as hardly recognizable from the swelling and beating he had taken. They had made a crown of thorns and had smashed it down on his head.
If that wasn’t bad enough they made him carry his own cross up to Golgotha. He was so weak that they ended up grabbing some guy out of the crowd to finish carrying it.
Next to some ordinary criminals they crucified him. I could tell that Jesus was in a lot of pain. His face though was different than the others. He seemed to be carrying the weight of the world. He cried out in pain, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me.”
I just stared because I didn’t know what else to do. I felt so empty. They he looked at us and said something I will never forget. He looked at us not with anger but with compassion and said, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.”
The skies grew dark. When you are crucified it is hard to breath and you often die of asfixiation. Jesus’ breathing was becoming much more labored and Jesus lifted himself one last time in agony to get a breath and said, “It is finished”. It was done, he was dead.
I left in tears. I was sure that he was the one and yet I stood by and did nothing for him. I condemned him to die and he forgave me. He loved me and I so did not deserve his love. I was the sinner, the guilty one. I deserved to be up on the cross more than Jesus did.
I came back with 100 lbs. of spices for his burial. This was way more than necessary but I felt like it was the least I could do. One of the guards that helped up take his body off the cross even said to me, “Surely this was the Son of God.”
Joseph of Arimathea, another member of the council, and I prepared his body and placed it in the tomb and Pilate had the tomb sealed with a large stone and put a guard detail there just to make sure nobody messed with anything.
That was three days ago and now I’m left with this empty feeling, not sure how to move forward. I don’t think I can go back again to my life as a Pharisee and yet if Jesus was truly the Messiah he wouldn’t be dead, so maybe he isn’t who I thought he was?
Enter Mary Magdalene: Nicodemus. He’s alive! I’ve seen him!
Nicodemus: Mary, what are you talking about?
Mary: Some of us went to the tomb to anoint Jesus’ body. We found it odd that when we got there the soldiers were gone and the stone was rolled back. We went in to investigate and he was gone. A man dressed in a white robe appeared to us and said, don’t be alarmed, you are looking for Jesus the Nazarene who was crucified. He has risen! He is not here! We were so scared that we ran. I was in the garden crying because I was sure they had taken him somewhere when Jesus appeared to me. I thought at first he was the gardener but when he said my name, “Mary” I knew it was him. We have told the disciples and he has appeared to them as well. Don’t you see Nicodemus? He conquered death and hell and the grave for us. Believe Nicodemus, believe!” Mary exits.
Nicodemus: He’s alive. He died for me. I think I begin to understand. It’s not about the rules, it’s about his love. He loved me so very much that he died for me, a sinner. He took my sins with him to the cross if I just confess and believe in Jesus. Am I crazy? Do you believe? Is he your Lord?
He’s alive, He’s alive! HE’S ALIVE!!! HALELUJAH HE’S ALIVE!
Briefly explain how Jesus conquered all and issue an invitation to receive Christ.
