Attitudes and Perspective

Now there was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews; (John 3:1)

The Jews then said to Him, "What sign do You show us as your authority for doing these things?" (John 2:18)

It seems nearly unavoidable, according to these verses, that Nicodemus was somehow involved in some way with what had just taken place in Jesus' cleansing of the temple. In stating his credentials it also seems clear that John is linking him in some way with those events and the challenges of the Jews about the authority of Jesus.

If it was “the Jews” that confronted Jesus after the temple cleansing, then a prominent person who is listed both as a Pharisee and as a ruler of the Jews could hardly have been unaware or uninvolved in the enormous tension and controversy swirling around this social upheaval. It is even very possible that Nicodemus may have at least witnessed first hand that event though I would question whether he was directly involved in the confrontation as a protagonist. I say this because of the nature of the attitude displayed by Nicodemus in his conversation with Jesus.

As in all groups of people, there was most likely a wide spectrum of perspectives and opinions about how things should be done among the leadership of the Jews. Some were very technically oriented and were eager to find fault with anyone who might commit an infraction of the rules. Others were very dishonest in heart and were primarily looking for power and position in order to gain control over the lives of others. Many were compromised by the desire for material enrichment and thus felt very threatened by Jesus' actions in the temple, as were all who wanted social and political control over the common people.

But as always, there is a small group of people who are more observant and reserved who prefer to look for a bigger perspective and take more of a long-range approach to situations. These kinds of people tend to be much more mature than most others and want to find the underlying issues that are often obscured in delicate or explosive situations. They like to ponder what is really going on and find ways to resolve conflict through other means rather than direct confrontation. They often tend to try to take a more pragmatic approach to tensions and conflict and sometimes believe that compromise is the best way to move forward.

This is a description of what we today now recognize and label as diplomacy. Diplomats are highly skilled in the art of compromise and of looking at situations from very different perspectives than most other people. Diplomats tend to look for ways of bringing opposing sides together for dialogue and want to find common ground where others believe there is none. Diplomacy certainly has its virtues and benefits, but it also has some serious weaknesses that sometimes makes it incompatible with the principles of the kingdom of heaven. This is what Nicodemus suddenly ran into when he approached Jesus in the spirit of diplomacy.

There has been much discussion over the centuries about the motives and attitudes of Nicodemus. Some view him with suspicion and tend to think of Jesus' responses to his words as attacks designed to expose and embarrass Nicodemus. Others take a more benign view and believe that Nicodemus had good intentions but just needed some clarification. Still others might think of Nicodemus as something of a spy trying to entice Jesus into a compromise with the corrupt system of religion which he represented. I suppose there might be a little bit of truth in many of these opinions and we can't know for certain exactly what was going on fully in the heart of Nicodemus. But from the text and from future references to Nicodemus in the Bible we can learn a great deal that can influence our own relationship with God.

Which brings me to see something else that may be significant here. It is very possible that the reason this story has a good bit of ambiguity about the motives of Nicodemus is so that the Holy Spirit can apply principles and truths from this passage to our lives in a wide variety of circumstances. We can see faulty attitudes and beliefs and assumptions within ourselves reflected in the words of Nicodemus and feel the conviction of truth from the Spirit of Jesus in His words of response to Nicodemus. God may have intentionally intended to keep this somewhat vague so that the applications of truth, mercy, love and clarity of God's viewpoints would be more flexible for use by the Holy Spirit in the hearts of anyone reading this story.

What I am seeing though, is that Nicodemus was very likely coming to Jesus in the context of the elevated emotional atmosphere of tension among the leadership of the Jews caused by Jesus' confrontation with them in the temple. It is also interesting and significant to note that Nicodemus was also closely identified as “a man” immediately after John's comments about mankind in the previous verses. I believe that this was very intentional and has been too often overlooked because of the bad placement of the chapter break by translators many centuries after it was originally written.

As I take more time to listen to what is in here I want to explore the connections about signs, belief and authority that seems to be the main themes of John's writing here.