17th February - Lent 2:
Nicodemus: Keeping Faith Young

Well, that’s a turn up for the books! I wasn’t expecting him – or anyone like him – to come. I didn’t think the establishment would pay any attention to the message I had to bring.

When it all began – when I was walking by the lakeside – it was easy to see the people that had been chosen to carry my message. They were there, waiting, even if they didn’t know it. All I had to do was to seek them out. When I met them face to face and called their names they dropped everything and followed me.

There were the fishermen – the honest, hard working, common men. They lived in harmony with their world, depending on nature to meet their needs. They understood how their lives were intimately linked to all that was around them.

That prepared them for my revolutionary message. When I was able to paint pictures about the Kingdom of Heaven by drawing on the examples in the natural world about us all, their minds were open to that fresh way of thinking. And John had even prepared the way with one or two of them. His message about my coming had caught the imagination of those who wanted change – and change for the better.

That’s why I was able to reach those who didn’t quite fit in as well. Those like Matthew who knew that there were jobs to be done and, despite the stigma associated with the task, it was best that the job was done fairly and correctly – ethically if you like.

Once I had gathered those common people about me and they had begun to listen and understand the message I was bringing, it wasn’t long before others could see the difference in them. Oh sure, all the healing and other miraculous events that happened helped but it was really the change in those ordinary men that attracted most of the crowds. Every one of those who gathered at lakeside or on mountain top could identify with someone close to me.

Then, in the dark of the night, when we were resting at the end of a long day, who should come knocking at the door but Nicodemus. Now, here was no common man. He is a man of substance, a pillar of the community. He’s a member of the Council – the Sanhedrin. He sits at the heart of those who lead the Jewish religion. Some say they have their own direct communication link to God. This was the man who had to come to talk to me about what I had been saying.

At first, like all those gathered around me, I was cautious. We felt he had probably been sent to gather evidence against us. The questions he asked certainly wanted to get to the heart of the matter. He wanted to know all about my teaching that seemed to be making all things new. So I told him. I mean, every day I’d been out in the streets saying the same things in public so why should I say something different in private?

When I began to talk with him I expected to meet resistance. After all, he was a member of the establishment. He was part of the leadership charged with the preservation of the order within our faith. Like everyone of his age and background, I expected him to be set in his ways. I guess I didn’t expect to get any sort of reaction from this conservative church leader.

I was wrong. The more I talked, the more he listened. The more he listened, the more probing the questions. The more I answered them, the more that I could see that this encounter was changing him. When I talked to him about being reborn in faith I could see that he was struggling with the concept and yet was longing to embrace it for himself. For all his substance, for all his status, for all his position, for all his knowledge and understanding of the Law and the prophets, he was still willing to think about new and fresh expressions of faith.

By the time we had finished talking it was getting light, as dawn fast approached. He hadn’t fully accepted everything we had shared but he was, at least, thinking about it. He had seen that I was encouraging people to keep their faith fresh and vital – new every morning if you like. And he was open enough to embrace the idea of being born again into this fresh understanding. For one with his prestige at the heart of our faith that was a breakthrough.

In that grey light of dawn I knew that even if I hadn’t fully made a convert, at least I had a friend at the traditional centre. I wondered where that was going to lead. I wondered what would come of that dark of the night meeting. I wondered if we would meet again. I wondered if he was asking himself the same question as me.

Where do I go from here?

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