In the Name of God:  Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  Amen.

Nicodemus sitting in the dark with Jesus.  I find this to be a very evocative picture . . . this image of sitting in the dark with Jesus.

Who was Nicodemus?  The text tells us that he was a Pharisee, a leader of the Jews in Jerusalem . . . presumably a member of the Sanhedrin, which was the highest judicial and ecclesiastical council for the Jewish community.  He was, in other words, an aristocrat.  Jesus identifies him as a teacher of Israel.  Nicodemus was a very big deal!  And we can say one more thing about Nicodemus:  he was a seeker . . . for why else would he come to ask questions of Jesus in the night?

And why at night?  We can’t be completely sure.  Perhaps Nicodemus came to Jesus under the cover of night because he wanted to keep this meeting secret.  Jesus was already a controversial figure.  According to the Gospel of John, this meeting occurred right after Jesus threw the merchants and moneychangers out of the temple . . . perhaps Nicodemus – a person of very high status – didn’t want to be seen with Jesus – a controversial trouble maker.  This makes sense.  But there’s another possibility . . . a more poetic possibility . . . that I vastly prefer.  The rabbis taught that the Torah was best studied at night when it was quiet and the distractions of the day were past.  Perhaps Nicodemus, the teacher . . . but also the seeker . . . decided to use his study time to expand his search for knowledge – his understanding of God – beyond the written texts.  Perhaps this is why he came to Jesus during the night.

Perhaps Nicodemus was turning to Jesus as his text.  That’s another idea I like . . . turning to Jesus as a text to be studied and contemplated.  Nicodemus sitting in the dark with Jesus.

Sometimes, as we think deeply about God, as our prayer lives deepen, we’re led to dark places . . . not necessarily fearful places . . . but places of a rich, dark, fullness, where words no longer matter.  Perhaps this is what happens to Nicodemus during his encounter with Jesus.  If you look closely at today’s text, you’ll notice that Nicodemus stops asking questions, stops talking, fairly quickly.  It looks to me as if Jesus, sensing that Nicodemus is a potential disciple . . . that he has both the heart and the intellect to understand who Jesus truly is . . . it looks to me as if Jesus takes Nicodemus to a very deep place very quickly.  Jesus, through what he tells Nicodemus, leads Nicodemus into that dark, fertile place – into a communion with God – in which Nicodemus no longer has, nor needs, words . . . in which words no longer matter.

Of course, words DO matter in today’s Gospel story . . . especially those of Jesus.  Nicodemus comes to Jesus because he knows that God must be with Jesus, and Nicodemus wants to understand . . . he wants to know what this MEANS.  Hearing the exchange between these two, some people hear an almost adversarial hostility, but that’s not an accurate interpretation of what’s going on.  Their exchange  . . . at least at the beginning . . . more resembles a formal academic debate of the period.  I suspect it’s actually a rather friendly exchange . . . the way two learned people of the time would talk to each other as they try to get to a deeper understanding of their subject.  Of course, the problem poor Nicodemus has is that, at least initially, he doesn’t realize that what he’s trying to understand  . . . the truth that he’s looking for . . . is embodied in the person sitting right beside him.  Jesus is not separate from the Truth . . . Jesus IS the truth.  He is our text for understanding.

Jesus leads Nicodemus ever deeper . . . farther than Nicodemus ever expected to go . . . which is why, I suspect, he eventually becomes speechless.  The last thing that Nicodemus says in today’s story is, “How can this be?”  But Nicodemus doesn’t leave.  He doesn’t stop trying to understand.  And Jesus doesn’t stop talking.  I imagine him looking very directly at Nicodemus . . . the communication between them strengthening and deepening . . . as Jesus leads him farther and farther away from where Nicodemus expected to go, and yet closer and closer to understanding.  Eventually, Jesus provides Nicodemus with a summary of the entire Gospel.

One of the last verses we heard this morning, verse 16 in chapter 3, is described by Martin Luther as the Gospel in miniature . . . as the entire story of salvation summed up in one little sentence:  “For God so love the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but have eternal life.”  There it is, the whole story in miniature.  The TRUTH.  The core of what Nicodemus is struggling to know and to understand.  We’re not told what affect Jesus’ words . . . the experience of sitting in the dark with Jesus . . . has on Nicodemus.  But I suspect that Nicodemus had something of a mystical experience . . . a wordless communion with God in the dark.

Do I have proof of this?  Not really.  But, the story of Nicodemus doesn’t end with the conversation we heard this morning.  We hear about Nicodemus two more times in the Gospel of John.  Later, in the 7^th chapter, when Nicodemus’ colleagues and friends, the chief priests and Pharisees, want Jesus arrested, Nicodemus steps forward in his defense.  And at the end of the Gospel, when Jesus has been deserted by almost everyone else, Nicodemus joins Joseph of Arimathea to give Jesus a proper burial, anointing him and laying him in the tomb.  This is what leads me to the conclusion that his encounter with Jesus in the night, which he heard about this morning, had a profound effect on Nicodemus . . . that it was, in fact, a mystical experience.

This Lent you can join Nicodemus.  You can enter the darkness and sit with Jesus.  All you have to do is take a little time every day to be quiet, and then to ask Jesus to join you.  Perhaps just before going to bed . . . maybe you turn out the lights . . . maybe you light a candle.  Invite Jesus to take a seat next to you.  You can ask him your most pressing questions.  And then wait . . . quietly, patiently . . . and see what Jesus has to say.  Perhaps some of your questions will be answered . . . perhaps some of your questions will disappear into the dark, no longer important.  But however the encounter develops, listen to what Jesus has to say!  Even when you don’t understand what is happening.  Even when you want to join Nicodemus in saying, “How can this be?”  Keep listening.  Keep sitting . . . with Jesus in the dark.  Perhaps you will have an encounter with Truth!  Perhaps you will be led by Jesus ever deeper into the fertile, brilliant darkness to a place where you no longer have words . . . to a place of communion with God. 

Such an encounter is not the end of the story.  Like Nicodemus, your lives will continue.  You can invite Jesus to visit over and over again.  But after sitting in the dark with Jesus, perhaps then you will be ready to speak your faith when it is necessary.  Perhaps you will be ready to accompany Jesus when you must . . . praying with him in the Garden of Gethsemane . . . standing by him through the Passion.  Perhaps you will give Jesus a place to rest in your heart.  Having sought out Jesus to be your text for study, perhaps you will be ready to play whatever role it is you are given to play as a follower of Jesus.

I wish you a blessed and holy Lent, seeking understanding, sitting in the dark with Jesus.

Amen.

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