John
chapter three has held a special place in the hearts of believers, theologians,
and even casual readers of the Bible for countless years. John as a book is an amazing piece of first
century Greek literature and a fantastic insight into not only the Johnine
community but also the first church that was alive and thriving during the time
of the writing of this great book.
This book
was written by John the Beloved Apostle, the one that reclined on Jesus during
the last supper and the brother of James.
This would have been one of the last books of the bible to be written
and it would have been written by one of the last people on earth that had
seen, walked, talked, ate, and drank with Jesus. John does not try to record all the things that
Jesus said or did but he does attempt to bring out Jesus as the Son of God, and
in essence God Himself.
The
book of John is a study in contrasts.
The most notable contrast found in this book is the one between light
and dark. The prologue (the first
several verses of chapter one) deals with this concept and the contrasts
manifest throughout this whole book. In
chapter three the entire scene takes place in the dark; from the beginning to
the end there is a darkness that is portrayed.
The contrast comes in the fourth chapter when Jesus meets with the woman
at the well.
Some have said that “the fact
that Nicodemus came “at night” was, of course, due to fear lest he be seen, and
thus his standing be compromised.”[1] I have heard it said that the coming by night
was not an act born of fear but rather that he came by night because that was
when one studied the Law. The day was
for work and the night was for the study of the law. It is interesting to note that by coming by
night Nicodemus made himself a hero to the slave populations as far into the
future as the 1800’s.
Ultimately,
“a number of reasons have been suggested as to why Nicodemus came to Jesus at
night, but all are based on speculation, and none are important as far as the
translation is concerned.”[1] To really understand the reason that John
mentions the nightly meeting is to view it in light of the book as a
whole.
As we mentioned before there is
deliberateness to the contrasting between the light and the dark. “The Johannine prologue has alerted the
reader to the symbolic significance of the separation of light and darkness.
Light represents life, revelation, knowledge, understanding, while darkness
represents incomprehension, rejection of divine truth, and, by implication, a
severance from the source of all life, and thus, a state of death (1:4-5, 9).
Are we to conclude, then, that Nicodemus is of the darkness and remains in
darkness…”[2]
Nicodemus
came seeking something. What he came for
we will never know this side of glory.
The reason for this is that Jesus did not give him time to make his case
or his appeal. Now we can speculate all
day long but in the end we just cannot know with certainty. In chapter seven of John’s gospel Nicodemus
is put down for his minor attempt at a defense of Jesus. So it is clear that whatever that Nicodemus
went away from this meeting with he did not share it with the majority of the
Sanhedrin.
-excerpt from my new book Musing from an Armchair Teologian
[1]
Barclay Moon Newman and Eugene Albert Nida, A
Handbook on the Gospel of John, UBS Handbook Series (New York: United Bible
Societies, 1993), 76
[2]
Winsome, Munro, The Pharisee and the Samaritan in John: Polar or parallel?, (The Catholic Biblical Quarterly 57.4 Oct
1995) Pg. 710 (3)
[1]
R. C. H. Lenski, The Interpretation of
St. John’s Gospel (Minneapolis, MN: Augsburg Publishing House, 1961), 229
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