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Sermon for Sunday, February 17, 2008

Second Sunday of Lent
“A Lenten Encounter – Nicodemus”
John 3:1-17

The gospel of John opens with a stirring prologue that declares that Jesus is the light, the light of the world and John contrasts that with the word that humanity tends to love darkness more than light. And yet even with the love of darkness the light, the light of the world, shines in the darkness and the darkness has yet to overcome it.

The contrast of light and darkness is found throughout scripture. In the beginning, “the earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep.” (Gen.1:2) Darkness is what God pushed back when He created light.

In the New Testament, darkness has spiritual significance. Jesus will speak of the “power of darkness” (Luke 22:53). God is the one who is light and in Him there is no darkness at all. (I John 1:5) Christ is the one who shines in the darkness. They looked at Jesus and exclaimed that “The people who sat in darkness have seen a great light, and for those who sat in the region of the shadow of death, light has dawned.” (Matthew 4:16) I Peter 2:9 would declare that Christians are those who “a chosen race, a royal priesthood, God’s own people, called out of darkness, into his marvelous light.”

There are so many unpleasant connotations in scriptures regarding darkness for the simple reason that light is considered to be a good thing. Through light, we have warmth, we can see where we are going. Darkness seems to make things cold and often frightening. I don’t even like to be in a church building in the dark. You never know whose around and it may not be God!

If we had continued to read the John 3 passage further John tells us how people can respond to the dark:

This is the crisis we’re in: “God light streamed into the world but men and women everywhere ran for the darkness. They were for the darkness because they were not really interested in pleasing God. Everyone who makes a practice of doing evil, addicted to denial and illusion, hates the God light and won’t come nears it, fearing a painful exposure. But anyone working and living in truth and reality welcome God light so the world can be seen for the God work it is.” (Message Bible)

In darkness, things become invisible, often difficult to tell one thing from the other. This past week at a reception in our fellowship hall, the lights in our new fellowship hall were dimmed. I was somewhat grazing around the tables which is not an uncommon thing for me to do. On one table I found was some good chicken salad sandwiches among other wonderful food. As I continued the graze I went and picked up another sandwich that I thought was also a chicken salad sandwich. Well, it was egg salad and egg salad is right there with meatloaf and green peas for me. And what do you do with a mouthful of egg salad that doesn’t want to be swallowed? It was dark and I did not see what I was doing or eating. Disorder comes with darkness as well as in a sneaky egg salad.

In Matthew’s crucifixion account, he writes that the whole earth was dark for three hours. (Matt. 27:45-46)

Light is associated with clarity, understanding, enlightenment. “Oh, I see. I get it.” It was like a light bulb came on in my head,” we say. You get the idea, don’t you? The contrast is throughout scripture. Light – Dark Even good and evil.

Night had fallen on the city of Jerusalem. A stately, distinguished gentleman walked down the narrow streets. One could tell he was a VIP. His attire alone would have given that away. His name was Nicodemus, a Pharisee, one of the separated ones. He was a member of the Sanhedrin, the supreme court of the land, where he sat in judgment on important religious matters. He was likely wealthy. As he rounded the corner, he took the steps that led him to a meeting with Jesus of Nazareth.

The gospel writer writes that Nicodemus came to Jesus “by night.” He found Jesus at night. Maybe you can think of all kinds of reasons why he went at night. Maybe he didn’t want to be seen by anyone else, any of his religious friends. Maybe it just fit his schedule. It wasn’t anything so deep and heavy, it just didn’t fit his schedule during the day. Or maybe his was a life that was searching for something even though he was a “teacher of Israel.” Maybe he was in the dark about the real truths of God. But John did make a point to say Nick came at Nite. There are some churches that seem to only be churches in the light. Will Willimon made the observation that some churches are just so happy, so full of celebration that they make you feel guilty if you happen to come in with a bit of a shadow in your soul.

Perhaps we can see in the story of Nicodemus that coming to Jesus in the dark can be good. There really are those who come to Jesus by night, stumbling, astounded, groping their way in the darkness only to come face to face with his love and presence. In the dark, they thought they were lost, but it was in the dark that they were found. It is not bad to be like Nicodemus and come to Jesus, “by night.”

I don’t know if the sun is shining for you right now. I hope it is. I hope that you are happy, that things are going well for you, that you are in good health, that your family and friends are fine. But I’ll tell you this, if this second Sunday in Lent, happens to find you not well, not well off, not happy, searching, in the dark, at twilight, or moving toward midnight, I want you also to rejoice. Rejoice because my friends, we have a God who works the night shift! By night is a great time to come to Jesus and let him talk with you, sit with you, teach you, reveal his way and his will for you. By night is a good opportunity for Jesus to find you. By night, it is a good time to call on Jesus especially if life is dark for you.

Prayer

— Robert Thompson
Pastor
First Baptist Church, Ashland

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