Today's Daily Lesson comes from John chapter 3 verses 1-3, and 14-21:
Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. 2 This man came to Jesus by night and said to him, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him.” 3 Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God . . .14And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, 15 that whoever believes in him may have eternal life. 16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. 18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. 19 And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. 20 For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed.21 But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God.”
There was a man who came to Jesus. His name was Nicodemus. By all accounts, he was a good and moral man -- a leader in his community and his synagogue. By all accounts, he was a righteous man.
Yet, Nicodemus has a secret. A hidden discretion. Perhaps a secret past. Or maybe a secret present. In any case, a moral defect. Something which kept him up at night, in terror of guilt. And so he came to Jesus, by night. Nick at Night. Nicodemus, hidden in darkness and in shadow made his way to the one called the "light of all men".
"You must be born again," Jesus told Nicodemus. In other words, Nicodemus must be born from his hidden world of darkness and come out into the open and exposing light of day. Nicodemus trembles at the thought. Exposure is his greatest fear; his secret too shameful to come to light. The condemnation would be too great. But then Jesus' words, "Nicodemus, you are already condemned. You have condemned yourself. The Son comes not to condemn you but to save you from your own condemnation. And the way to salvation is for your secret to be told. It must be exposed to the light. Your deepest secret must be lifted up like the snake on Moses' staff -- something so hideous and terrifying, yet when lifted up to the light not so terrible, but in fact healing -- saving even. Nicodemus, if you wish to be healed and to be saved then the secret must be told, the snake in you must come to light."
They say we are only as sick as our secrets. I would like to be able to say that night Nicodemus told Jesus his secret -- that he was healed of his sickness. But the Bible does not say whether or not it was so. Perhaps Nicodemus did. Or perhaps it was too much for Nicodemus to bear; perhaps he could not bring himself to do it.
In any case, he had come close to the light, and to the Son of light, and he walked away with a since that what is said of the light may indeed be true: that it shines in the darkness and the darkness cannot overcome it.
That no darkness can overcome it.
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