A SEVENTY-YEAR OLD BABY
He was very wealthy ... later on his wealth increased, its value had become infinite. He was an intellectual ... yet he was advised to ignore all worldly knowledge. He was a member of a sect, one of six thousand, who followed the Law to the letter ... until the day came that he followed the Law according to the spirit. He was an elite ... he ultimately chose to be a follower of a carpenter. He was very religious ... later on he became very spiritual. His name was Nicodemus.
Nicodemus was a ‘night character’. He lived up to this name; the first time he met Christ was during the night, and spend a whole night in the Rabbi’s company. It was night when he ventured to defend Christ during a meeting of the Sanhedrin. He declared that it was illegal to condemn a person without giving him a chance to defend himself. Though it was after three in the afternoon, the sky looked like night-time when together with Joseph of Arimatea, Nicodemus carried the dead body of Christ to the tomb.
But the character of the night ultimately became the ‘man of light’. During his first visit to Christ under cover of the night, Nicodemus was only interested in gaining knowledge, of learning. He believed in Christ’s miracles, yet he was not completely convinced. This results from the answer he gave to Christ, when he answered Him: ‘We know that you are a man sent by God .... By using the word ‘we’ he implied doubt, he wanted to convey the idea that ‘if society needs to change’ we are ready to comply.
The ‘we’ used in the plural lacks the personal conviction. Christ expects personal conviction and commitment. So far Nicodemus addressed Christ as ‘Rabbi’. He was right because Christ was a teacher. Christ behaved as such and criticised Nicodemus for not knowing all the prophecies. By the end of the night, when there were signs of the twilight in the sky, Christ had put over another important message to his new friend: the fact that He was Teacher, but more still that He was a Saviour.
Knowing that He was talking to an intelligent person, Christ told him that what he still needs is not worldly knowledge, but spiritual knowledge. For this end he must be born anew. Nicodemus could not grasp the possibility of an old man being born again. Christ explained to him that man can be born twice. The first birth is the human birth, and we become children of our parents. But then He suggested that we might be born again spiritually, and thereby become children of God. We cannot enter that Kingdom without becoming children of God.
To make things easier for him Christ gave him an example of the wind: we feel the wind, we know its direction, we can see its effect, we see where it’s going ... but we do not know what is the wind. (Do not compare today’s knowledge with what was as yet unknown 2,000 years ago). Christ told him, the same goes with the Spirit, you feel His effect and move along to His promptings, yet you not know who or what is the Spirit. Nicodemus had so far no knowledge of the works of the Spirit.
Finally, Nicodemus realised who Christ was. He brought one hundred pounds of myrrh and aloes. This was the amount for a ‘king’s’ burial. He had found his ‘king’.
He was very wealthy ... later on his wealth increased, its value had become infinite. He was an intellectual ... yet he was advised to ignore all worldly knowledge. He was a member of a sect, one of six thousand, who followed the Law to the letter ... until the day came that he followed the Law according to the spirit. He was an elite ... he ultimately chose to be a follower of a carpenter. He was very religious ... later on he became very spiritual. His name was Nicodemus.
Nicodemus was a ‘night character’. He lived up to this name; the first time he met Christ was during the night, and spend a whole night in the Rabbi’s company. It was night when he ventured to defend Christ during a meeting of the Sanhedrin. He declared that it was illegal to condemn a person without giving him a chance to defend himself. Though it was after three in the afternoon, the sky looked like night-time when together with Joseph of Arimatea, Nicodemus carried the dead body of Christ to the tomb.
But the character of the night ultimately became the ‘man of light’. During his first visit to Christ under cover of the night, Nicodemus was only interested in gaining knowledge, of learning. He believed in Christ’s miracles, yet he was not completely convinced. This results from the answer he gave to Christ, when he answered Him: ‘We know that you are a man sent by God .... By using the word ‘we’ he implied doubt, he wanted to convey the idea that ‘if society needs to change’ we are ready to comply.
The ‘we’ used in the plural lacks the personal conviction. Christ expects personal conviction and commitment. So far Nicodemus addressed Christ as ‘Rabbi’. He was right because Christ was a teacher. Christ behaved as such and criticised Nicodemus for not knowing all the prophecies. By the end of the night, when there were signs of the twilight in the sky, Christ had put over another important message to his new friend: the fact that He was Teacher, but more still that He was a Saviour.
Knowing that He was talking to an intelligent person, Christ told him that what he still needs is not worldly knowledge, but spiritual knowledge. For this end he must be born anew. Nicodemus could not grasp the possibility of an old man being born again. Christ explained to him that man can be born twice. The first birth is the human birth, and we become children of our parents. But then He suggested that we might be born again spiritually, and thereby become children of God. We cannot enter that Kingdom without becoming children of God.
To make things easier for him Christ gave him an example of the wind: we feel the wind, we know its direction, we can see its effect, we see where it’s going ... but we do not know what is the wind. (Do not compare today’s knowledge with what was as yet unknown 2,000 years ago). Christ told him, the same goes with the Spirit, you feel His effect and move along to His promptings, yet you not know who or what is the Spirit. Nicodemus had so far no knowledge of the works of the Spirit.
Finally, Nicodemus realised who Christ was. He brought one hundred pounds of myrrh and aloes. This was the amount for a ‘king’s’ burial. He had found his ‘king’.
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