Sunday Reflections (December 30)

How can it already be the final Sunday of the year? It feels like just yesterday we were in the middle of October, and we're already looking at 2013's beginning.

This weekend at church was what I would call an "off" week, not because the preaching was bad (in fact, it was excellent!) but because we were stuck between the end of Advent and the beginning of a new series.

Today's message was about Nicodemus, and it was given by our church's college pastor, who also happens to be a professor at a local university. I had never heard him preach before, but I really enjoyed his take on the story of Nicodemus.

Nicodemus is mentioned only in the Gospel of John, yet he is a brilliant example--based on his negative attributes--of what it means to be a follower of Christ.

First of all, a genuine disciple surrenders totally to Jesus even in the face of intellectual uncertainty. Most of us familiar with Nicodemus know that he had a difficult time understanding what Jesus meant when He said we must be born again (see John 3). Nicodemus approached Jesus with only his reason, but not every question has an answer that can be found through reason. In order to be followers of Jesus, we must let go of our grasp on reasoning and insert a bit of faith.

Second, a genuine disciple demonstrates loyalty to Jesus publicly without regard to personal cost. I had never realized that Nicodemus is mentioned two more times in the Gospel of John after his secret meeting with Jesus. In John 7:50, we see that Nicodemus is among the crowd of Jewish leaders who have gathered to ridicule Jesus and those who believe in Him. When Nicodemus, in his own way, questions the leaders' approach regarding Jesus, he is quickly shut-up and doesn't speak up again. In this point, Pastor Joel encouraged us to compare Nicodemus's actions to those of the woman at the well and the blind man who was healed. They were not ashamed to proclaim the works of Christ. Not being ashamed does have a caution, however: we must be wise as we live out our Christianity in the public sphere. Too many times we've seen those who have not applied wisdom and have embarrassed our faith rather than promoted it.

Third, a genuine disciple  follows Jesus without confusing religious activity for real relationship. In John 19, Nicodemus joined Joseph of Arimathea to bury Jesus. This devotion of Nicodemus is admirable, except it comes too late: Nicodemus is serving a dead Jesus. In the same way, we can be at risk of serving a "dead" god by serving religious activities rather than having a relationship with our living Savior.

I feel kind of sorry for Nicodemus. Here he is, a man who made quite a few mistakes when it came to learning about and deciding to follow the Messiah. But he has contributed to our faith by, in his own way, showing us what it means to be a genuine follower of Christ, even if that means doing things the exact opposite way Nicodemus did them.