Nicodemus, a Pharisee, came one night to visit Jesus. He said, “Rabbi,. We know that you are a teacher who has come from God, for no one could perform the works that you are doing if God were not with him.” (John 3:1) Nicodemus was rewarded for his remark with Jesus’ words concerning the second birth: “No one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again.” ( John 3:9) Nicodemus believed that Jesus came from God, but that God would work a change in a person was news to Him: “How can this be?” Nicodemus asked. (John 3:3) Nicodemus believed and may have witnessed some of Jesus’ works of healing and feeding great crowds. He recognized the power of God in Jesus, but could not imagine what it meant for himself or for the Hebrew people. Nicodemus received some of Jesus’ most visited words: For God so loved the world that He gave His only son. . .”

Almost three years later on the evening of Jesus’ arrest, one of His own disciplesasked Jesus, “Show us the Father, and that will be enough for us.” (John 14: 8) Jesus answered him, “Philip, believe me when I say that I am in the Father, and the Father is in me: or at least believe the evidence of the works themselves.” (John 14:11)

Nicodemus did believe that the works of Jesus were from God, but he had not yet been able to see what it would mean in his own life. Philip witnessed the works, but did not yet see the connection between the living God and the person of Jesus. Jesus pointed out the works to Philip as an avenue to believe in him, and to begin to see what the disciple Peter saw: that Jesus is the son of the living God; and that someone entirely new had walked and lived with them.

After Jesus’ death and resurrection, when the disciples saw and ate with him, they knew that the thing that only God could give, He was now giving to them. They knew that Jesus’ work was his cross, and by it he had opened the door to eternal life to ordinary people. The stories of Nicodemus and Philip are bright lights in the paths of today’s Christians. In that light Nicodemus found the courage to request Jesus’ body, and provide a tomb. Philip found his work along with the other disciples preaching and teaching about the risen Christ.

In a world full of contradictions, such a path is truly a gift to us from them and from their God and our God.

Love in Him,

Prue