Biting cliff hanger....


John 3:14-15

Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.
I think these are the last words Jesus spoke to Nicodemus that night. We are left hanging...did Nicodemus just leave? Did he say something else? JOHN?! What??? What happened??? Did Nicodemus "accept" Jesus and come out of the darkness to the Light? We do not know... at least not from chapter 3 of John. I think John leaves us hanging on purpose. His gospel is one dedicated not merely the telling of a good summary or synopsis of the life and ministry of Jesus' life ~ no, John wants everyone to know that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God and believe.
John 20:31
But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.
The way John stretches Nicodemus' story through this gospel is itself a picture of the process, the struggle of one man crawling out of the darkness until he finally stands full and tall into Light.
I do not think Nicodemus did open his heart to Jesus that night. Perhaps he had hoped for a simple "how to" answer he could implement without letting any of his Pharisee friends know he had even spoken to Jesus. However, what he came away knowing was ... it was not that simple. Jesus, in all the interchanges, made it clear to Nicodemus that LIFE and the Kingdom were not to be obtained by just 'fixing' his religion...he could not merely read more, study more, attend Temple more often. Nothing he had been doing, nothing he could do better would fill the vacancy of heart and spirit. He had been told and shown -- "Nicodemus, from where you are, you can't get there -- not in your own efforts. You are a dead man walking and I have life, and Spirit in my hands." He was just like the ruach-less bodies of Ezekiel 37:8 -- he was a zombie: a body with a dead spirit. You can give a zombie a bath and new clothes, food and water and dance lessons and diction lessons ---none of these things will put a spirit in a zombie.
But why would a desperate, spiritually empty man not take the hand of the one who held the ruach in his hand?
Nicodemus was not merely facing insult, or rejection or censure from his religious friends and family. To put it simply, the Pharisees and teachers of the Law wanted Jesus (and anyone connected with him) DEAD. He knew. For Nicodemus -- in every way: spiritually, and literally -- his life hung in the balance of his decision. And in John's telling, the story . . . just . . . stops. We jump from a conversation between a very troubled convicted Teacher of the Law and Jesus to an amazing theological treatice on Jesus being proof of the lengths God has gone for us because he loves us.
So why did John make these Jesus' "famous last words" to Niodemus? Till next time... Clue in Numbers.

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