Threads of a tapestry
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it. ...
The true light that gives light to every man was coming into the world.
He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God- children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband's will, but born of God.
The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. NIV
John 1:1-14
The Gospel of John begins with a preface -- not a story or a geneology. In it John, as it were, lays out images, concepts, and metaphors like the theads of a tapestry that he will weave together chapter by chapter. Chapter 3 of John begins with a setting and a dialog that echos the theme images of Chapter 1: light, life and birth. We are also shown a very dark thread in verse 5:
The light shines in the darkness but the darkness has not understood (katalambano) it.
This verse sounds innocuous -- "poor helpless, sightly dense 'darkness', it just doesn't understand." It SOUNDS innocuous until you understand the word katalambano. It is a word similar to our English word : get. While you can say, "I don't get it" and mean "I do not understand.", you mean it in a metaphoric way...you have not 'grasped or attained' the understanding. Actually the inference of the word is commonly used contextually in quite a violent way -- more like "I am going to GET you!" or "You are going to GET it." The picture John draws in that verse is that Jesus the Light is shining into the darkness and the darkness cannot (but would clearly like to) katalambano -- GET -- Jesus. It cannot ~ it cannot katalambano ~ attack, destroy, take in a way meant to do harm.
NOW ~
John 3:1 Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a member of the Jewish ruling council. He came to Jesus at night.
NIV
If you spend any time in the gospels, especially in John, it is easy to see that the Pharisees are more than merely dense and confused -- they want Jesus destroyed!! John creates a setting rich in levels of images and meaning. Nicodemus comes to Jesus, the Light, at night ~ he comes out of the darkness...the darkness of the Pharisee's culture, the darkness of his emptiness... like a moth drawn to a flame. He comes at night because he does not want to be seen; he comes in secret. I can almost hear tense and ominous music playing softly in the background as Nicodemus stands, perhaps across a street, gazing at Jesus' door trying to get up courage to go and knock.
For the whole book of John, when I read it, it is like I see a video running in my mind : Nicodemus nervous, perhaps rehearsing a speech, looking furtively around and hoping no one has seen him, then timidly knocking on Jesus' door. Jesus is ready. We are told by John that he is. I think -- really John starts this story at the end of chapter 2 when he says, "Jesus would not entrust himself to them, for he knew all men. He did not need man's testimony about man, for he knew what was in a man. NIV John 2:24-25". I suspect that the Holy Spirit told Jesus that Nic was on his way over and then told Jesus all that was going on in him.
Then Nicodemus begins ~ oh so politely ~ to question Jesus, trying to get to what is really troubling him. "Rabbi, we know you are a teacher who has come from God. . .For no one could perform the miraculous signs you are doing if God were not with him." I wonder if this second bit was sort-of mumbled under his breath -- mumbled like you might if you are almost talking to yourself ~ because I think the things Nicodemus has witnessed for years have haunted him until he could not take it any more.
This was the place where I began to probe the question :Who is this Nicodemus guy, anyway?!!
OK! 1) I think he HAD TO BE older, quite a bit older than Jesus. First of all for the Jewish culture 30 was the age of majority -- a bit like our 21. 2) Then we are told he was a member of the Jewish ruling council -- the Sanhedrin. This is a post like a Supreme Court Judge...one you do not get when you are young and "wet behind the ears". And ... you say ... so what? So Nic is older than Jesus; that tells us ~ what, exactly?? Well, let's guess and say he 15 to 20 years older than Jesus. Go backwards: Nicodemus had to have known Zacharias and Elizabeth. You KNOW it made the '6 o'clock news' when she became pregnant and Zach couldn't talk for 9 months. Then a few months later, he would have been a young man when some crazy shepherds came to tell the Rabbi's they had seen and spoken to angels. Who knows ... Bethlehem is only 5 miles from Jerusalem. Maybe Nicodemus heard the hauntingly beautiful music of the angelic choir himself. Then Simeon and Anna...who he had to have known...talk about this baby they have blessed and prophesied over. Then maybe 1, maybe 2 years later the Magi arrive and begin telling Herod a baby king has been born. Maybe he was in on the discussions and study sessions about where the messiah would be born. Then Herod sends out the 'militia'-- it is sent out to slaughter baby boys between the ages of birth and 2!! That is not something he would have...could have forgotten. The grief, the funerals!!! Imagine!!! Then life quiets down till John ~ that baby boy born to Elizabeth and Zechariah -- who was born and raised to be not just a priest, but a HIGH PRIEST ~ leaves to become like a wild, zealot prophet living out in the wilderness. Nicodemus had to have known John...maybe Nicodemus had been like a "Sabbath school teacher". Can you imagine? For me it would be like Tiaan growing up and 'dusting off his feet', then joining some wild radical movement, (bad enough) but then preaching sermons to huge crowds. When Tyrone and Rob, and Rory come to see him and hear him preach, he calls them, a brood of vipers -- likely a euphemism meaning they were involved in black magic, but at the very least that they were dangerous and poisonous. Did the Holy Spirit pierce his heart as he listened to John? Then...stories begin to circulate: miracles! He is visited, perhaps by some of the people healed by Jesus. He knows them...was there when they were born. No tricks, no charlatans -- real miracles. He perhaps sneaks out to listen when Jesus teaches. He is haunted by a desire for the LIFE that Jesus is pouring out! John has told us "the life was the light of men". So there is Nicodemus, sipping a cup of tea, furtively gazing up at Jesus, longing to ask : 'Are you the one, the one the angels sang for? the one the babies died for? How could I ask you? and ... How do I get what you have? How! You are full of light. I am full of darkness. And Jesus reads his thoughts -- his heart -- and turns the conversation.
The true light that gives light to every man was coming into the world.
He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God- children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband's will, but born of God.
The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. NIV
John 1:1-14
The Gospel of John begins with a preface -- not a story or a geneology. In it John, as it were, lays out images, concepts, and metaphors like the theads of a tapestry that he will weave together chapter by chapter. Chapter 3 of John begins with a setting and a dialog that echos the theme images of Chapter 1: light, life and birth. We are also shown a very dark thread in verse 5:
The light shines in the darkness but the darkness has not understood (katalambano) it.
This verse sounds innocuous -- "poor helpless, sightly dense 'darkness', it just doesn't understand." It SOUNDS innocuous until you understand the word katalambano. It is a word similar to our English word : get. While you can say, "I don't get it" and mean "I do not understand.", you mean it in a metaphoric way...you have not 'grasped or attained' the understanding. Actually the inference of the word is commonly used contextually in quite a violent way -- more like "I am going to GET you!" or "You are going to GET it." The picture John draws in that verse is that Jesus the Light is shining into the darkness and the darkness cannot (but would clearly like to) katalambano -- GET -- Jesus. It cannot ~ it cannot katalambano ~ attack, destroy, take in a way meant to do harm.
NOW ~
John 3:1 Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a member of the Jewish ruling council. He came to Jesus at night.
NIV
If you spend any time in the gospels, especially in John, it is easy to see that the Pharisees are more than merely dense and confused -- they want Jesus destroyed!! John creates a setting rich in levels of images and meaning. Nicodemus comes to Jesus, the Light, at night ~ he comes out of the darkness...the darkness of the Pharisee's culture, the darkness of his emptiness... like a moth drawn to a flame. He comes at night because he does not want to be seen; he comes in secret. I can almost hear tense and ominous music playing softly in the background as Nicodemus stands, perhaps across a street, gazing at Jesus' door trying to get up courage to go and knock.
For the whole book of John, when I read it, it is like I see a video running in my mind : Nicodemus nervous, perhaps rehearsing a speech, looking furtively around and hoping no one has seen him, then timidly knocking on Jesus' door. Jesus is ready. We are told by John that he is. I think -- really John starts this story at the end of chapter 2 when he says, "Jesus would not entrust himself to them, for he knew all men. He did not need man's testimony about man, for he knew what was in a man. NIV John 2:24-25". I suspect that the Holy Spirit told Jesus that Nic was on his way over and then told Jesus all that was going on in him.
Then Nicodemus begins ~ oh so politely ~ to question Jesus, trying to get to what is really troubling him. "Rabbi, we know you are a teacher who has come from God. . .For no one could perform the miraculous signs you are doing if God were not with him." I wonder if this second bit was sort-of mumbled under his breath -- mumbled like you might if you are almost talking to yourself ~ because I think the things Nicodemus has witnessed for years have haunted him until he could not take it any more.
This was the place where I began to probe the question :Who is this Nicodemus guy, anyway?!!
OK! 1) I think he HAD TO BE older, quite a bit older than Jesus. First of all for the Jewish culture 30 was the age of majority -- a bit like our 21. 2) Then we are told he was a member of the Jewish ruling council -- the Sanhedrin. This is a post like a Supreme Court Judge...one you do not get when you are young and "wet behind the ears". And ... you say ... so what? So Nic is older than Jesus; that tells us ~ what, exactly?? Well, let's guess and say he 15 to 20 years older than Jesus. Go backwards: Nicodemus had to have known Zacharias and Elizabeth. You KNOW it made the '6 o'clock news' when she became pregnant and Zach couldn't talk for 9 months. Then a few months later, he would have been a young man when some crazy shepherds came to tell the Rabbi's they had seen and spoken to angels. Who knows ... Bethlehem is only 5 miles from Jerusalem. Maybe Nicodemus heard the hauntingly beautiful music of the angelic choir himself. Then Simeon and Anna...who he had to have known...talk about this baby they have blessed and prophesied over. Then maybe 1, maybe 2 years later the Magi arrive and begin telling Herod a baby king has been born. Maybe he was in on the discussions and study sessions about where the messiah would be born. Then Herod sends out the 'militia'-- it is sent out to slaughter baby boys between the ages of birth and 2!! That is not something he would have...could have forgotten. The grief, the funerals!!! Imagine!!! Then life quiets down till John ~ that baby boy born to Elizabeth and Zechariah -- who was born and raised to be not just a priest, but a HIGH PRIEST ~ leaves to become like a wild, zealot prophet living out in the wilderness. Nicodemus had to have known John...maybe Nicodemus had been like a "Sabbath school teacher". Can you imagine? For me it would be like Tiaan growing up and 'dusting off his feet', then joining some wild radical movement, (bad enough) but then preaching sermons to huge crowds. When Tyrone and Rob, and Rory come to see him and hear him preach, he calls them, a brood of vipers -- likely a euphemism meaning they were involved in black magic, but at the very least that they were dangerous and poisonous. Did the Holy Spirit pierce his heart as he listened to John? Then...stories begin to circulate: miracles! He is visited, perhaps by some of the people healed by Jesus. He knows them...was there when they were born. No tricks, no charlatans -- real miracles. He perhaps sneaks out to listen when Jesus teaches. He is haunted by a desire for the LIFE that Jesus is pouring out! John has told us "the life was the light of men". So there is Nicodemus, sipping a cup of tea, furtively gazing up at Jesus, longing to ask : 'Are you the one, the one the angels sang for? the one the babies died for? How could I ask you? and ... How do I get what you have? How! You are full of light. I am full of darkness. And Jesus reads his thoughts -- his heart -- and turns the conversation.
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