Lord of Life Lutheran Church In today’s lesson we hear the Gospel of John, and specifically, John 3. John 3 has probably one of the best known Bible versus of all, John 3:16, which is “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son so that he who believes in him may not perish but have eternal life.” These were words that were spoken to Nicodemus, a Pharisee and member of the Sanhedrin. He came to Jesus by night because he didn’t want to be seen asking questions of this young rabbi by day.
Jesus gave Nicodemus a lot to think about and certainly not the answers he was expecting. Those words stuck with Nicodemus and sank in such that we see Nicodemus meeting Jesus again … after Jesus’s crucifixion when He was taken down from the cross. Nicodemus had brought 100 pounds of embalming ointment to prepare Jesus’s body for burial.
On a personal note, I found it interesting in the beginning of the reading that Nicodemus told Jesus that the leaders knew he had come from God because they had seen his works. Jesus says, ‘No one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born from above.’ Two people can see the exact same thing, but the faith in the heart is what lets them see differently. It is a question for all of us to ask how we see with our eyes and heart.