Denice K. Leslie
February 20, 2005 
Lent 2 Year C
John 3: 1 – 17

“In the First Person: Nicodemus”
	He was right. The tree was the cure! It seems like just yesterday when he said to me, “…just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up……” 
At the time I thought this rubbish! Of course I know the old wilderness story well. It was the kind of story grandmothers tell their grand children to entertain them and warn them –in this case—of the dangers of snakes. 
The people of Israel on their wilderness journey encountered many dangers and threats unfamiliar to them as city dwellers. Poisonous snakes were one. People were dying from snake bite. The story goes that Moses made a bronze serpent, erected it on a pole and people believed that if they’d been bitten by a snake they would be saved by touching or gazing on the pole of the serpent! I am trying to think of a reference you 21st century people would understand… Ah! Yes, I think you would understand it as a cure by taking in a bite of the tail of the dog that bit you. Pun intended! You call it homeopathic remedy. I thought it an old wives tale! I mean I am a man of immense learning among my people. Jesus recognized my pre-eminence as a learned scholar of the law—on the order of a doctorate in your terminology-- when he referred to me as “the teacher in Israel.” 
Yes, and as a member of the Pharisees I considered myself quite progressive—liberal you would say—as we were definitely reformers and radicals—in that we desired to get back to a strict observance of the law but also to use our reason to admit the possibility of larger understandings. So I am a rationalist by nature and by schooling. You can see why I would question such a quaint reference to a metal serpent on a stick to any true saving activity of God. Those poor devils were desperate and unschooled was my and any thoughtful, learned man’s conclusion. We were far more progressive by this time. Like you yourselves! Everything must stand to the test of pure, unadulterated reason and of course the moral tenets of the law! 
	 Indeed we were so progressive we could be informed by other religions, especially the Iranian scholars, we had respect for their traditions as well and incorporated some of their insights into our faith understanding. We were, to the contrary of what you might think, not fundamentalists. By the time of Jesus we were considered the more accurate interpreters of the law . We believed every human being is responsible for his or her own actions—of course we also admitted to the influence of Fate—but not as free will—good acts would be rewarded in the hereafter—yes we believed in the resurrection of the good and the eternal damnation of the bad. 
	 But I am getting away from my reason for being here today. I began by saying the tree was the cure—he was right! I’m sure you must be completely confused by now! So I shall begin at the beginning. 
	My revelation came slowly. O, so slowly. I remember how at first I considered him merely another untutored rabble rouser. The Romans were such horrible oppressors the common people would flock to this one and then that one and we had our hands full trying to contain populist sentiment and protest from attracting too much undue attention from the Roman’s who would squash us like bugs in the sand without hesitation. 
 	As I listened to him I was angered. Where did this man get his learning? He was from Galilee as I understood it—a backwater for sure. I had debates with him in my mind. I found myself going out to hear what he had to say with the conviction that I could counter him easily enough and needed to do so for the sake of the people. 
	That is when I experienced his signs. The things he did—well he was either a devil or he was from God. Logic could not deny this conclusion from the evidence. What he did was like nothing I’d ever seen. I could find no satisfactory explanation. I was absolutely amazed! It was his signs that attracted me to him in spite of myself—When I saw him I felt like a boy at the circus—I say that for your benefit having never been to a circus you understand. 
	We discussed him among ourselves. Of course as a leader of my people I was active in the Leadership Council, the Sanhedrin. It was at these meetings that we would talk about him informally at first. Then there was that case of the lame man—ill for thirty-eight years –at the pool near the Sheep Gate here in Jerusalem, called Bethesda. The ill, the lame, the blind gather there as it is a popular superstition that if you go into the waters of the pool when they are stirred by the wind you will be healed. Anyway, as we were walking by the pool in our usual course of business, we caught this man carrying his mat on the Sabbath day! He reported that the man who had made him well instructed him to take up his mat and walk. We asked, and who was this man? He told us it was Jesus who made him well. Now I knew this man to be an invalid. He was a regular beside the pool and was there for years. I saw him there daily as I passed on my way. And here he was walking as whole as you or I! My eyes were not deceived. I felt a keen sense of wonder and hope arise in my chest—which I told myself was not rational. Things like this did not happen. He was unclean—a man who was an obvious sinner or he would not have been ill. This man made whole? Who had the power to forgive sins? No one has the power to forgive sins other than God—or someone from God. 
	Some others of my party, the Pharisees began to believe this Jesus must be sent by God in order to do these things. If so we concluded we needed to get him aligned with us. We could not have a loose cannon out there. We had to have him within our sphere of influence. We were the interpreters of the law, the speakers for God in our nation after all. And there were the others who felt he was of the evil one. He could split us apart. We couldn’t afford such a distraction in such tense times. He clearly loved the people as we do and cared for them. He would make an excellent Pharisee. 
	 My mind was not convinced about him. My heart was not trustworthy. I would go and see him. See if I couldn’t figure him out. Others had been talking with him in small groups. But I had to be more careful. My status as a scholar—I mean I could easily be the teacher assigned to school him and bring him along as a Pharisee. It would not be seemly or appropriate for me to go to him. So I arranged to do it under the cover of darkness. It was late evening, almost midnight when I made my way to our appointment. 
	When I was seated with him I was determined to make every effort to start things off on an affirmative, and respectful note. I said, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God; for no one can do these signs that you do apart form the presence of God.” 
	He surprised me. No small talk or exchange of flatteries with this man. He took control of the conversation and dove right in to the meat of my interests. He said, “ Very truly, I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above.” I was flustered and took a dodge—even as what I said was in character with my rational bent. I said, “Come now, lets get serious here—how can anyone be born again after having grown old? Can one enter a second time into the mother’s womb and be born?” 
My spoken words were clearly incontestable— that should have given him pause. I am no philosophical fool, I was thinking to myself and saying indirectly—I will not permit you to get the upper hand here--I will buy time with you until I get my footing. But he drove straight on. He said, “Very truly I tell you no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and the Spirit.”
	Of course birth is the bursting of the waters of the womb. But this reference to the Spirit of God was an addition of how one gains entrance into the Kingdom of God I ‘d never heard. And he spoke with such authority. The authority of a real Rabbi. We teach that entrance into God’s Kingdom comes by strict adherence to the traditions of our people—to the law and the covenant. We dedicate our lives to doing so and to helping our people do so. Only when we are truly pure, truly holy—set apart—that is what Pharisee means—a derivative of “parush” and “perushim” which mean holy and set apart from the unclean. We love these double meanings of words….Only then will the Messiah come and the people be saved! 
	Jesus as a Jew also knows God called Israel to be a holy priest hood, pure and holy and consecrated to God as a light to the nations. What is this then about God’s Spirit? We do ritual cleansing with water. We bring converts to Judaism into the faith with a ritual bath. It is a matter of observance—doing all in accord with the law. 
 	That sign he did with the healing of the man—that was not in accordance with the law. He broke the Sabbath law and he healed on the Sabbath and ….and…..and…the man did walk. I can not deny that. But now it is his teaching I struggling with-- I was the teacher by credential—he had no credential that I know of. 
	Yes, I was flummoxed that night. The astonishment must has shown on my face. No two ways about it. He instructed me like a school boy. He said with a broad smile on his face, and very slowly: “what is born of flesh IS flesh…and what is born of SPIRIT is spirit”—or did he mean wind? I was just wondering this when he said “Do not be astonished that I said to you that you must be born from above—the wind blows where it chooses and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes.. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.” I heard and my heart did wonder—I was ashamed I allowed my emotions to take hold of me like that. I was struggling. All I could do was blurt out another question: “How could this be?” He laughed gently and said, “Are you a scholar of the ways of the God of Israel and you do not understand these things? You speak of earthly things and I tell you what I know of the things of the Kingdom. Only one who has come from the Kingdom of God can speak about these things— “ I thought to myself—Moses went up the mountain saw God and came down with the law. Are you as great a prophet as Moses? I swear he read my mind! 
	That’s when he made that reference to the serpent being lifted up—as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness so must the Son of Man be lifted up that whosoever believes in him may not parish but may have eternal life. 
	Eternal life—life lived in the unending presence of God! That was what we all desired. That was at the heart of what we seek in observance of the tradition. To bring ourselves into the eternal presence of God. 
 	Is this man Jesus saying faith alone is enough? A change of the heart is enough? The thought that night was too different for me to grasp. It would undue—it would change me in ways that I couldn’t grasp then and there. This idea of God’s breath breathing on me—yes that is another meaning of spirit—wind, spirit, breath—all those meanings are there and Jesus took full advantage of them. Hebrew is such a poetic language. It’s a shame you have such a stilted language in English with only one word for most meanings and so few nuances—at least the Romans spoke Greek and had many words to describe technical differences in meaning—although you are left with their inheritance—your Hebrew scripture text is translated from the Greek Septuagint. So you don’t get all of these understandings. I apologize! 
A teacher is a teacher! It’s just who I am. And that is another reason I was struggling. Because although my head could make not yet make sense of what Jesus said, my heart was very clearly informing me with a growing conviction. The signs—the miracles—they may have attracted me originally but now there was a deeper reason for my attraction. 
	 After I left him that night I continued to follow him. Yes, I was a secret follower—a, …a… a secret disciple. I listened with new ears. The healings and the feedings these were now part and parcel of a larger reality evident in him: God’s presence. 
	Unfortunately Jesus also had a passionate sense of justice. I say unfortunately because I wished to protect him from the inevitable! Of course he would be a prophet as well as a teacher if he were God’s presence among us. After all the law’s foundation was the justice of our righteous God. Things turned ugly the day he ran the merchants and money changers out of the temple. He said, “Do not make of my father’s house a den of theives!” Then he continued teaching openly in the temple and people began to believe he was the Messiah! 
The chief priests hearing the crowd murmur these things about him called the temple police to have him arrested. Feelings were running high—things were getting out of hand. I spoke to the Council, “Our law does not judge people without first giving them a hearing to find out what they are doing, does it?” I still hoped that a conversation, a dialogue could be started—that we could bring him in among us--. I should have known better. I did know better. By then. everything Jesus said and did stood in stark contrast to the powers that be: Our old way. Our life long dedication to the observance of the law, to placating the Romans—we were not free, we were bound. Satan has us bound with fear . We were among the living dead. I remember the day I heard Jesus say, “Perfect love casts out fear!” And I knew in an instant that we were among the lost! We had lost sight of God’s love for us –God’s gift of freedom! The lessons of the Exodus journey were dead traditionalism to us now-we no longer lived out of God’s tabernacling presence among us. 
Yes, I had come a long way. But as I said, in the beginning I shall repeat once more: The tree was the cure! They finally arrested him and things snowballed so quickly. I found myself standing with another secret disciple, Joseph of Arimathea, on the top of a ridge overlooking the place where he was nailed to his cross: As he was lifted up on that tree my heart broke—it broke in anguish and love for him. And it broke open-- in freedom --for the love of God I saw there—making a new Exodus journey on our behalf. I understood his power to forgive sin as I was forgiven in that moment! Because we truly deserved his fate—we were the misdirected. He was lifted up for us. 
I wanted to go down there and touch that cross. I longed to touch it and be healed of the poisonous snake bite of sin. But I knew gazing upon it was enough. There was a new understanding in my life—I was clearly and completely and finally born from above that day! Born over again to a new life! I would never be the same. By the grace of God I knew I had received my fondest desire in spite of my unworthiness—I had received the gift of eternal life—I would live my life in the unending presence of God from that moment forward and seek to find ways to bring that gift to others. Yes! The tree was the cure! At long last I understood: The heart has its reasons the head doesn’t know!”