In our Gospel reading for this morning, we’re introduced to a man named Nicodemus. We’re told that Nicodemus is a Pharisee, a ruler of the Jews. He comes to Jesus at night on account of the miracles Jesus has been performing. It would seem likely that some of them he’d seen himself, and certainly a man in his position would have heard from others about even more. Having seen these amazing things, Nicodemus comes to find out even more.
I think we all understand Nicodemus’ actions here. I remember back in 1998 when Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa were making their charge toward the single-season home run record. Everywhere you looked, there were Big Mac and Sammy. They were on the news, they were in the newspapers, their faces were on magazine covers…they were two men doing something amazing, and America couldn’t get enough. The attention and interest was so great that people would come to the stadium two hours before the game started just to watch them take batting practice. Fans and journalists alike were itching to know the secrets to their incredible success. How did they prepare themselves? What were their workouts like? How were they able to do what they were doing?
People who played the stock market knew that it was a volatile, risky venture. Even the best and savviest of investors could hit a rough patch. But not Bernie Madoff. For years he could boast a steady, consistent success rate that made him a legend. The more success he had, the more people wanted to entrust their money to him. What was his secret? What made him so amazingly, almost unbelievably successful at what he did?
Of course, in time it turned out that those things, like so many incredible, unbelievable stories before turned out to be less than they were made out to be. Eventually McGwire admitted that steroids helped create the Paul Bunyan physique that helped him crush baseballs at a record rate. Bernie Madoff was caught running the largest ponzi scheme the financial world had ever seen, all his supposed brilliance exposed as a con and a pile of lies.
In his responses to Jesus, it’s clear that while Nicodemus says that he knows Jesus must have come from God, his mind is still firmly stuck on the things and ways of the world. It would appear that in coming to meet Jesus, Nicodemus has come to Jesus to find evidence as to whether or not this miracle man is too good to be true. Perhaps he isn’t quite what he seems, and is yet another false prophet. Another skilled con man using the name of God to make his name and fortune. Though he acknowledges Jesus as coming from God, he seems either unwilling or incapable of understanding Jesus’ words in a spiritual manner. Nicodemus saw the signs, but life-giving faith eluded him. He saw the signs, but he altogether missed the point.
