The Conversations of Jesus: Learning from His Encounters

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People Who Became Messengers of Jesus

Nicodemus

JOHN 3, 7, AND 19

Under Cover of Darkness

Nicodemus was a Jew with a Greek name that means conqueror of the people. Perhaps he was born somewhere in a country along the Mediterranean Sea where Greek was his native language. But in time he moved to Israel to be educated in the city of Jerusalem. He had an interest in the Scriptures and eventually became an interpreter of the Law of Moses. By joining the synagogue party of the Pharisees, he fulfilled his desire to be with those who had studied the sacred writings. In that party, he probably served as a scribe.

He climbed the social ladder and eventually attained the rank of councilor in the Jewish government, called the Sanhedrin. Because he understood the Scriptures, he had an influential voice in the leadership circles of Israel. In a sense, he lived up to his name: he was indeed a conqueror of the people.

One night while Jesus was in Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover Feast, Nicodemus went to meet him. He had heard Jesus speak and was impressed with the message he taught. This teacher not only read the Scriptures, he also explained and applied them like no one else in Israel. And Nicodemus had observed Jesus performing miracles of healing on those who were sick or handicapped.

So interested was Nicodemus in Jesus’ teaching and healing ministry that he began to ask himself whether this man was the Messiah. He could honestly say that no one in Israel’s history had ever performed the miracles that Jesus was doing.

But if Nicodemus were to be seen with Jesus in broad daylight, he would be criticized by his fellow councilmen. Thus he went to him at night, when he was free from official duties and could safely talk at length with the teacher from Nazareth.

A Heart-Changing Conversation

Nicodemus addressed Jesus as rabbi, a respectful title that means my great [teacher]. He was the older of the two by at least forty years, and as a councilor, he commanded great respect. But he addressed Jesus deferentially: Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one is able to do these miracles you do, unless God is with him.

Addressed as teacher, Jesus responded to Nicodemus true to his tutorial vocation. He introduced his teaching with words that expressed absolute certainty: I can assure you of this truth. And what was that truth? No one can see the kingdom of God unless he or she is born again. This was not the comment Nicodemus had expected to hear. Why didn’t Jesus respond by saying he was pleased with Nicodemus’ acknowledgment that Jesus’ teaching and miracles demonstrated that God was with him? All that Nicodemus wanted was a confirmation that Jesus indeed was the promised Messiah.

But if Jesus had indicated he was pleased to hear that his work was appreciated, Nicodemus would have understood him only with his mind and not with his heart, which still throbbed in spiritual darkness. Hence Jesus taught him on two subjects of note: the kingdom of God and being born again.

The kingdom of God refers to God’s administrative rule on earth. As a councilor in the Sanhedrin, Nicodemus certainly would have understood how government must enact and enforce laws to rule the nation of Israel. Yet he did not know how to apply spiritually God’s rule in everyday life. To do this, he would need a heart that was conceived in heaven and born on earth. Jesus simply told Nicodemus, You must be born anew; namely, your spiritual birth must come from heaven.

Nicodemus did not understand what Jesus meant by being born spiritually. He asked how an elderly person like himself could be born physically a second time. Jesus repeated his statement and then said, Unless you are born of water and the Spirit, you cannot enter the kingdom of God.

Jesus hinted at a passage in the prophecy of Ezekiel (36:25–26) that Nicodemus, as a student of the Old Testament, should have known. God had said to the people of Israel, I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all impurities and from your idols. I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. God said he would sprinkle clean water on his people and fill them with a new spirit so that they might be his holy people.

Nicodemus knew that the priests and Levites at the temple had to wash their hands and feet before entering the temple. He also knew that to serve God in that holy place and to function effectively with a new spirit in the religious life of Israel, the spiritual leaders needed a new heart.

Certainties Touching the Heart

Jesus taught Nicodemus spiritual truths so his student could see the difference between material and spiritual matters. A human body gives birth to a human body, but the Holy Spirit gives birth to a new spirit. This means that a change in a human spirit takes place only through the working of God’s Spirit. Whenever the Holy Spirit touches a person’s heart, his or her life changes radically for the better.

There is something mysterious about the coming and going of the Spirit. Jesus compared it to the blowing of the wind. No human controls the wind; it changes direction at will, increases in force, or tempers its effect in short order. Jesus told Nicodemus, So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.

This is a mystery to people who have not been born anew and consequently have difficulty understanding what motivates those whose heart the Holy Spirit has renewed. Nicodemus was one of them and asked Jesus how this could be. With a chuckle in his voice, Jesus asked, Are you a teacher in Israel and you do not know these things?

There are two spheres in this universe; the one is physical, the other spiritual. Some people understand only the physical because they lack spiritual discernment; others have been blessed spiritually and know that the Spirit of God has given them rebirth. Some see only with their physical eyes while others, enlightened by the Spirit, see heavenly things. The one has been born physically while the other has experienced both a physical and a spiritual birth.

There is a profound difference between earthly and heavenly things. Jesus told Nicodemus, If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe when I tell you heavenly things? Jesus came to teach God’s truth and to die on a cross. And people who understand this truth demonstrate faith in him and are recipients of eternal life.

The message Jesus taught Nicodemus was that he would believe with all his heart the words he himself had uttered to Jesus: We know that you are a teacher who has come from God. Jesus brought the gospel to a political leader in Israel who, when converted, would be a spokesman for the Lord to defend and promote his cause.

A Councilor’s Commitment

The name of Nicodemus appears in John’s gospel on two successive occasions: at the Jewish Feast of Tabernacles and at the Feast of Passover (John 7 and 19, respectively). First, in mid-October, half a year before Jesus’ death, Jesus preached publicly in the temple courts during the Feast of Tabernacles. The chief priests and the Pharisees sent temple guards to arrest him, but these guards were so enthralled by Jesus’ teachings that they returned empty-handed.

Their superiors demanded to know why they had not made an arrest. The guards replied that they had never heard anyone speak like this man; they were filled with praise for Jesus. But instead of finding out for themselves, the chief priests and Pharisees resorted to ridicule and scornfully asked the guards whether they also had been deceived. They even went so far as to declare that none of the rulers and Pharisees had put faith in Jesus. They did not even stop there. No, they pronounced a curse on all the people who, in their opinion, continued to be ignorant of Scripture’s teachings.

Then Nicodemus spoke up in the midst of these rulers and asked, Is it right to condemn a man without hearing him first to learn what he is doing? Nicodemus did not openly identify himself with Jesus but wished to defend him on the basis of legal procedures.

Second, when Jesus died on the cross, both Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea took care of the burial ceremony. As a respected councilman, Joseph went to Governor Pontius Pilate and asked permission to bury Jesus. Nicodemus, a man of considerable wealth, brought seventy-five pounds of a mixture of myrrh and aloes used for royal burials, showing genuine devotion and love for his Lord.

At these two events, Nicodemus, as a leader in Israel, demonstrated beyond doubt that he had placed his faith in Jesus and followed him. Jesus met him under cover of darkness, showed him the way to life eternal, and claimed him as his spokesman.

Application

The church grows faster among the poor than anywhere else, for the poor hear a message that frees them from the shackles of sin and misery. But Jesus does not forget the rich and powerful. He has the same message for them too. After he has turned them into his followers, they likewise are able to reach countless people on various levels of society. The gospel of Jesus Christ is for all people, regardless of race, color, education, status, and nationality.

I vividly remember the Mexican who invited me into his home. This one-room house had a roof and only three walls, featured neither table nor chairs, and had no bed. A hammock strung between two walls served as a place to sit and sleep. Yet this man was happy and joyful in Jesus his Lord. He served him as a leader in his local church and effectively brought the gospel to his people.

I felt uneasy because of my economic status, but then I realized that the Lord has given me the same task as he gave the Mexican: to preach and teach the Word of God and the testimony of Jesus.

The Samaritan Woman

JOHN 4

Drawing Water at the Well

The conflict between the Israelis and the Palestinians has been with us for numerous decades. Differences of religion, nationality, culture, and language play a major role in this conflict. And the people in both camps keep memories of this bitter conflict alive. Consequently, their hostilities separate them as mortal enemies.

In Jesus’ day, the tension between the Jew and the Samaritan was similarly painful and tenacious. Jesus experienced this conflict when he traveled through Samaria on his way from Judea to Galilee.

At the well of Jacob in the shadow of Mount Gerizim, Jesus met a Samaritan woman. In Scripture, she appears as a nameless woman who in a quick succession of many divorces had been known by the names of five husbands. She now lived in a common-law marriage with a man in a Samaritan town called Sychar. As a result of her immoral life, her fellow citizens despised her. Additionally, she was spurned by the Jews, who did not want to have anything to do with Samaritans.

Customarily, the women went together early in the morning to replenish their daily water supplies, and on the way to and from the well, they would exchange the latest news. But this woman was compelled to go alone to the well in the evening. Socially and spiritually, she was snubbed and led a lonely life.

Weary from traveling all day, Jesus sat down at Jacob’s well at high noon. Almost two thousand years earlier, the patriarch Jacob had dug this well to a depth of more than one hundred feet to ensure that it would never run dry. Jesus decided to stay there while his disciples went into Sychar to buy supplies for the evening meal. He was thirsty and longed for a drink but lacked a bucket to draw water from the well. Then he saw a solitary woman carrying a water jar. By her apparel, Jesus knew that she was a Samaritan, and her lonely trek to the well at this time of day told him that she was a woman spurned by her female companions.

When the woman approached the well to fill her jar, Jesus knew he could expect animosity from her because of the long-standing hostility between Jews and Samaritans. So he took the initiative and asked, Will you give me a drink? By doing so, Jesus became indebted to her and thus had a point of contact with her.

The woman’s response to Jesus’ request for a drink of water was amazement: How can you, a Jew, ask me, a Samaritan woman, for a drink of water? Jews regarded Samaritans as half-breeds who were neither Jew nor Gentile and whose dietary restrictions did not measure up to Jewish standards.

By Jesus’ apparel, the woman knew he was a Jew, and when he asked her for a drink of water, she detected a Jewish accent. Even though she kept up her guard, she had to admit that this Jew appeared to be friendly and unassuming. Perhaps her tone of voice betrayed a degree of aversion when she uttered the word Jew.

Jesus dealt gently with this woman. As he assumed his role as teacher, he said, If you knew the gift of God and realized who was asking you for a drink, you would have asked him for a drink of living water.

By using the terms the gift of God and living water, Jesus spoke religious language. The woman probably did not understand the first expression, which referred to God’s gracious gift of his Son. And she undoubtedly thought that the second term referred to running water bubbling up in Jacob’s well, as opposed to water kept in a cistern.

Also, she might have superstitiously believed that water from Jacob’s well possessed some mysterious power. She took pride in believing that water from this well was superior to water from any other well in the area.

This Samaritan woman realized that Jesus was no ordinary Jew, and therefore she began to address him politely with the title sir. She noticed that he did not have a bucket, and she knew the well was deep. How would he, whoever he might be, get any water out of the well? She entertained a fleeting suspicion that this stranger might be a fraud. She wanted to find out who he was and said, Sir, you have no bucket, and the well is deep.

She also knew that Jews and Samaritans shared a common heritage in the patriarch Jacob. She asked Jesus, Are you greater than our forefather Jacob, who gave us the well and with his sons and herds drank from it? The wording of her question was edgy and was designed to prompt Jesus to identify himself. She wanted him to tell her whether he indeed was greater than Jacob was.

Her suspicion that Jesus was a rabbi was confirmed when Jesus answered her. He said,

Everyone who drinks water from this well will thirst again. This fact of life needed no discussion.

But anyone who drinks the water that I will give will never thirst again. Was he a magician who could produce water that would satisfy a person forever? Her curiosity was aroused, and she wanted to know more about him.

Indeed the water that I give will become a spring of water within them welling up to eternal life. Now that was news she had never heard before.

Her interest stirred, she could hardly restrain herself and asked Jesus for a drink of this living water. The roles were now reversed, for not Jesus but the woman was asking for water, even though the woman had no knowledge of Jesus’ spiritual message.

She bared her soul by revealing to Jesus the daily embarrassment of having to come to the well alone. Day by day she would have to go through the city gate where the elders were seated. She was always aware of their disdaining looks, and at times she would hear their whispers. If it would free her from her daily trek to the well, she would welcome the offer of water that could permanently quench her thirst. If there ever was a time to reach out for help, it was now.

Jesus Takes the Cover Off

This was the opening that Jesus needed to reach her soul, talk about her immoral life, and refresh her spiritually with a spring of water that would perpetually well up inside of her. Jesus changed tactics and told her to go home and return with her husband. His words hit home, for she snapped at him, I have no husband. And Jesus, probably smiling, gently replied, You have said it well, a husband you do not have; that is, you are not legally married.

Jesus continued, You have had five husbands, and the one you have now is not your husband. You have spoken the truth. Jesus did not call the woman to repentance, but by exposing her sin, he forced her to come to terms with her life and acknowledge her sinfulness.

By observing and listening, Jesus read the woman’s social status very well. By revealing his supernatural insight, Jesus caused the woman to reply, Sir, I see that you are a prophet. Notice the progression in her evaluation of Jesus. She first scornfully classified Jesus as a Jew; then when she heard him utter religious words, she politely addressed him as sir; and now after Jesus revealed details about her life, she asked whether he was a prophet.

She realized that this prophet was able to see straight through her and knew all the secrets of her life. She did not become angry and resentful, as she had when the people in her city had called her an immoral woman. This Jew had not rebuked or admonished her; he only mentioned her marital status, or rather the lack of it. In short, he had removed her external cover and now she felt ashamed. But could this prophet help her spiritually to change her life for the better?

She probably had a hunch that Jesus was more than a rabbi or prophet and perhaps was the promised Messiah. Knowing the religious difference between Samaritans and Jews, the woman began to speak in religious terms: Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you say that the place where one must worship is in Jerusalem.

Jesus’ answer to the Samaritan woman took away all feelings of discord and resentment. He stated that the time had arrived in which Jews and Samaritans would not have to go to their distinctive places of worship but could worship God the Father anywhere. He introduced his statement by telling her that his words were trustworthy and true. Indeed, to make his point, he repeated that the time for the true worshipers to worship the Father in spirit and truth was now here.

Jesus indicated a difference between Samaritans and Jews that had to do with the extent of God’s revelation. He said, You worship what you do not know, but we worship what we know. Both