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April 6, 2019This passage is a continuation of yesterday’s confusion about who Jesus is. There is a conflict between what people are seeing and hearing and what they have been taught to believe. But one Pharisee, Nicodemus, who had earlier in John’s gospel spoken with Jesus in secret and had been won over, protests. Even the Law says a man should be given a hearing before judgment is passed. He is swept aside by the leaders’ preconceived ideas: prophets do not come from Galilee. Nicodemus who suggests that they give Jesus a hearing and learn more about him, his doctrine and his actions but was ignored.
Nicodemus appears three times in John’s Gospel. He first comes to Jesus by night and professes that Jesus is a teacher come from God. That night, Jesus will teach Nicodemus that entry into the kingdom of God is achieved through repentance; second, that this re-birth is not physical but rather spiritual and achieved through the power of the Holy Spirit; third, that Jesus, the Son of man, must be lifted up in order to give true life in the Spirit.
Beyond condemning the Jewish religious leaders or the Pharisees, today’s gospel challenges us to reflect on our own prejudices and short-sightedness. Let us pause today and ask ourselves. How do we see Jesus Christ, our family, friends, neighbors, not to mention strangers and outsiders…? Let him or her who is totally without prejudice or who has never passed judgment on another cast the first stone. As St. John Vianney reminds us, “The saints did not all begin well, but they ended well.” Today’s gospel then is a call for us to be always open to others to listen and to understand, and to live not according to how we want it to be but always in consideration of others. As we continue our Lenten journey, we are reminded of the reality of our frailty and God’s redeeming grace. And with that may God be praised.
