READINGS FROM HOLY SCRIPTURE:
- Isaiah 6:1-7
- Romans 11:33-36
- St. John 3:1-15
Grace and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Savior. (Titus 1:4)
Who speaks to you today, saying:
“Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water
and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God”
With these words of God, He invites us to contemplate a figure who speaks directly to the quiet, heavy trials of the human soul: Master Nicodemus. He is our teacher today and our Saint of Gradual Grace.
In our Lutheran life, we cling fiercely to the comfort of the Gospel. Yet, our weak flesh often betrays us and trembles, fearing that our faith is too small or our growth too slow. Look to the example of Nicodemus and find consolation where he finds consolation: Christ alone.
To begin: In our own liturgy, we have now changed seasons. Where in Easter we doubled up on our Alleluias, singing one in-between the Old Testament and the Epistle, and another between the Epistle and the Gospel, as well as many others dispersed throughout Service, today marks a change. Trinity Sunday now gives a return to the Gradual, the psalm we sing between the Old Testament and Epistle, and less Alleluias.
The ecstatic Alleluia, alleluia, alleluias of Easter have sobered up to the Gradual march to the Return of Christ. Slow and steady. Little by little. Sometimes there may be immediate conversions to the faith, like St. Paul, but most times we are brought along with God’s patience, through this life. We are fed spiritual milk, as spiritual infants, until we mature enough for spiritual food.
This, the Church reflects in Her practice of Catechesis and in Her yearly cycle of worship. She continually repeats these things over and over again, and it all comes from the Bible. Yes, far from being only a Bible character, Nicodemus is also a liturgical one.
What do I mean by that? I mean that Nicodemus is the pattern the Christian follows in his own life of faith. And the Church aids that life, by what we do each time we gather around Jesus. Let’s explore.
Thanks be to God that most of us first entered the Church in our infancy. We were born to faithful parents who catechized us, brought us to church, and had us baptized. Yet even if this is not the case, you can imagine coming to a church like ours for the first time.
Really, any first visit to any new place is disorienting and uncomfortable. What do I do? What do I say? Who are you people? Why the strange words and books? Why the funny pajamas?
We are timid. We are unsure. We would rather be in a corner or in the dark of night to observe and not be noticed in case we do or say something wrong.
Nicodemus comes to Jesus by night and this is the poor soul entering the Narthex. You know, that first little room in between the outside doors and the Nave proper, here. We stand out there, cloaked in the shadow of our sin and death, blinking at the light. Interested. Seeking.
As Nicodemus, we cannot grasp the things of God on our own terms. "Our churches teach”, declares our Lutheran Confessions, “that since the fall of Adam, all who are naturally born are born with sin, that is, without the fear of God, without trust in God..." (AC II:1). Furthermore, the Formula states that human reason is utterly blind: "...before regeneration, human reason and understanding in spiritual matters are completely blind and understand nothing... as it is written in 1 Corinthians 2:14" (FC II:2, 9).
What Nicodemus and all of us face in the Narthex is the limit of our reason, because of Original Sin. Just as Nicodemus cannot grasp the washing of rebirth and regeneration in water and the Spirit, neither can we grasp the things of God. We are turned away, for God refuses to give Himself in any other way than His Word and Sacraments.
But Nicodemus refuses to leave. He engages in the divine dialog. How can an old man be born again? How can a man enter his mother’s womb a second time? How can these things be? He may leave with more questions than answers, but God has given His answers in Jesus and at the Word of Jesus, the Spirit creates faith which refuses to let go without a blessing.
We approach the Word and wrestle with Him. We enter the Nave and move closer to the Ambo, or as we have, the Lectern, where God’s Holy Word is proclaimed. It is there that our reason and intellect are challenged and shattered, in the face of God’s own wisdom. Challenged by the Gospel, our minds must be renewed and remade by divine Truth.
Our Confessions teach it this way: "To obtain such faith God instituted the office of preaching, giving the gospel and the sacraments. Through these, as through means, He gives the Holy Spirit Who produces faith, where and when He wills, in those who hear the gospel..." (AC V:1-3). Luther adds in the Large Catechism that to be born again through water and the Spirit “means to enter into Christ's kingdom and be cleansed from sins." (LC IV:25).
Nicodemus, and we in our sin, miss that we do not rebirth ourselves; God does it to us. God attaches His life-giving Word to the water, giving us His Holy Spirit, and birthing a new creation where human effort failed.
We then fight a war on two fronts: we continue to wrestle with God in His Church and we begin to fight against the world and its sinfulness. Later on in John chapter 7, Nicodemus speaks again, this time in front of the chief priests and Pharisees who will later condemn Jesus, but who now want Him killed and out of their way.
Nicodemus finds a bit of courage in the Spirit and opposes his brothers, saying, “Does our law judge a man without first giving him a hearing and learning what he does?” (Jn 7:51). His brothers mock him saying, “Are you from Galilee too? Search and see that no prophet arises from Galilee” (Jn 7:52). Except for the ones that were, like Jonah…
The Church’s candles have been lit and the light hits Nicodemus and us in the face with the force of grace. We have been given new words and a new song that no longer line up with the devil, the world, and our sinful nature. The Holy Spirit given to us does not stay silent. In Him, we are ravenous for the Truth and we hunger and thirst for righteousness, which now we believe are not found in this world.
"Our churches also teach that this faith is bound to bring forth good fruits, and that it is necessary to do good works commanded by God, because of God’s will...", teaches Augsburg (AC VI:1). The Formula clarifies that "...faith is a divine work in us that changes us and causes us to be born anew of God... It is impossible to separate works from faith, quite as impossible as to separate heat and light from fire." (SD IV:10–12).
The final place we are brought to is the cross of Jesus. Nicodemus again shows up at the burial of Jesus where he brings a royal amount of incense to bury and honor the Body of Christ. Nicodemus has found the Altar of God on which sits the Sacrifice of God, His Son, the Lamb, Who takes away his sin and the sin of the world.
At the work of Jesus, Nicodemus of the night, becomes Nicodemus of the day. By night he had first approached Jesus, now in faith he proclaims the Son of God in the light for all to see. This is contrasted with the disciples who had all followed Jesus during the day, but ran in the darkness of Good Friday.
The divine light of the cross, as a refiner’s fire, burns away all doubt and sin. We sing this wonderful climax of faith in Dr. Luther’s hymn “O Lord look down from heaven behold”:
“As silver tried by fire is pure, from all adulteration, so through God’s Word shall men endure each trial and temptation. Its light beams brighter through the cross and purified from human dross, it shines through every nation.” (TLH 260:5)
The Formula of Concord puts it this way: "...although renewal and sanctification are a fruit of Christ's righteousness they do not justify a person before God... but they follow faith." (SD III:27, 41).
And that same Body, reverently taken down from the cross, is given to us in a great mystery: "...it is the true body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, in and under the bread and wine, instituted by Christ himself for us Christians to eat and to drink." (LC V:8).
This was three years for Nicodemus to stand where he did, and it is a lifetime for us. The beset Nicodemus lives through his own halting, imperfect, and closeted belief, yet still culminates in heroic sanctity, in Christ. Rather than “one and done” faith, Jesus gives us a lifetime of faith to live out. He takes great care and patience with us, that we may gradually come to strong belief.
For we of the true Church on earth, have been placed on the Way in multiple ways. As we have explained, our Liturgy is one Way where we are kept on the straight and narrow. Another part of that is our Church Year.
Today is the day after we have been given the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, so now what? As Master Nicodemus teaches, we move into the season of Trinity, where the Trinity works His mysteries upon us in Baptism. We are birthed into the Body of Christ and now live under Him in His Church on earth. Through Advent, Lent, and Easter, Nicodemus teaches us to believe in the necessity of the Sacraments and to trust the light of the cross, rather than fear it.
All this happens at the Word of the Most Holy Trinity: Father, Son and Holy Ghost. He is not slow, as some count slowness. “Instead He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance” (2 Pet 3:9).
In our beautiful journey towards Jesus, The Word gives us the rhythm of the Church Year to live with us, bring us along, and transform us into the Life of Christ while living our own life. Church is meant to bring you into the faith ever deeper from the darkness of sin and fear, to the bright love of the Crucified, and finally to the death of death forever.
Grace works both quickly and slowly. While we have been purchased from all sin, from death, and the power of the devil by Christ alone, we still cling to our sin. Yet, even when we can’t see it, the Word is changing us. Grace is an invitation, not a command.
And there is profound hope. For we have seen God transform Nicodemus, a timid and fear-filled night visitor, into a bold saint at the foot of the cross. And we pray for that transformation too. Let us allow the seasons of the Church Year, the Word and Sacrament, and our Liturgy to reshape our hearts, moving us out of darkness and into the fullness of God’s Light.
Make no mistake, you are on this path. for just as Nicodemus received the Body of Jesus from the cross, you also receive His same true Body and Blood at the Altar today.
Dear Christians, do not despair if your faith feels small, or if your sanctification seems to advance at a snail's pace. The devil loves to terrify the conscience by whispering that a slow faith is no faith at all. By justification, by faith, through grace, for Christ's sake, received as a free gift, your standing before God does not depend on the speed of your holiness, but on the certainty of your Savior.
So, if you are currently a "Nicodemus by night"—seeking Jesus in secret, plagued by doubts, or paralyzed by the fear of what others think—take heart. The Holy Spirit who began a good work in you will not abandon you. He is the God of Gradual Grace. He protects the smoking flax and will not break the bruised reed. Trust His Word, feed upon His Sacraments, and watch how His inviting grace brings you from midnight darkness into the marvelous, eternal light of His presence.
Amen.
