Hinsdale Covenant Church
11.24.24 - "Nicodemus: Into the Light" - Lars Stromberg
Amen. Would you pray with me as we turn to God's Word this morning? Lord may the words of my mouth and the meditations of all of our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, our rock and our Redeemer. Well we are on Act 3 of a three-act story about this man named Nicodemus who we read about in the Gospel of John, he's a Pharisee, the great teacher of Israel. Just a reminder of those three acts, Act 1 is the initial meeting that Nicodemus has with Jesus on the rooftop in Galilee that's in John chapter 3 where we get Jesus' commandment to be born again through faith in him. Act 2 is from John chapter 7 where we see Nicodemus and a little bit of courage to stand up in front of his peers and advocate for fairness in the treatment of Jesus for which he is ridiculed and derided. And here we are today, Act 3, it happens after the crucifixion of Jesus in John chapter 19. Let us hear the final act of Nicodemus' story in the Gospel of John. Would you stand as you are able for the Scripture reading? After these things, Joseph of Arimathea, who was a disciple of Jesus, though a secret one because of his fear of the Jews, asked Pilate to let him take away the body of Jesus. Philip gave him permission, so he came and removed his body, Nicodemus, who had first come to Jesus by night, also came, bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes weighing about a hundred pounds. They took the body of Jesus and wrapped it with the spices and linen cloths according to the burial customs of the Jews. Now there was a garden in a place where he was crucified, and in the garden there was a new tomb in which no one had ever been laid. And so, because it was the Jewish day of preparation and the tomb was nearby, they laid Jesus there. The Gospel of the Lord prays to you, Lord Jesus Christ, you can be seated. Okay, short passage here, but this text has a bunch of interesting information in it. And when we put it all together, we're going to see what an amazing conclusion this is to Nicodemus' story in the Gospel of John. I'm going to do some teaching, so I've got eight textual observations so that we can all sort of understand why this is such a fascinating third act in this story. This is this, Nicodemus is not alone. We have another character to welcome into this story. His name is Joseph of Arimathea. He shows up in every single Gospel account of Jesus' death, all four of them. Here's how the Gospel writers describe him in Matthew. He is described as a rich man and a disciple of Jesus. Mark describes him as a prominent member of the Sanhedrin and someone who was waiting for the kingdom of God. Luke calls Joseph a good and upright man and a member of the council who did not agree with their decision to seek Jesus' death. And then in our text, John calls him a disciple of Jesus who kept his faith secret due to his fear of his fellow religious leaders. So when we put this all together, the Gospel writers portray Joseph of Arimathea as a man of integrity and wealth. Nicodemus has a lot in common with Joseph of Arimathea that both being Pharisees on a Sadducee dominated Sanhedrin as Pharisees were minorities among Israel's elite leadership. I imagine that these two men bonded over their interest in this Jesus of Nazareth. They probably bonded over their frustration at their hard-hearted colleagues and they probably bonded that their spirit-led convictions led them to this strange rabbi who said he was the Christ and they believed it. Their bond was put to the test when Jesus went to trial and was sentenced to flogging public humiliation and death by crucifixion. So instead of splintering off, they banded together. The text tells us that Joseph of Arimathea requested permission from Pilate the Roman governor to take Jesus' body from the cross. This is abnormal. A criminal would typically be dumped into an empty grave or a popper's field after a few days, buried unceremoniously under a pile of rocks. So Pilate had to be surprised to see a member of the Sanhedrin standing before him willing to risk his position and his reputation to give an enemy of the state a criminal, one convicted of treason and insurrection, this kind of burial. And when we combine the gospel accounts together, we learn that Joseph of Arimathea himself had a tomb. It was hewn together out of rock, almost certainly a family plot, that he surrendered so that he could house the body of the crucified Jesus. I am warmed by the idea that Nicodemus had Joseph and vice versa. In his long developing faith journey, slow as it is, Nicodemus is presented consistently as solitary, but in his most important act, Nicodemus has a companion. Second observation, Nicodemus gives a very costly gift. So Nicodemus joins Joseph bringing with him what amounts to 75 pounds of spices. These are common burial materials, rather than remove organs or embalm a body, Jewish people typically covered a corpse in perfumes and aloes to control, to allow for a controlled and natural decay. These spices were probably in a powdered form, a water added would make them into a paste, and they would put these spices directly on Jesus body. They would wind strips of linen cloth around his body from his feet to his shoulders, and they would put more spices in between each layer of cloth. I try to imagine Nicodemus carrying 75 pounds worth of these spices. What a burden. Not to mention the actual cost of these spices. It's a wide divergence of views on the monetary cost of these burial materials that Nicodemus brought, but all scholars agree that this represents an extravagant amount of money. My best guess is I look through it. I think this would have been what amounts to about $175,000 worth of spices in today's market. This is a gift of ridiculous lavishness. It's a love offering for Jesus. Why so great an amount of spices to prepare for one man's body for burial? Not common at all. No common man got this kind of treatment. This is enough spices for a king, and that's exactly what they wanted to do for Jesus. Point number three, Nicodemus gives him the burial of a king. Those spices were reserved for only the most important people, especially in the amounts that Nicodemus provided. O'Too was the tomb itself one that would have only been reserved for a king. The gospels tell us that the tomb is a virgin tomb, meaning that no one had ever been buried there before. Only the most wealthy people could provide such a tomb, especially in a common space like this. Many wealthy Jews would have had a tomb reserved for them on their own property. Cue not a rock and stone somewhere, but this tomb was not part of a residence. It was in a garden. This was a plot for a king. Typically, tombs would have been used for multiple bodies over time. A body would decay and it would be buried or pushed aside to make room for another. That was economical, but not this tomb. It had never been used. This kind of tomb was reserved for only royalty. These two men, Joseph and Nicodemus, perhaps they're making up for their hidden discipleship and their reticence to outwardly commit themselves to Jesus in his life. What did they do? They choose to honor him as royalty in his death. Fourth, Nicodemus performs an ultimate act of love. The Gospel tells us that the Romans had made exception by taking Jesus and the two thieves down from the cross. Normally Romans would have left criminals on a crucified cross until their flesh was eaten by birds or other animals. Guards would have kept watch over these bodies in order to keep friends and family members from taking them away. This was their just punishment. A pilot made an exception in the case of these two men. He allowed them to take down the body of Jesus. I want you to just imagine for a moment what this was like. Jesus' body, still affixed to the cross, is lowered down to the ground and then they say to these men, it's time for you to take over now. Perhaps some of the women helped as well, I think they probably did, but what they did was they sordid through the blood and the wounds, his back which would have been devoid of skin after his violent flogging, sticking to that wooden cross. These men had to literally peel the body of Jesus off the cross and then carry him the distance to the tomb. What a difficult task on each and every level. Then they carefully wrapped Jesus in bandages and they anoint him with myrrh as a preservative and allos and perfumes to minimize the stench of decomposition. This was an ultimate act of love for Joseph and for Nicodemus, two high-ranking religious officials stooping low and exhausting themselves in order to honor their lord. A reality too sad and too beautiful for adequate words. Five, Nicodemus is no longer in the dark. For our friend who originally came to Jesus at night and has had very best tiptoed around the edges of the light of Jesus, he is finally now out in the open. As we piece together the timeline and the story of Good Friday, Jesus is actively dying on the cross for three hours from about noon to three p.m. when he breathes his last. He would have been on the cross for a while his body lowered to the ground at around four p.m. which means that all that Nicodemus did for Jesus' burial would have happened in the daylight. How do we know this? Because it's Friday and Friday is the day of preparation for the Passover and for this very special Shabbat which meant that all work had to cease at sundown by law. So Nicodemus, Joseph and the women who were there only had a few short hours to get Jesus into the tomb before they had to stop their work that was considered work their work had to cease. Nicodemus in the open with the body of Jesus for about three hours. The sun went down in Jerusalem on that day at 6.51 p.m. after an extremely rare lunar eclipse. That's a whole other sermon someday. Not only is he in daylight in a very public setting, he and Joseph are openly defiling themselves in front of their colleagues because you see in Judaism an interaction with a corpse caused someone to be ritually unclean and to become clean again you would have to go to the temple and take part in a ritual bath called a mikvah under priestly supervision, what's the problem with that? It's that mikvahs weren't available during the Shabbat, they weren't available during Passover. So Nicodemus is lovingly peeling the body of Jesus from the cross, he's rapping his body in cloth knowing full well that there was absolutely no chance that he would be able to cleanse himself before the Passover, before the Shabbat. No law abiding self-respecting Jew, let alone a teacher of the law would have dared to do such a thing but for Nicodemus and his friend Joseph they weighed the cost and they chose the broken body of Jesus. This is a stunning bold act of faith that could hardly be more public and hardly be more costly, 6 Nicodemus proves himself to be a true disciple. You may remember the 12 disciples of Jesus who had been with him throughout his ministry openly associating with this scorned rabbi, they all ran from Jesus in his time of need, they ran away from the cross, they feared for their lives, that they too might end up on a cross themselves simply by association. The ones who did not run from Jesus in his time of need were several of the women who were truly disciples in every way that the 12 were and then these two unlikely Pharisees. When the supposedly true disciples of Jesus tuck tail and ran, denying Jesus and leaving their king to die alone, two men here proved themselves to be true disciples of Jesus. They did not run from Jesus, they ran towards Jesus and his passion performing vitally important acts that make possible his resurrection story. 7 Nicodemus fulfills prophecy about the Messiah. In these beautiful faithful acts Nicodemus fulfills at least two vital Old Testament prophecies. In Isaiah 53 verse 9, speaking of the Messiah it says, "They made his grave with the wicked but with the rich at his death." Joseph of Arimathea was wealthy and provided that tomb thereby fulfilling Isaiah's prophecy and Nicodemus helped him bring that body to the rich man's tomb. But there's also David's prophecy of the resurrection of Jesus in Psalm 19, "You shall not allow your holy one to see corruption." Nicodemus cares for the body of Jesus. Joseph's tomb had never been used and the body of Jesus was wrapped in clean linen and placed in it. Nicodemus therefore plays an integral part in fulfilling two vital prophecies about the Messiah. For these two men I have a hard time imagining that they were not wholly unaware of these texts as they were going through these acts. These men who knew scripture back and forth, especially those texts about the Messiah that they so deeply long for, I can imagine them reciting these texts to one another as they dress the body of Jesus, as they carried the body of Jesus, as they laid him in the tomb. Myth observation, final one. Nicodemus offers a crucially important eyewitness account. Okay, I need you to hang with me here because this is super important stuff and I've been sitting on it for all three weeks of this series. Did you ever wonder how did John find out about Nicodemus' initial interaction with Jesus in John chapter three up on that rooftop? Maybe Jesus told him. Maybe Jesus walked through that whole interaction with him, but that does not explain how John could find out about Nicodemus standing up for Jesus amidst his Sanhedrin colleagues or how he would find out about Nicodemus' courageous act in bearing the body of Christ. So how did John come by this information? Well the standard answer would be that there was a broad oral tradition concerning Jesus that was already in circulation and John picks up that oral tradition and writes it down. But then why does John, the problem with that is it doesn't explain why the other three gospel writers don't also use that oral tradition. Why is John the only gospel that names Nicodemus and the other gospel writers emit it completely? This is the question that New Testament scholar Richard Bockum asks in his magnum opus Jesus and the eyewitnesses. You do not need to read this book. It is a dense scholarly book, I've already read it for you. You do need to know that it's an important book and it has forever changed me as a Bible reader, preacher, and follower of Jesus. Here's Bockum's thesis. John specifically notes at the end of his gospel, the very end of his gospel, what the purpose of his book is. He says the purpose of this book is that everyone who reads it might believe that Jesus was indeed the Messiah and that through him comes eternal life. That's his reason for writing his gospel. And to that end Bockum argues that anyone in John's gospel who is named with a proper name is someone who was accessible and part of the community that he was writing to. That anyone who was named was an eyewitness to Jesus and can attest to the fact that he was indeed the Messiah. In other words, Bockum believes that John adds this story of Nicodemus to his gospel because he wants his readers to seek out Nicodemus in their community and ask him, hey, Nicodemus is all this true to which Nicodemus can say yes, yes it is. Jesus looked me straight in the eyes and he said you need to be born again. He told me that God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son, yes, I stood up in front of my Sanhedrin colleagues and I advocated for Jesus, yes, I was there on that Friday. I cared for the body of Jesus, I removed him from the nails on the cross, I bound his body, I laid him in the tomb and yes, it's the exact same tomb that was empty two days later. I think Bockum is spot on. Extra-biblical tradition would tell us that Nicodemus remained in Jerusalem, that he asked Peter and John for the privilege of being baptized by them, that he lived with a great teacher, Gameliel, who shows evidence of a gradual conversion to Jesus much like Nicodemus himself does in the book of Acts. I like to think of Nicodemus being a prominent member of the Jerusalem Church, witnessing to death and resurrection of the Messiah Jesus until his dying day. If Bockum is correct, then Nicodemus' eyewitness account of the death and resurrection of Jesus is a crucial one to the very good news gospel of Jesus Christ and ironclad evidence of his resurrection. So this slow burn faith renewal story of Nicodemus becomes an essential one in order to tell the story of Jesus. What grace is that? What hope is that for us as imperfect followers of Jesus as well? So with all that context out there and hopefully clear, I want to move to some final applications for us. Something really interesting is developed in this series for me as I've been preparing for it. Something that wasn't planned really at all, it's been a movement of the Spirit. Each and every week I've been struck by the questions that these texts force me to ask myself. So as we've done each week, let's ask ourselves some questions, three of them to close this morning. First, is my faith being lived out in the daylight? This is a question that we've asked throughout Nicodemus' story all three weeks in a way, but it's not until this final act that Nicodemus fully steps out into the light where he risks it all, not caring who's watching. I know that many of you here have reputations as faithful Christ followers everywhere that you go. To you I would say fantastic. Let Nicodemus' story encourage you to do so even more boldly. Others of you here would admit that you withhold from Jesus in certain places, relationships, and settings in your life. I'd encourage you to let Nicodemus challenge you to stop withholding, to come fully into the light of Jesus in each and every area of life. All others of you here today, I'm sure, have never really crossed the threshold of faith. You've got earnest questions just like Nicodemus had, but you're really not ready to name Jesus as your Messiah, your Savior. And if that's you, my friend, what an opportunity you have before you this very morning. You have an opportunity from the gospel of Jesus to respond in the exact way that John intended when he added Nicodemus' eyewitness story to his gospel, to turn from the darkness of sin and self to the light of Christ for all eternity. I'm going to give you an opportunity to respond to Jesus in a few moments to step into the daylight of Jesus, but just a couple more questions before we do so. Second question. What costly gift am I offering Jesus in response to who he is and how good he's been to me? Think of the painstaking care of Nicodemus as he took Jesus from the cross. Think of the 75 pounds of spices that he lugged along with him. Think of the cost, a small fortune that most people would consider a total and utter waste. Why waste such value on a dead criminal? Why lay him in a virgin tomb that was a family inheritance, a legacy for your children? Because it's Jesus. Because he is the Messiah who offered up his body, his life, his divinity for us. Whatever gift we could muster pales in comparison. In view of the gift of grace, the gift of eternal life, what is a family tomb? What are spices? They're nothing. Except to Jesus, they're not nothing. They are essential elements in the unfolding story of redemption, of all things under his lordship. He uses the spices and the grave clothes and the tomb, not as wasteful gifts, but as gifts that become cornerstones of the resurrection story. You cannot tell the story of the resurrection of Jesus without these costly gifts. I'm not going to stand up here today and tell you what your costly gift for Jesus needs to be. That would be utter manipulation and the spirit can lead you in that far better than I ever could. But I will invite you to ask God, by his spirit, to impress upon you what that costly gift is that you have to offer. It may well be material, monetary like Nicodemus. And let me just be honest, I'd like to remind us of this every once in a while. We here in the western suburbs in the grand scheme of our nation world and human history are filthy, filthy rich. I don't care what your portfolio says, we are all so rich. If you drove here in a car today, if you're going to eat three meals today, you're rich. Costly gifts are going to look different for everybody, but make no mistake. We here in this church have costly gifts to give that can literally advance the work of God in this world in tangible ways. And Nicodemus also models for us that not every gift is monetary. Some of them are time and care, binding up wounds, defiling ourselves with the blood of others, carrying the body of Jesus, going the extra mile for the sake of dignity. So for God's sake, give, not out of obligation, but in a response to all that Jesus has given you for the faithfulness and goodness that he has shown you, for his perfect gift of himself, for you and me, for the immeasurable gift of his presence and life eternal with him, Nicodemus' story in a poetic twist, who knew it, is really one about giving. Finally, last question. Am I treating Jesus like the king that he is? In the last act of Nicodemus' biblical story, he announces through his actions that Jesus is the king of his life. He dresses the body of Jesus as a king. He anoints him as a king. He carries him to a king's tomb and buries him as a king. This was not procedural. This was the proclamation that this man who has died is the king of my life. Even in his death, I hope in him as my king. Do we live like this? Is he the king of your life? Do you treat him like a king or does he get the scraps from your table, the tired, distracted version of you and it's convenient for you? Is he an on-call custodian for your life or is he the king of your life? Do you take your lead from him? Do you revere him? Do you worship him? Is his presence make your heart raise? Nicodemus shows us his faith maturation by making this forceful statement about Jesus kingship over him. And friends, we all fall short of this. We fail to treat him as our king, me first and foremost. I can say that about me because I know me. It is our heart set on him even when we fail. Do our lives look to him for all that we need? This is what Jesus deserves from us, our worship, our reverence, our obedience, our faithfulness, all for our king, Jesus. So as we continue to ask ourselves these questions, I want to tell you that Nicodemus is narrative is most certainly an invitation. I'm convinced that is how John intended us to read it. It's not a nice story, it's a mandate. We are meant to see our own story in Nicodemus' story. We are meant to come out of the shadows and into his light. We are meant to suffer with Jesus even in his death. We are meant to give costly gifts. We are meant to participate in his resurrection. We are meant to risk it all for our king, Jesus. I give thanks for the disciple Nicodemus. May we be a Nicodemus people and so be born again, emerging from the shadows, participating in Jesus' story until our dying breath. By God's grace and in light of his mercy, may it be so for each of us. Would you pray with me? Lord Jesus, would you place us in this part of your gospel story? I'm thankful for the way that your servant John provided Nicodemus as a guide for us. Lord we confess that each and every one of us live in darkness and we need the light of your presence and your love and your life for each and every day. So Lord, may this story continue to spur us on and move us forward, Lord. For those here today who are earnest followers of Jesus, may Nicodemus grant them boldness. For those here today who are followers of you but reticent to give over their entire lives to the light of your love. Would you give them the courage to leave the shadows behind? Would you present them ways to step out in faith, out into the openness and into the light because of their recognition of your goodness to them? And Lord for those here today who are intrigued by you, have questions about you but would not consider themselves followers of you, pray that they might, through the story of Nicodemus, hear an invitation to the life that you offer, a life of being born again, that they would leave behind the darkness of sin, that they would turn finally to you as their Messiah, their King. If that is you this morning, someone who feels motivated to step into the light of Jesus for the first time, I would just invite you to silently pray this prayer with me. Lord Jesus, thank you for calling me out of the shadows and into your light. I choose you as the King of my life. I give over my throne of control and dominion to the one who is worthy of such things. I trust in you. I am willing to suffer with you. The desire of my heart is to follow you. And Lord for all of us together, would you teach us, through your faithful disciple Nicodemus, what it means to give costly gifts to you, would you motivate hearts right now as to what those gifts might be, and would you use them as essential parts of your redemptive story in this world right here and right now. So Lord we affirm that in you, there is no darkness at all, that the night and the day are both alike, that you yourself are the source of light and life, which use you Lord to be the guiding light of our life. We pray these things in your name, amen. Friends, let's respond together with our closing hymn about Jesus as the light of the world. Him number 107, Christ is the world's light, let's sing together. God bless you. [Music]
From John 19