“There was a man
named Nicodemus, a Jewish religious leader who was a Pharisee”
(John 3:1, NLT).
The Pharisees were the
cultural and religious traditionalists of Jesus’ day. Like Jesus, they took
God’s Word seriously. In their zealous efforts to live by God’s Word, they had
identified so many minute standards of obedience that they obliterated the spirit
of God’s instructions. Joyful obedience
was replaced by legalistic and crushing rule-keeping. The Pharisees were
control-driven people. They defined their relationship with God (if any) to the
smallest detail, and they imposed their standards on others (Malaysians, sound
familiar?). In fact, one of the charges Jesus levelled against the Pharisee as
a group was, “You are careful to tithe even the
tiniest income from your herb gardens, but you ignore justice and the love of
God. You should tithe, yes, but do not neglect the more important things”
(Luke 11:42). Jesus confronted their focus on minutiae while ignoring major
points of obedience to God. Jesus’ point wasn’t to ignore the disciple of
tithing but to show the Pharisees that God was more concerned for justice and
love.
In Jesus’ day, the line
between religious and political authority was certainly blurred. Frustrated by
the rule of the Roman Empire, leaders among the Jewish people tended to come
from religious groups. Alongside the Pharisees were the Sadducees, people who
treated the Law of Moses primarily as a governmental document rather than a
spiritual one. They operated within a civil form of religious in which God was
little more than a figurehead (Malaysians, sound familiar?). The Pharisees and
Sadducees competed for power in the Sanhedrin, the highest Jewish governmental
body under Roman control. Nicodemus was a member of that body.
The Pharisees could also
be described as the group most officially in favour of the coming Messiah. The
fulfilment of this promise would not only expel the Romans from the Promised
Land, but it would also place the Pharisees firmly in power as the religious
leaders of God’s people. Publicly, the Pharisees could not accept Jesus’ claim
to be the Messiah. Not only did Jesus fail to fit their notions of who and what
the Saviour would be, he also offended them by treating lightly the very
traditions they felt made them unique – primary their highly ritualized
observance of the Sabbath. Privately, individual Pharisees demonstrated a
hunger for righteousness that drew them to Jesus. Some sensed hypocrisy in
themselves that Jesus confronted. And so the Pharisee named Nicodemus arranged
to meet Jesus one evening.
Jesus unsettles people. If you read the whole encounter of Nicodemus with
Jesus in John 3:1-21, you’ll find that Jesus unsettled Nicodemus – and
he continues to unsettle us. Just when
we think we have Jesus figured out, he surprises us. Jesus tells us the
things we need to hear, even when we don’t want to hear from them. Nicodemus
didn’t know what to expect when he approached Jesus that night. Think about
this: The Living Lord Jesus smashes stereotypes and glib descriptions. Jesus
comes personally and speaks personally – right to your needs, your hang-ups,
your heart. Ask yourself these questions: When has defending a tradition kept
you from seeing the real Jesus? How has Jesus overcome stereotypes you’ve had
of him? How has Jesus transcended your expectations of him?
Come, express your
willingness to be surprised by Jesus – to be unsettled and changed by him.
THINK BIG.
START SMALL. GO DEEP.
Reference: Life Application Study Bible Devotional: Daily Wisdom from the Life of
Jesus (Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., 2011)
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