Are You Holding Onto Rules?
My ten-year-old son is a rule follower. The world is very black-and-white in his young mind. There are good guys and there are bad guys, and there is a big difference between the two. Not only does he not know the word “nuance,” he cannot comprehend that people cannot be sorted into only two categories. He believes in the rule of law, that rule-breakers should be punished and that all the wrongs in this world could be solved with a rule.
The Pharisees in Jesus’ time felt the same way. They had a ruling council called the Sanhedrin whose purpose was to interpret existing rules and to make new rules to govern the Jewish world. They determined what sacrifices were required for sins, how long a man’s beard should be, and the length of tassels on a prayer shawl. Like my son, they believed a well-ruled life was a well-lived life.
Then came Jesus.
Jesus began teaching and preaching that the rules didn’t matter. He told people that love, justice, grace, and mercy were more important than rules. He even broke the rules by not only associating with unclean people but healing them. And he dared to heal them on the Sabbath!
This was scandalous. How dare he upset the carefully ruled and ordered existence?
One Pharisee needed answers. He came to Jesus under the cover of darkness, probably at the back door with a “Pssttt….” Nicodemus was a member of the Sanhedrin, a highly learned and wealthy man, who had questions of Jesus. He probably had assistants or interns he could have sent with his questions written on a scroll, but he didn’t. He came himself to ask questions and learn from Jesus.
We see his story recorded only in the Gospel of John. In chapter 3. Jesus said some crazy stuff to Nicodemus: “I tell you the truth, unless you are born again, you cannot see the Kingdom of God” (John 3:3 NLT). In that moment, Nicodemus was shocked. He didn’t understand. Instead of casting him aside, Jesus continued to patiently explain and dialog with him. He broke it down to the simplest truth to one of the smartest men in the Jewish faith.
John 3:16 says, “For this is how God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life” (NLT). This is probably the most famous Bible verse in the world. It is often the first one we teach children in Sunday School. It is the one we put on signs and placards and bumper stickers.
Jesus didn’t preach this truth to thousands of followers on a hillside or a crowd gathered on a seashore.
He said it to only one man. And that man needed to start at the beginning. He needed to start again as a baby and grow in faith and love, not rules and consequences.
We can probably all quote John 3:16, but what about the verse that follows it?
I find John 3:17 to be the most compelling once we know who Jesus was talking to! Nicodemus lived by rules; he made the rules others had to abide by. Jesus told him, “God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through him” (NLT).
This truth had to have blown Nicodemus’s mind. Jesus said that not only would he not follow the Pharisees’ rules, but he came to save the world from those rules.
Chapter 3 does not record a massive life change for Nicodemus. I imagine he went home with a lot to think about. But we see later that he did think about what Jesus had said.
Fast forward to the end of chapter 7, wherein the Pharisees sent the Temple guards to arrest Jesus while he was teaching and preaching to the crowds. The guards were captivated by Jesus and refused to arrest him. The Pharisees were angry and contemplating how to rid themselves of this Jesus problem. Nicodemus spoke up and asked his colleagues, “Is it legal to convict a man before he is given a hearing?” (John 7:51 NLT).
This question made the rule-makers pause for just a minute. Nicodemus didn’t tip his hand completely; he didn’t say, “Stop! I’ve met with him. He has some good things to say, I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about it.”
Instead, he did what he could where he was.
We can read about one final encounter with Nicodemus, in chapter 19: “With [Joseph of Arimathea] came Nicodemus, the man who had come to Jesus at night. He brought about seventy-five pounds of perfumed ointment made from myrrh and aloes. Following Jewish burial custom, they wrapped Jesus’ body with the spices in long sheets of linen cloth” (John 19:39-40 NLT).
When all the disciples except John (who remained at the cross with Mary and recorded this event) have fled in fear, Nicodemus made his devotion to Jesus public in a big and expensive way. When everyone else had gone, when Jesus had been killed, that’s when Nicodemus stepped forward. As a Scripture scholar, he would have seen the Scriptures fulfilled when Jesus died.
Notice that Nicodemus came forward before the resurrection. He came forward when it seemed like all was lost.
It isn’t just Nicodemus and my son who love to live by rules; I do too. But the life of Nicodemus shows me that rules aren’t as important as relationships and that correctness doesn’t trump community.
What rules am I holding on to at the cost of stepping forward toward Jesus?
is rooted like a turnip to the plains of North Dakota where she raises great food, large numbers of farm animals, and three free-range kids with her husband. You can find her with either a book or knitting needles in her hands as she dreams up her next adventure.
Photograph © Héctor Achautla, used with permission
