Nicodemus was caught by surprise. He was a learned scholar of the Law. He knew all the rules: what to do to get to God and what would lead to condemnation.
Nicodemus, like all the Pharisees, was a rule follower. He came to see Jesus at night so no one would discover his association with a rebel. Jesus was known as a rebel precisely because He didn’t keep all the rules. Nicodemus had an extremely difficult time understanding that God was not out to condemn people, but to save everyone from disaster. Like the disaster that afflicted the folks during the time of Moses. Since the people had been disobedient, serpents were biting them, and they were dying. God asked Moses to make a bronze serpent and so that everyone who looked at it, recovered. God saved His people from disaster. Jesus compared Himself to the bronze serpent by saying, “…so must the Son of Man be lifted up, so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.” Now, there’s a good deal! Just believe and all will be well. Too good to be true. That’s what lot of people think. Too good to be true. Salvation has got to hurt. We must work to get to heaven. Salvations is not just going to come down and land on our lap. After all, that’s why we have Lent—to suffer. Fasting, prayer, and almsgiving. 40 days of giving up something so that after 40 days we can say that we accomplished something. Giving up stuff makes us feel justified. We feel good about doing without stuff we enjoy, like candy, certain foods, booze. But when all is said and done, have we come closer to God? Has our fast made us better people? Perhaps we are a few pounds thinner. Cholesterol might have gone down. Even our mental health might have improved.
Like Nicodemus, we want to keep the rules. We want to do what God expects of us. If we are honest, much of our relationship with God has been based on fear. If we mess up, God is watching. We conclude that God is not happy with what He sees, because we know that the world is in a mess! Think again. Jesus came to set us free. “For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him.” So, if Jesus does not condemn us why do we feel bad? When we do something wrong, why do we feel condemned? We do a pretty good job of condemning ourselves. The famous, “Off with his head” mentality does not help anyone. God is not out to destroy us, or He would have already annihilated the human race.
Assurance of not being condemned should give us peace. Peace that no one can take away. We are guaranteed God’s unconditional love. But doubt creeps in. As in every instance where something good is happening. We doubt our own worthiness. Since we are aware of our faults, negativity at times dominates all the good that is happening in our life. One negative destroys 99 positives. We gravitate towards the negative. Therefore, we condemn ourselves. Because we refuse to believe in the words of Jesus. We refuse to believe that His words are meant for us. The consequence is that we hide. If not forgiven, if not absolved, if not brought to the light—works of evil will cause us to hide. Jesus came to destroy evil. He breaks the darkness. We should not stand in the way. Our challenge is to get out of the way of forgiveness—to allow ourselves to be loved. We have been given tremendous liberation in our relationship with Jesus Christ. Folks can become trapped in sins of the past. We feel ashamed, embarrassed, guilty. If we hear the words of freedom, there is no condemnation. The past cannot be undone, only redeemed. We can only learn from our mistakes. Once we experience forgiveness, we might not be so fast to condemn others.
We approach the Eucharist with confidence knowing that we are not condemned. Jesus gave us His word. We are saved by His mercy.