A Nocturnal Visitor

The Jewish Sanhedrim was a sort of parliament, a supreme national council, possessing also the powers of a court of justice. Disputes as to the interpretation of the law were referred to its decision, and in cases of heresy and blasphemy it exercised the right of punishing offenders, sometimes even putting them to death. Of this high court there were seventy members. Some of them were ecclesiastics, and some were laymen. Besides the primate, or high priest, who was the official president, and at whose entrance all the members arose, and continued standing till he requested them to be seated, there was a number of other sacerdotal personages, called chief priests, probably the heads of the different divisions, or “courses” into which this class was distributed. And besides some elders of the people, corresponding to our Saxon aldermen, or our modern knights of the shire, this council contained some of those scribes, or lay students of the law, who were distinguished for their knowledge of Scripture and tradition. Altogether, it was a grave and august assembly, including within itself priests, elders, and scribes, the leading churchmen and the most celebrated scholars throughout the land, with the flower of the Hebrew aristocracy; and, all the rather because the number was so limited, it was an object of great ambition to be ft member of Sanhedrim, and known throughout the country as a “ruler of the Jews.”

This was the rank of Nicodemus: he was what we may call a peer of the Hebrew parliament, and in his religious profession he was a Pharisee. He was evidently a man of thought and seriousness, and he had been greatly struck by the incidents attending Christ’s first public visit to Jerusalem. The cleansing of the temple, the miracles which Jesus had wrought, the excitement awakened in the mind of the community, together with the general expectation of Messiah’s speedy appearance, had produced a deep impression on Nicodemus. It was evident that Jesus was a prophet; it was not impossible that He might be that great Prophet promised to the fathers. If He were Messiah, there was no time to lose; if He were only an ordinary teacher come from God, He might still throw light on questions which occasioned anxiety to this “master in Israel.” As yet the followers of Jesus were only peasants and poor people. 1 This,’ Nicodemus might inwardly argue,’ i will render a visit from a ruler all the more flattering, and on the mere ground of my rank I may hope for a cordial reception.7 At the same time, the circumstance that Jesus had no adherents of wealth or distinction made Nicodemus afraid to compromise himself. He therefore resolved on a course which he hoped would at once solve his doubts and save his dignity.

It was April — in Palestine soft as an English summer — and the remainder of a Passover moon, which was lighting the pilgrims to their far-away homes, silvered over the temple, and flecked with deep shadows its white marble porticos. And as he steals down the silent streets, whither is the statesman hieing? for what clandestine errand has Nicodemus muffled himself in his mantle, and waited for the covert of the night? It is a humble lodging at which he pauses, and as he enters it is a plain man whom he accosts. But though the visitor has a great signet-ring on his finger and a towering turban on his head — all the insignia of wealth and high station — it is with marked deference — perhaps we should say it is not without a certain awkward air of embarrassment — that he salutes the Galilean stranger. “Rabbi, we know * that thou art a teacher come from God: for no man can do these miracles that thou doest, except God be with him.” As shortly beforehand in the case of Nathanael, so now with Nicodemus,

“We know! That waa the lofty word of the learned.” — Stier.

Jesus confirms the inquirer’s impression, and justifies His claim to be called a prophet, by giving a specimen of His prophetic intuition. Without waiting to hear the ruler’s question, by anticipation He answers it. “Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” ( You are here to inquire about Messiah’s kingdom. Become a new creature, and then you will be a member of it.’ “How can it be?” rejoins the ruler. As if he said, ‘We Jews are sufficiently regenerate. We have Abraham to our father, and the kingdom of God belongs to us. You might as soon say that a man needs to be twice born into this world, as that a Jew needs to be twice born into God’s kingdom. We are in it already.’ Then, in words fitted to remind Nicodemus of John’s baptism, Jesus replies, “Verily, verily, I say unto thee” — not to the Jews generally, but to thee, Nicodemus — u Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.” l It is common among you Jews to say that a Gentile needs to become a new creature in order to get the benefits of the Hebrew commonwealth — the privileges of the peculiar people; and when you accept him as a proselyte he is baptized, and by that symbol of washing shews that he is cleansed from his old heathenism and adopted into God’s family. But a few months ago not the heathens but the Hebrews — all Jerusalem and all Judea — went out to John and were baptized of him in Jordan, confessing their sins, and professing to repent, for the kingdom of heaven was at hand. Perhaps you have been born of that water. Perhaps you have passed under John’s baptismal washing. And in so doing you have confessed your need, Jew as you are — your need to be born again, in order to be fit for Messiah’s kingdom; and unless you have really repented, as you then professed to do — unless you have been born of the Spirit, as well as of that water — you cannot enter the kingdom of God. It is true your descent from Abraham entitles you to certain privileges: but it does not entitle you to heaven. From Abraham you can only derive a depraved and corrupt nature. From the Spirit of God you need to receive a new and spiritual mind. “That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.” “Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again.” ‘True, it is a mystery — but how many things are mysteries! Hark to that sighing breeze. Your eye cannot catch it. You gee not where the current of air commenced, nor, now that it is passed on its viewless path, can you tell whither it has gone. Yet you hear its sound, you feel its force: in the waving branches and the flying clouds you perceive its effects. And so it is not by perceiving the Spirit in His progress, or watching His proceedings, but by marking the results, that you know when a man is born from above, Still, to the inquirer, it was a dark enigma. “How can these things be?” ‘Are you a public instructor, a student and authorised expounder of Scripture, and yet do you not know these things? Do you not know that God is holy, and requires a holy nature in the subjects of His kingdom? You stumble at the saying; yet we speak that which we do know, and testify that which we have seen. And, indeed, this doctrine of Regeneration may be called an earthly thing: an earthly man might almost concede it: for even an earthly man might be persuaded that he would need to become something else than he now is before he is fit to see and enjoy God. But if this earthly thing perplexes you — a truth scarcely beyond the reach of reason — how shall you believe if I tell you of heavenly things? This necessity of a spiritual renovation is so obvious that it scarcely needed a teacher come from God to tell it:

one might have expected that your own conscience would have at once assented, and that on the very score of the fitness of things you would have granted that, before he enters a spiritual community, the candidate must become a spiritual man. Yet if you hesitate when I assert a truth so obvious and so open to your own cognisance, how will you believe if I proceed to answer your question, and to tell you heavenly things — things where your own experience cannot help you, and where you must proceed entirely on the testimony of the only person now on earth who ever was in heaven.’

Nevertheless, in His condescension, and looking forward to a time when the invisible ink would darken, and when lessons now lost would freshen on the listener’s memory, Jesus went on to state a few of these heavenly things. In other words, He at once explained the means by which a soul dead in trespasses is made alive to God, or born again; and in the same utterance He corrected the erroneous preconceptions regarding God’s kingdom which filled the mind of His visitor. ‘You fancy that Messiah is to be exalted on the throne of David His father; and whilst, like a potter’s vessel, He dashes in pieces the pagans, you expect that in His exaltation Israel is to rise to be supreme among the nations. But that is incorrect. For first, it is not on a throne, and as a conqueror, that the Son of man is to be exalted, but more as Moses raised the serpent in the wilderness, and like that serpent, not a sight of terror but a spectacle of healing. And secondly, it is not for the destruction of the heathen, but for the salvation of the world, that Messiah is come.*’ “For God so loved,” not the Hebrew people, but mankind,” that he gave his only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him [whether Gentile or Jew] should not perish but

Dr J. Brown’s “DiMoumes of Oar Lord.” vol. i. p. 18.

have everlasting life. For [at present] God has not sent his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.” And thirdly, Messiah’s coming is no exaltation of the Jews at the cost of the Gentiles; for he that bilieveth on Him, even the Gentile who receives Messiah in the capacity in which God sends Him, is not condemned; but he that believeth not, even although he be a Jew, is condemned already, because he has rejected God’s Messenger, and refused as a Saviour God’s only Son. Nicodemus, do you depart? Are you only half convinced? It is not for want of evidence if you are not fully persuaded. Light has now come into the world. That Light is here. I am the Light of the World; but you fear to let the truth shine fully upon you, for you cannot afford the consequences.’

Such, as we apprehend it, is the purport of what transpired in this remarkable interview — the first of our Lord’s fully-recorded conversations. He taught Nicodemus some “earthly things;” some things which had been already revealed to mankind in the Scriptures, and which, as a teacher in Israel, Nicodemus ought to have known; things which might commend themselves to unsophisticated reason, and to which the conscience of Nicodemus ought at once to have responded. He taught that Messiah’s kingdom was God’s realm — a community of holy men; and that; in order to be admitted, it was not enough to be descended from Abraham — a man would need to be born of God — he would need to get again those tastes and affections which that son of God, unfallen Adam, once possessed. He reminded Nicodemus of those lustrations which Gentile proselytes underwent when they were “born” into the Hebrew commonwealth, and which, possibly, Nicodemus had undergone at the hands of the Baptist as an acknowledgment of sin and as a preparation for Messiah’s expected advent; but He taught him, that except a man experience an inward purification corresponding to the outward sign — unless he be born of the Spirit as well as of water — u he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.” These were earthly things. They were things already revealed, and which belonged to Nicodemus and all his brethren. And they were things which, approving themselves to a sound understanding, it should not have required a teacher come from God to repeat and inculcate. Then Jesus taught this ruler some heavenly things. He taught some things which were not yet plainly promulgated, and which were only known to the Son of man who is in heaven. He told how, in some mysterious manner corresponding to the elevation of the serpent in the wilderness, He Himself was to become the means of a new existence — the author of a spiritual and everlasting life to depraved and dying men. He taught that

Messiah’s errand is not local or national, but that He is God’s gift of love to all mankind. And He taught that in order for even a Jew and a convert of John the Baptist to be saved, it was needful to believe on the Son of God; it was needful to recognise Him in the character in which God revealed Him, and to receive Him in the capacity in which God sent Him.

Thus much was taught. How much wras comprehended or believed at the moment we cannot tell. We only know that Nicodemus did not then, nor for a great while after, il come to the light.” Next morning, no one knew where he had been; and perhaps if he had met his instructor in the temple courts on the following day, he would have passed Him without recognition. Still, the conversation was not lost. It lingered in his memory. He mused on both its earthly things and its heavenly things; and, feeling more than ever that Jesus was a teacher come from God, doubtless he had many a secret wish to become, like John and Andrew, one of His disciples. But they were all poor Galileans, and Nicodemus was one of the most distinguished residents in Jerusalem. Besides, it is a hard thing for the preceptor to become a pupil: it is a sore descent for the public instructor to acknowledge his ignorance, and come down from the chair of the teacher to the bench of the learner.

a NOcrrKXAi. visitor. 235

Two years passed on, and Nicodemus was not suspected. It was the last Feast of Tabernacles which Jesus attended, and so great was the popular excitement regarding Him, that a meeting of the Sanhedrim was called, and the priests sent officers to arrest Him. The Sanhedrim met, and Nicodemus attended. You wonder what were his thoughts. Doubtless he deemed it safer to take his place in the court, than occasion remark by his absence. And possibly he hoped that an opportunity might arise of befriending the teacher come from God: he might do something to demonstrate His excellence, or to mitigate the malice of His enemies. Oh! what a perilous part to sustain is the part of a secret disciple! And well was it for Nicodemus — perhaps it saved him from forestalling the cowardly compliances of Pilate or the suicidal treachery of Judas — that no trial took place that day. The court was in conclave. The officers had been a good time absent; but as it was notorious where Jesus could be found, no doubt was felt but that they would soon arrive with their prisoner. And here they come at last; but instead of the rush and uproar of a mob scrambling for admittance, as when an important prisoner is led in, the Pharisees are aghast, for nobody enters except these foolish-looking officials. “Why have ye not brought Him?” shouts an ecclesiastic. “Never man spake like this man,” stammers one of the apparitors. I

IT IT I can quite believe you, thinks one of the judges, for I have heard Him myself. However, that was a silent rejoinder; and one of his colleagues sneered at the poor bailiffs, “Are you also deluded? Has any ruler or Pharisee believed in Him?” And he cursed the lower orders for not understanding the law. “The law?” interposed a calmer voice: it was Nicodemus catching up his neighbour’s execration of the people who do not know the law: u doth our law judge any man before it hear him, and know what he doeth?” At which the angry spokesman turned on him, “Art thou also of Galilee? Search and look, for out of Galilee ariseth no prophet.” Nicodemus did not answer; the council broke up; every man went to his own house; and “he who came to Jesus by night” still went about wearing his disguise.

Other six months passed on, and Nicodemus had not lost his prepossession for this “teacher come from God.” Doubtless he often mused on that first and memorable interview, and possibly some of its sayings began to brighten on his mind. Most likely he was now convinced of the earthly things, and in his own timidity and time-serving found another reason why a man must be born again before he can enter God’s kingdom. But was Jesus really the Son of God? As such to receive or reject Him — is this actually the alternative of everlasting life or death — the hinge of heaven or hell? And what is meant by the Son of man being set on high, as Moses set on high the serpent in the wilderness? These queries, as he revolved them in his mind, deepened his though tfulness and intensified his interest in the Prophet of Galilee; but although Nicodemus was the confidant of a fuller gospel, though Jesus had communicated to him some particulars of which no other was yet in possession, still he kept aloof; and, the very converse of Nathanael the guileless Israelite, he waited till the last of his difficulties should dispel, and his cautious mind be carried captive by some conclusive and resistless token. Amidst these meditations the rumour ran that Jesus was at last in the hands of His enemies; and that incident, which shocked and scattered the open disciples, was a spell which drew this secret, disciple to Calvary. There it was — “As Moses lifted up the serpent, so the Son of man was at last lifted up.” He was lifted up, and He drew Nicodemus to Him. His own mysterious prophecy is now fulfilled; and this “Son of man” is withal the “Son of God.” The heathen centurion has just exclaimed as much, and Nicodemus feels it true. His death is a miracle eclipsing all the marvels of His life, and “truly this is the Son of God.” To Nicodemus what a commentary was now visible on the words of that eventful evening, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only-begotten Sonf that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” Nicodemus now believed; and by the same incidents which stumbled others, and made all men forsake Him and flee — by the same signs, convinced and converted, the ruler tore off the mask, and pressed forward to honour the lifeless remains of the uplifted Messiah. But, lo! the same moment has uplifted the visor of another secret disciple. A brother ruler also believes. For already Joseph of Arimathea, being a disciple of Jesus, but secretly for fear of the Jews, has besought Pilate that he might take away the body of Jesus; and thus He who in life had nowhere to lay His head “makes his grave with the rich,”* and the obsequies of the crucified Nazarene are conducted by two of the chief men of Jerusalem.