By David ReayTuesday 12 Jan 2016LifeWords DevotionalsFaithReading Time: 0 minutes
Transcript:
Read John 3:1-5
1 Now there was a Pharisee, a man named Nicodemus who was a member of the Jewish ruling council. 2 He came to Jesus at night and said, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the signs you are doing if God were not with him.”
3 Jesus replied, “Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again.”
4 “How can someone be born when they are old?” Nicodemus asked. “Surely they cannot enter a second time into their mother’s womb to be born!”
5 Jesus answered, “Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit.” (NIV)
Some people come to Jesus in the night. Nicodemus did, perhaps out of concern that his Pharisee colleagues would rebuke or even disown him if they discovered he was seeking a genuine dialogue with Jesus. During daylight hours, Nicodemus would have been a card-carrying Pharisee, but appearances can be deceiving.
We need to remember this when considering those we figure know nothing of Jesus or have professed to turn away from him. Perhaps they truly have. Then again, perhaps they are having their own night encounters with him. In their hours of literal or metaphorical darkness they are seeking him out.
We do not only encounter Jesus in our church services, our Christian groups, our private devotions. He is discoverable at all sorts of times. And some will, for various reasons, come to him at night, at times when no one else can see what is going on. Their encounter with him is an intensely private one, not to be classified and examined by well-meaning Christian onlookers.
We may fervently hope that such people will bring their encounter with Jesus into the full light of day and into the realm of observably Christian community. But till then, we are thankful that somewhere in the unknown night, people we love are somehow seeking and finding the lover of their souls.
Blessings
David Reay