Reflection by Kit Allgood-Mellema, Worship Leader
Scriptures: Genesis 12:1-4a; Romans 4:1-5, 13-17; John 3:1-17; Psalm 121
01 March 2026, 2 Lent Yr A
As I pondered today’s gospel, two thoughts came to me. The first thought was that the people around Jesus asked him a lot of questions! There were two types of questions Jesus generally fielded. The first type came from the people with power, influence and connections. When Jesus spoke, those people – the priests, the scholars, those we know as the Pharisees, the Sadducees, the Sanhedrin, the high ranking military and government officials of the Roman occupation – heard words of resistance and opposition, and asked questions designed to paint Jesus in a bad light, to humiliate him, trip him up and cause him to give self-incriminating answers.
The other type of questions came from the people who had little or no power. These were the people with no influence or connections. The Roman occupation landed hard on them. They knew what they wanted. They craved freedom, mercy, justice, and the basics of food, water, housing, dignity, a chance to make a living and keep enough of their hard-earned money to survive. When Jesus spoke, they heard a message of love, justice, peace and mercy. They asked the honest questions Jesus could use to help them.
My second thought was that Jesus loved to answer those questions, both the ‘gotcha’ questions and the ‘how do we?’ questions. So it was no surprise that when Nicodemus, the Pharisee. came to Jesus and asked to speak with him, Jesus agreed. He probably understood that Nicodemus came at night, alone, in secret, so he could ask without fear the honest, important questions – how do I . . . ? what do you mean when you say . . . ? how can this be? I can imagine these two, sitting in a secluded garden, or in a deserted place, or on a rooftop, upon a rug with a pitcher of cool water to share, the stars above and quiet streets below. The esteemed Pharisee and member of the Sanhedrin, an intelligent and thoughtful person, plying the enigmatic, well-spoken young carpenter from a backwater town with honest questions that few could answer.
Sitting in the dark, Nicodemus asked, and Jesus listened and answered, maybe not with words that Nicodemus expected, but with words that he could take away to ponder and treasure. And I believe when Jesus told Nicodemus that God’s kingdom was there for people who had been born from above, he was offering Nicodemus a radical way to look at the world and the people around him. It was an invitation for Nicodemus to open his eyes and his heart, to look beyond the darkness, to let go of the old and earth-bound ways of envisioning the world. To be born from above was to embrace a new vision, to imagine and bring into being a new life for himself and all who were seeking the kingdom. Jesus was saying, listen, and let my words open your mind, open your heart. Let the Spirit flood you with love and light and strength and purpose, and let the Spirit flow out from you with faith and determination to bring God’s peace and mercy, dignity, hope and justice to all God’s beloved people.
Nicodemus is only mentioned in one gospel – John’s – but he appears two more times, once when he asked his fellow Pharisees a question concerning the law as they argued amongst themselves about the threat Jesus may have presented; and again after Jesus’s body was released to Joseph of Arimathea for burial. Nicodemus joined Joseph in caring for Jesus’s body and placing it in the tomb. This may make you wonder, did Nicodemus continue to ask questions? Did the Spirit continue to grow in him? John certainly must have thought so. Very few people merited more than one brief mention in his gospel.
Pause for a moment and wonder. If you could be like Nicodemus and visit Jesus in a peaceful place without fear or judgement, if you could feel free to ask him any question, what would you ask? What if the answers seemed too easy? Would you shrug them off? What if the answers were too difficult to understand or too hard to hear? Would you give up and walk away? These are questions for you, not me. But Jesus will never tire of our questions, nor will he give up on us when we struggle to embrace and live into the new vision of God’s kingdom.
In this difficult time in our world and our lives, as we struggle with overwhelming events, and in this season of Lent as we learn to let go of the old ways of seeing the world, as we try to let go of practices and ideas that stand between us and a full, fruitful relationship with God, Jesus is always with us to support and guide us, to flood us with the Spirit of love and light and strength and purpose, so we can be the path of the Spirit flowing out into this aching, hungry world that so desperately needs peace, mercy, dignity, hope and justice. Just ask.
Thanks be to God!