Missionary Renegade: The Daily Guide. grow. pray. study. The United Methodist Church of the Resurrection from Leawood, Kansas, United States for Tuesday, 03 May 2016

Tuesday, May 3, 2016

The Daily Guide. grow. pray. study. The United Methodist Church of the Resurrection from Leawood, Kansas, United States for Tuesday, 03 May 2016 - "Nicodemus: curious but timid"

Daily Scripture: John 3:1 There was a man among the P’rushim, named Nakdimon, who was a ruler of the Judeans. 2 This man came to Yeshua by night and said to him, “Rabbi, we know it is from God that you have come as a teacher; for no one can do these miracles you perform unless God is with him.” 3 “Yes, indeed,” Yeshua answered him, “I tell you that unless a person is born again from above, he cannot see the Kingdom of God.”

4 Nakdimon said to him, “How can a grown man be ‘born’? Can he go back into his mother’s womb and be born a second time?” 5 Yeshua answered, “Yes, indeed, I tell you that unless a person is born from water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the Kingdom of God. 6 What is born from the flesh is flesh, and what is born from the Spirit is spirit. 7 Stop being amazed at my telling you that you must be born again from above! 8 The wind blows where it wants to, and you hear its sound, but you don’t know where it comes from or where it’s going. That’s how it is with everyone who has been born from the Spirit.”

9 Nakdimon replied, “How can this happen?” 10 Yeshua answered him, “You hold the office of teacher in Isra’el, and you don’t know this? 11 Yes, indeed! I tell you that what we speak about, we know; and what we give evidence of, we have seen; but you people don’t accept our evidence! 12 If you people don’t believe me when I tell you about the things of the world, how will you believe me when I tell you about the things of heaven? 13 No one has gone up into heaven; there is only the one who has come down from heaven, the Son of Man. 14 Just as Moshe lifted up the serpent in the desert, so must the Son of Man be lifted up; 15 so that everyone who trusts in him may have eternal life.

16 “For God so loved the world that he gave his only and unique Son, so that everyone who trusts in him may have eternal life, instead of being utterly destroyed. 17 For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but rather so that through him, the world might be saved. 18 Those who trust in him are not judged; those who do not trust have been judged already, in that they have not trusted in the one who is God’s only and unique Son.

19 “Now this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, but people loved the darkness rather than the light. Why? Because their actions were wicked.

7:43 So the people were divided because of him. 44 Some wanted to arrest him, but no one laid a hand on him.

45 The guards came back to the head cohanim and the P’rushim, who asked them, “Why didn’t you bring him in?” 46 The guards replied, “No one ever spoke the way this man speaks!” 47 “You mean you’ve been taken in as well?” the P’rushim retorted. 48 “Has any of the authorities trusted him? Or any of the P’rushim? No! 49 True, these ‘am-ha’aretz do, but they know nothing about the Torah, they are under a curse!”

50 Nakdimon, the man who had gone to Yeshua before and was one of them, said to them, 51 “Our Torah doesn’t condemn a man — does it? — until after hearing from him and finding out what he’s doing.” 52 They replied, “You aren’t from the Galil too, are you? Study the Tanakh, and see for yourself that no prophet comes from the Galil!” [John 7:52 Most scholars believe that 7:53–8:11 is not from the pen of Yochanan. Many are of the opinion that it is a true story about Yeshua written by another of his talmidim.]

Reflection Questions:

Nicodemus, a member of the highest Hebrew religious council, saw Jesus’ obvious spiritual power, and wanted to get to know this new teacher. Yet he could have lost a lot, socially and economically, if his colleagues saw him with Jesus. He came at night. Later, when the council moved toward condemning Jesus, he timidly asked them to give Jesus a fair hearing, but seems to have backed off when they ridiculed him.

With his keen sense of irony, John wrote that Jesus told Nicodemus (who came to him under cover of darkness), “This is the basis for judgment: The light came into the world, and people loved darkness more than the light, for their actions are evil.” The words must have jolted the cautious, comfortable Pharisee. When has someone or something brought you up short, and given you reason to think, hard, about your values and priorities?
In John 7:49, the leaders of the council expressed a common attitude: contempt toward the crowd of ordinary people that “doesn’t know the law.” Nicodemus tried to protect Jesus by citing a key (and not even controversial) part of that very law. They didn’t respond to the sound basis for his question, but tried to intimidate him: was he following the Galilean? It seems to have worked. When have you kept silent about a matter of principle because of scorn or other social risk if you pressed a point?

Today’s Prayer:
Lord Jesus, help me not to shy away from the light you brought into the world, even if it shines on places where I need to change and grow. Blow the renewing wind of your Spirit through my life. Amen.Insights from Nicole Alison

Nicole Alison serves as Coordinating Assistant to Operations at The Church of the Resurrection. Nicole finds her voice through writing. In her spare time she is a personal blogger and a ghost-writer for the Next Steps Pastor at a local church in Lenexa. Her passion is to share the love of Jesus through personal stories of redemption.
I really love how today’s lesson points out that the words Jesus spoke jolted the cautious, comfortable Pharisee. “The light came into the world, and people loved darkness more than light, for their actions are evil.” It had me wondering why the Pharisee would be shaken by words that could offer hope if he chose it. The light came into the world–bright, graceful light. But as I read those words, at first I felt relief but then I started to feel uncomfortable as I finished the verse: “people love the darkness more than light.” This scares me because it prompts me to look at myself and my actions. I think back on the many moments where I chose darkness over light.
As I think of Nicodemus it’s clear to me that he was very interested in Jesus but did not fully accept Him. He was kind but he was afraid to take the risk–maybe for social or economic reasons. I find myself intrigued by Nicodemus because there is always a part of me that is similar to him. There were times when I was too afraid to do something different at the cost of what others might think of me. There were times that my passion and heart’s desire was to do something I felt could make a difference, but my fear of what could go wrong seemed to outweigh taking a risk. I didn’t want to lose comfort or control.
But I don’t want to just be interested in Jesus and be a kind person, I want to be a difference-maker and proclaim the goodness of God. As I look up the definition of light, graceful is one of the words used to describe it. I find great hope in the grace that God offers as we struggle with taking risks or even getting to know Him. He knows so well the beautiful passions and desires in our hearts, and He knows when we don’t always commit ourselves to them. Yet even when we don’t always follow through with things we should have, there is still light. The light of Jesus is always shining for us to receive.
Each day is a new chance for us to push away darkness and allow God’s love to change us, so we can shine bright to the world. The world needs us to shine, because the world needs to know we have an audaciously loving God!