Saints: Enjoying Jesus While Disillusioned With ReligionSample

Accepting Jesus’ Challenges to Your Worldview

When you read the word Pharisee, I wonder if you assume that Pharisees = all Jews = all legalistic. If so, you’re not alone — this is a common misunderstanding.

Although the New Testament writers present some Pharisees as foils or archetypes of religious people, missing Jesus as the Messiah, we also have examples like Nicodemus and Paul: people who at first resist Jesus as the Messiah but then end up changing their minds about Christ.

Pharisees like Nicodemus can be reminders that accepting Jesus’ words—especially when his truth challenges our worldview—is hard. Sometimes religious people, the ones who are assumed to be the most likely to “get it” . . . don’t.

Or, if I may be so bold as to rephrase my point: Sometimes we don’t get it.

The Pharisees serve as a literary archetype in the Bible’s narrative. They are the well-intentioned group of God’s people trying to find a way to live to the Law’s standards while also accepting their humanness. When Jesus appeared as the fulfillment of their way of life, some of the Pharisees missed it, including Nicodemus.

Nicodemus eventually comes around to faith in Christ. But Nicodemus’s example shows us we are not the only people who have ever tried to reconcile Jesus’ truth with our human traditions. We are not the only people who seek Jesus in the dark nights of the soul. And we are not alone in our struggle to accept Jesus’ testimony of truth as superior to our past views.

Nicodemus came to Jesus in the dark. Many scholars speculate why he would have chosen to approach Jesus at this time of day. Although we can’t be sure, I wonder if, just as light and dark are a metaphor Jesus uses to represent a spiritual reality, the physical darkness Nicodemus travels through to get to Jesus represents the spiritual darkness he is walking through in his personal life. Was he in a dark night of the soul spiritually? Had the shadows of doubt clouded his faith? Did he lack light in his life? Did the darkness represent confusion or a lack of understanding? If so, you and I can take comfort in this: We can come to Jesus in our own dark nights of the soul.

Even if we sneak around to get to his presence and do so without a lot of light in our life, he will receive us anyway. And he will not just stay with us or embrace and dismiss our questions and doubts. Jesus illuminates the darkness—because he is the Light of the World.

Nicodemus’s meeting with Jesus is only one chapter of his story. Many chapters later in the Bible, Nicodemus will show us that he has full faith in Christ. He was a work in progress, just like us.

Prayer: Dear God, thank you for your remarkable patience when I struggle to accept your words. Help me to trust that what you say is true, and to allow you to illuminate the darkness in my life. Amen.