“He came to Jesus by night” Colchester Federated Church, March 1, 2026, Second Sunday in Lent (John 3:1-17)
Last Sunday was the First Sunday in Lent. We were with Jesus in the wilderness tempted by the devil for 40 days and 40 nights. Jesus overcame the temptations of satisfying his bodily need for sustenance, proving himself to be the Son of God that God could save from death, and ruling the kingdoms of the world by worshiping Satan and not God. In the end, Jesus overcame the tempter trying to manipulate his good desires. The angels came and took care of him, to give Jesus strength for all that was still to come.
This week Jesus has another important encounter. At the outset, it’s not quite as dramatic as those moments in the wilderness. Jesus having complex encounters and rich theological conversations with people will become apparent as we continue hearing stories from the Gospel according to John this Lenten season. Last week it was an encounter with the tempter in the wilderness, next week it’s the Samaritan woman at the well. The week after that it’s a man born blind from birth. Before Palm Sunday we will hear the story of Lazarus raised from death itself with his sisters Mary and Martha sending word to Jesus that the one whom he loved was ill. These are long Gospel stories where Jesus spends a great deal of time intentionally focused on people one-on-one.
Jesus’ one-on-one encounter today is with the Pharisee Nicodemus. It’s true that Jesus is often depicted as arguing with the Pharisees and Sadducees. Jesus was attempting to reform Judaism from within so arguments about how to go about this abounded during his lifetime. Though it is also true with the religious landscape of Jesus’ day that some of the Pharisees and Sadducees were genuinely interested in Jesus’ teachings and miracles. It wasn’t all hostility all the time. Nicodemus would fall into that category. Nicodemus says, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God, for no one could do these miraculous signs that you do unless God is with him.”[1] That right there was quite a statement from a religious leader like Nicodemus.
Nicodemus comes to see Jesus at night. Perhaps because he didn’t want to deal with potential fall-out from some of his fellow religious leaders about associating with Jesus. Though more likely John (who loved using light and dark metaphors throughout the Gospel to symbolize states of belief and unbelief) wanted to emphasize that Nicodemus is here because he is confused and struggling and wants to believe. Nicodemus comes to Jesus in the murky shadows of unbelief.
New Testament scholar Mark Allan Powell explains that one of the characteristics of John’s Gospel is the abundant use of symbolism. As Powell explains, “The entire Gospel story is imbued with dualistic imagery of light and darkness (1:5; 3:19; 8:12; 12:35, 46) and with references to what is above and below (3:31; 8:23).”[2] The detail of Nicodemus coming to see Jesus at night is important. By the time Nicodemus leaves this one-on-one encounter, Jesus has spoken to him about being born of water and the Spirit. He’s talked about being born anew. That God’s Spirit blows where it wishes and we can hear its sound, but we don’t know where it comes from or where it’s going. It’s the same with everyone who’s born of the Spirit and willing to put their trust in God, even not knowing exactly where the path ahead will lead. As Nicodemus listens to Jesus explain these concepts, he can’t help but ask, “How are these things possible?”[3]
When exploring Jesus and Nicodemus’ meeting it is beautiful how John uses metaphors to add color and texture to the story. Thinking of an example from popular culture, we may forget how revolutionary The Wizard of Oz was back in the day for that moment in the movie when Dorothy lands in Oz, opens the door, and the scene before her bursts into marvelous technicolor. This week I thought of this example when contemplating John’s metaphors and read about how the process worked in 1939. The movie experience was possible because of the groundbreaking three-strip Technicolor process. Because “unlike earlier color techniques, which struggled with limited palettes, this system captured a full spectrum of colors by running three separate strips of film through a specially designed camera—one for red, one for green, and one for blue. These layers were then combined during post-production, creating rich, saturated colors that leaped off the screen.”[4]
In The Wizard of Oz we might remember Dorothy’s humble house spinning in the tornado as she falls asleep at home in Kansas. It’s that swirling murky brown sky that the audience sees (and that’s been nearly the only color up until that point of the movie). Landing with a thud, Dorothy is holding Toto and looking around at her still intact home. She gets up from the bed, picks up her basket from the ground, and opens the door to see where they landed. The music swells with “Somewhere over the Rainbow” and Dorothy steps out onto the yellow brick road and the beautiful, colorful land of Oz. This is still movie magic! And the brilliant colors of Oz help shape the story to come—the yellow brick road, the emerald city, the ruby slippers.
Going back to our Gospel story, it matters that Nicodemus comes to Jesus at night and meets Jesus—the light of the world. What Jesus has to say to his fellow Jewish leader is that it’s possible to see the Kingdom of God. It’s possible to love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. It’s possible to have new life now. The Kingdom of God Jesus was talking about wasn’t focused so much on life after death, but on creating heaven on earth here and now. Because for John, Jesus is the way into eternal life in the present.
Even though some Christians overly focus on John 3:16 and emphasize Jesus’ promise of eternal life after death, the story ends with Jesus’ remarkable words: “God didn’t send his Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through him.”[5] So if Jesus didn’t come into this world to judge the world, it would seem that it’s not the job of his followers to sit in judgement either. What Jesus is offering to Nicodemus and to us is the transformation that can come when we follow Jesus.
On this Second Sunday in Lent, we remember Jesus telling Nicodemus—a Pharisee and a Jewish leader—that God loves the world so much that God gave his only Son. And God didn’t send his only Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved. Yes, so that we might be saved for new life. Maybe Nicodemus had that moment of the world all of a sudden bursting into brilliant Technicolor, of seeing with new eyes, of understanding the depth of the love God has for us. Because it ends up that God can make the impossible possible. Thanks be to God. Amen.
[1] John 3:2, CEB.
[2] Mark Allan Powell, Fortress Introduction to The Gospels, pg. 118.
[3] John 3:9, CEB.
[4] “How The Wizard of Oz Revolutionized Color Film: The Technicolor Legacy Explained”
[5] John 3:17, CEB.
Photo by Michael Denning on Unsplash
Lauren Ostrout ~ on being made well 