A Visit In The Night

     After the day's end a man walks out of the high council and into the night countryside seeking one who teaches and is now notable and has acquired some fame.  This man Nicodemus a "teacher of Israel" seeks another to teach him now.  He is no longer a young man and has earned the respect of many is Israel. Gray with age and stooped he comes across Jesus sitting with his disciples quietly discussing the days events.  With hesitation he invites himself into the discussion. sits and faces the master himself.  Jesus not hesitating gazes on the face that has taught Israel for the past 30 years.  Only 30 himself Jesus has had an electrifying effect on the villages and towns he has already visited.
     Nicodemus has come to learn from a man half his age.  Proverbs 8:12 teaches that " I wisdom dwell together with prudence. I possess knowledge and discretion."  So here we have a man a wise man seeking answers who I believe felt it prudent to seek out Jesus in the night hours.  Some sources speculate that he was a coward in seeking the Lord at night so as not to be seen openly, perhaps.  But if Nicodemus was wise then he felt it prudent not to stir up the council members and announce his intentions prematurely.   Maybe just maybe, if prudence won out he would have advantage in the future with other influential members of the council.
     Nicodemus has rightly recognized that "Jesus was from God" for no one could do the works you do if he were not.  Jesus seeing that Nicodemus could not see the kingdom correctly  teaches that he must be born again of water and spirit.  "You a teacher of Israel, do not understand this?   I have spoken to you of earthly things, and you do not accept them, How then will you understand heavenly things?"  As a group the Pharisees rejected the teachings of Jesus.  Here though was a man, willing to buck the traditional and seek answers from a man younger than he.  This was a showing of both prudence and discretion, I believe.  If Nicodemus had announced his intentions to the other members of the Pharisees, he would probably have been driven out or at the very least lost his respect among his peers. If after having been in the presence of Jesus he was also "born again" then he had and accurate witness to relay to others who might not believe on an otherwise shallow testimony.  He would have in fact been one who had seen for himself and testified to that which he had seen and experienced in the presence of Jesus.
      This was the root beginnings of the New Testament Church that Jesus had set in motion.  It was based on real life witness and testimony of those who had been changed by this "Rabbi" teacher forever. It was not some fictional story or rumor at all.  The choice we face today is to put off unbelief if even for an hour and check out the witness for ourselves.  Have you met anyone who has been truly born again?  If so then I assure you that he or she would possess the same qualities of Jesus himself.  Not one to push for an agenda or some doctrine to pick apart or a to merely become member of some organizational structure.
     But rather this would be a person of substance and of joy pointing to the one who has dramatically changed their life