The example of Nicodemus shows that not all interactions with Jesus have an immediate tangible result
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,
With.
“[They] continued to speak the word of God with boldness.” So says the Acts of the Apostles this week, about the apostles’ response to being imprisoned.
In a follow-up encounter, the high priest and the Sadducees, “filled with jealousy,” put the apostles back in jail.
That “with” is worth our attention. It doesn’t name the action that was carried out. It names how the action was carried out.
We know what it’s like for a statement to be made with arrogance or with humility. We know what it’s like for a question to be asked with belligerence or with real curiosity. We know what it’s like for a donation to be given with a sense of self-importance or with self-forgetfulness. We know what it’s like for an injustice to be held with rage or with trust that God has the last word. We know what it’s like to proclaim the Gospel with timidity or with boldness, or to present Church teaching with impatience or with patience.
So let’s sit, for a moment, with a question: What moves hearts and what moves history toward the kingdom of God?
In physics, force is a combination of mass and acceleration. In our work for the kingdom, our impact comes not only from what we do but from the combination of what we do and how we do it. It’s not only the “what” but also the “with” that matters.
Nicodemus
This week, we hear the beginning of Jesus’ interaction with Nicodemus.
It’s an intriguing aspect of the Gospel of John: That opening conversation between them doesn’t have an ending. (Read John 3! It never says, for example, “and then Nicodemus went away.”)
In so many other encounters in the Gospel of John, we see some kind of conclusion. The woman at the well (John 4). The woman caught in adultery (John 8). The man born blind (John 9). The exchange with Pilate (John 18-19). People have an encounter, and it ends with a decision.
With Nicodemus, however, his “encounter” with Jesus spans almost the entirety of the Gospel. Nicodemus shows up in John 3, and then again in John 7. But his decision point doesn’t come until John 19. Contemplating Nicodemus’ slow journey toward that decision point can help us with the sometimes slow process of conversion — both in others and in ourselves!
Everyone has moments in which they can say to Jesus: “I don’t understand.” Often, people make a decision in that moment: either to walk away from Jesus because they don’t understand, or to stay with Him even though they don’t understand. Nicodemus, however, is that occasional person who doesn’t make an immediate decision. The encounter just continues to rattle around in his heart and mind. Jesus continues to work on him, invisibly, throughout the whole Gospel until, finally, Nicodemus decides to go all in.
That’s a worthy place of contemplation for all of us, especially when we have loved ones who are still deciding, or parts of ourselves that are still deciding! Let’s continue to entrust those people and those places in our hearts to Jesus’ invisible work.
