Fourth Sunday of Lent Year-B
First Reading (2 Chron 36: 14-16.19-23). The sins of God’s people led them to be exiled in Babylon. Being a God of mercy, He welcomed them back home.
Second Reading (Eph 2: 4-10). We are saved through God’s love and mercy not by our own efforts.
Gospel (Jn 3: 14-21). In his love for us, God sent Jesus his son not to condemn us but to save us.
Homily
A man called Nicodemus is at the centre of Today’s Gospel. Who is this man called Nicodemus? The name of Nicodemus appears three times only in the Gospel story and all three times, he appears in the Gospel according to John. He is a very interesting character. Nicodemus was a Pharisee and a member of the supreme court of the Jews called Sanhedrin.
Nicodemus appears in the first time in the Gospel passage we just read today. He was impressed by the teachings of Jesus and believed that the hand of God was with Jesus. So he came to see Jesus but undercover, in the dark at night. Why did he go to see Jesus at night? It is clear that he did not want to be seen. But let us not be hard on him given the fact that he was a Pharisee and a member of the Supreme Court. It was a wonder he came at all.
The second appearance of Nicodemus in the Gospel is when opposition to Jesus hardened and Pharisees wanted to kill him at all cost. Nicodemus was the one who intervened and declared that Jesus should at least be given a fair hearing as the Jewish law demanded (Jn 7: 51). At least this time, Nicodemus showed publicly his leniency with Jesus and this shows that he was a fair-minded man.
The third and last appearance of Nicodemus was at the burial of Jesus. He appears to donate an expensive perfume (Jn 19: 39). This shows how generous and compassionate he was.
All these qualities we admire in him and we can copy for ourselves: his fair-mindedness, generosity and compassion. But there is one thing Nicodemus seems to have been unable to do: That’s to come out straight and make a full and public act of faith in Jesus. He did not have the courage to come out of darkness and choose the light, Jesus. We are only left with a picture of a decent man, who could have been a great man if he only professed openly his faith in Jesus. He is therefore a mediocre, he is neither a great saint nor a great sinner.
We see so many Nicodemus in our society today. Let me take one example from the political sphere. Africa has the highest record in numbers of authoritarian (dictators) leaders. These dictators do not lead their countries alone, they have governments. Some if not many of these government ministers are not happy with the style of leadership provided by these tyrants. But they lack the courage to come out openly to confess their allegiance with the people. Hence they snick in the dark and they go leaking information to the opposition of decisions taken by governments to oppress the people. These are Nicodemus of our time. They side with the people at night but they lack the courage to openly show it daylight for fear of being imprisoned. We live with so many Nicodemus(es) in our communities besides those in politics. Examples are countless. Take courage and choose the light, choose life.
Reflecting on Nicodemus should challenge us to come out from the shadows, and not to be afraid or ashamed to profess the truth openly, profess our faith in Jesus, and of course to be ready to pay any price for standing for the truth. We are called to believe in the truth but not only believing also living the truth.
