Nicodemus: A Reflection in Post-Modernism

Let me quote a few portions of the story of Nicodemus (John 3:1-21):

• "Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. This man came to Jesus by night and said to him, 'Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him.'"
• "Nicodemus said to him, 'How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born?' Jesus answered, 'Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.'"
• "Nicodemus said to him, 'How can these things be?'"
• "Jesus answered him, '[...] Truly, truly, I say to you, we speak of what we know, and bear witness to what we have seen, but you do not receive our testimony. If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you heavenly things? No one has ascended into heaven except he who descended from heaven, the Son of Man.'"

It seems to me that Nicodemus is a fairly good representative of post-modern man, and Jesus' response to him might be a particularly useful one for us post-moderns to think about. What is going on here? Nicodemus comes to Jesus because he is intrigued by what he sees and hears about Jesus - "no one can do these signs that you do unless..." Unless what? Nicodemus seems almost to be asking a question - "unless God is with him...Right?" If true, the implication is that God truly is with Jesus. But Nicodemus isn't ready to commit to that - he questions, twice, "How can this be?" In this sense he takes something like a typical post-modern position. We can know only what we have experienced, and we can have only this-worldly experiences. (When was the last time you saw someone enter into his mother's womb and be born again?) Nicodemus is also rather post-modern is the sense that he is skeptical - he remains uncommitted. He might well have been thinking, "Here is this intriguing person who does things that no one else can do unless (could it be true?) God is with him. But the facts of the matter are that people are just not born again every day of the week. What can it all mean?" No decision has been made, no conclusion drawn, no mystery revealed. Nicodemus remains in the dark. And notice, too, that Nicodemus comes to Jesus at night. I suppose one might draw the following parallel: in post-modern culture it is hard to think about God. As soon as one does so in public, the others around him react by being very uncomfortable, as if to say "you're not allowed to say/think that - you're breaking the rules of the game!". Or, in the words of Professor Henry Higgens, "It is impossible for an Englishman to open his mouth without making some other Englishman despise him." So we keep to ourselves. We entertain our thoughts about God and salvation and the after-life in our own private minds, far away from where others can see. In the same way, Nicodemus comes to Jesus by night, and he comes to entertain the possibility that God might be with Jesus. But he is left in the dark, precisely where he started out, because he cannot break free of his post-modern mindset.

On the other hand, there is Jesus' response. Jesus seems to acknowledge the post-modern way of thinking, up to a point. "We speak of what we know, and bear witness to what we have seen". Jesus is claiming to have experience, and hence knowledge, of the kingdom of God. He goes on to affirm that man cannot have such knowledge or experience on his own naturalistic terms - "No one has ascended into heaven". In section 11 of Hume's "Inquiry Concerning Human Understanding", he deals with the problem of "return[ing] from the cause to the effect" – which is to say, we may well infer a particular cause for a particular observation, but we cannot then attribute particular qualities to that cause from which to predict new effects. Jesus in effect agrees with this - man cannot ascend to heaven on the basis of his observations on earth and then return to earth with new understanding. But Jesus came from heaven to earth, bringing revelation with him, and then returned to heaven - precisely the opposite of Hume's problem, and Nicodemus' problem. "If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you heavenly things? No one has ascended into heaven except he who descended from heaven, the Son of Man." And yet Jesus does tell Nicodemus heavenly things - "God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life."

And this brings us to another, rather subtle point. Initially, when Nicodemus comes to Jesus, he tells him "We know", namely, "that you are a teacher come from God." It is as if Nicodemus is trying to work from his post-modern roots upward - "We observe that no one else does these things, so therefore we know that you must be from God...Right?" Jesus replies "Unless one is born again he cannot know" - cannot know the kingdom of God. (This is usually translated "no one can see the kingdom", but the root is the same word that Nicodemus uses, the Greek “oida”.) It is as if Jesus is confronting Nicodemus' post-modernism and correcting him - "You say you know something, but I say you know nothing, unless..." Then Nicodemus says "A man can't enter his mother's womb and be born a second time...Right?" Jesus replies, "Unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter" - cannot enter the kingdom of God. Again, Jesus is paralleling Nicodemus' words - "You say you cannot enter the womb, but I say you cannot enter the kingdom, unless..." "How can these things be?" "We speak of what we know, and bear witness to what we have seen, but you do not receive our testimony - you do not apprehend it, you do not grasp it, you do not get it - If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you heavenly things? [...] God gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life." Jesus is changing the face of the game while adhering to its rules - "You cannot know what you have not experienced, but I have experienced and know, and I declare it to you - what is left for you to do is believe."

Notice, though, that by insisting on belief, Jesus is not asking for a "blind faith" in which we must close our minds and turn our backs on the facts of our existence. Rather, he acknowledges our post-modern limitations - that we cannot know, that we cannot enter - and provides a way out - "I have known, I have entered... And I declare it to you." "I am the light of the world", "the true light, which enlightens everyone." But "the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not comprehended it", "the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light", "We speak and bear witness, but you do not receive our testimony. If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you heavenly things?" Jesus provides a way out, and invites Nicodemus to take it. He acknowledges Nicodemus’ post-modern limitations, and breaks through them by descending from Heaven itself and declaring the Gospel to Nicodemus – to us. All that is left is to believe, in the same way that we do not doubt what others tell us based on their own experience, even if we have not experienced the same things.