Chapter 17—Nicodemus
This chapter is based on
John 3:1-17
.
Nicodemus held a high position of trust in the Jewish nation. He
was highly educated, and possessed talents of no ordinary character,
and he was an honored member of the national council. With others,
he had been stirred by the teaching of Jesus. Though rich, learned, and
honored, he had been strangely attracted by the humble Nazarene. The
lessons that had fallen from the Saviour’s lips had greatly impressed
him, and he desired to learn more of these wonderful truths.
Christ’s exercise of authority in the cleansing of the temple had
roused the determined hatred of the priests and rulers. They feared
the power of this stranger. Such boldness on the part of an obscure
Galilean was not to be tolerated. They were bent on putting an end
to His work. But not all were agreed in this purpose. There were
some that feared to oppose One who was so evidently moved upon by
the Spirit of God. They remembered how prophets had been slain for
rebuking the sins of the leaders in Israel. They knew that the bondage
of the Jews to a heathen nation was the result of their stubbornness
in rejecting reproofs from God. They feared that in plotting against
Jesus the priests and rulers were following in the steps of their fathers,
and would bring fresh calamities upon the nation. Nicodemus shared
these feelings. In a council of the Sanhedrin, when the course to be
[168]
pursued toward Jesus was considered, Nicodemus advised caution and
moderation. He urged that if Jesus was really invested with authority
from God, it would be perilous to reject His warnings. The priests
dared not disregard this counsel, and for the time they took no open
measures against the Saviour.
Since hearing Jesus, Nicodemus had anxiously studied the prophe-
cies relating to the Messiah; and the more he searched, the stronger
was his conviction that this was the One who was to come. With many
others in Israel he had been greatly distressed by the profanation of
the temple. He was a witness of the scene when Jesus drove out the
131