The Lid on the Story: Jesus and Nicodemus

The Story of Jesus and Nicodemus (John 3: 1-21) can trap the unsuspecting Christian reader and leave him or her in darkness. It represents the Truth the Church is afraid to proclaim or cannot proclaim because of those who insist Jesus was a celibate “straight” male. Under the cover of darkness, Jesus and the Teacher met alone. The Sunday School or Sunday Club version says the Teacher’s love for Jesus was platonic.

The Sunday School version puts a lid on the story. The Teacher’s love for Jesus is more than platonic and this should be “good news”. This Johannine story is linked to the Rich Person and the “Good” Teacher story of Mark’s Gospel chapter 10:17. Do not let others dissuade you. Believe me. These texts are linked and they are also linked to the story of Zacchaeus in Luke 19: 1-10.  Jesus the “good” Teacher and member of the Assembly looks at Jesus with eyes of love and desire and asks to stay, to spend the night with the person people know is a tax collector…a Vogt, a wealthy property owner entitled to collect taxes and rents, an advocate for the Romans (Luke 19:6).

In the public eye, Nicodemus remains stoic and platonic as a teacher and rabbi of the ruling council and Jesus remains male. To suggest that Nicodemus had any sexual desire for a male Jesus would not only be blasphemous, it would be heretical. It would not advance the messianic and Johannine belief that Christ was the one who belongs to the Bridegroom (John 3:29).

The Truth is, alone with Jesus, Israel’s Teacher acts upon his love and desire. Jesus filled with the Holy Spirit responds, supposing Israel’s Teacher is Jesus the Christ. Later Jesus filled with the Holy Spirit confronts the Teacher in the Garden of the Tombs. There the Gordian Knot of confusion disappears. As the Truth dawns, Mary Magdalene’s Image and Relationship to Jesus becomes apparent. Jesus the Rabboni is not her Lord, the Christ the Everlasting Father. He is the Son of David and Jesus the Wonderful Counsellor is the Vogt…the promised Advocate, the bitterly treated and maligned Magdalene accused of blasphemy for saying she was The Light…the Magda Elaine of the World, the ADVOCATE  (John 8:12 and John 15:26).

In the Christian tradition, the 6 weeks leading up to Easter are called the Season of Lent.

The Sunday marked the second Sunday of Lent, the Minister at my home church told the children a story before they left the sanctuary for Sunday Club. This story featured a box. Inside the box was a word that no one was allowed to say or sing during Lent. This being the second Sunday of Lent, the Minister was not going to say the word and asked if anybody thought they knew the word. The Minister of Music embellished the story. Every time the Minister opened the box a crack, the other Minister would make a sound on the organ that reminded people of the word they weren’t supposed to hear or sing in the Church until Easter. This children’s sermon has been told every Lent for the past several years. And so, this year a youngster just couldn’t help but reveal the word.

The Scripture reading for the second Sunday of Lent this year was John 3: 1-17.  The adult sermon reflected the Minister’s interpretation of the story of Nicodemus and Jesus without any allusion to any ardent feelings that Jesus and Nicodemus, the platonic Teacher and Council Member had for each other. Rather, the Minister simply told the story as if Nicodemus was in the dark with the rest of the Council and Jesus’ disciples as to the reorientation his life would take once he openly admitted his love for Jesus.

From the perspective of the Minister, Nicodemus was boxed in like many of us because he didn’t want to upset the balance of power. The Minister projected Jesus as a scruffy fellow, some sort of country bumpkin, alluding to Simon the Cyrene, the man who carried the Cross of Jesus (Mark 15:21).

In his box, the Minister dared not even suggest Jesus was a slender young redhead richly dressed filling Nicodemus’ eyes with desire.

I must admit I was losing my patience with the Minister’s sermon, thinking. “What is wrong. Why can’t people see the Truth?” Nicodemus is the Victory of the people.  He is Jesus the Teacher that comes back at the end of the story to talk with the Red-haired Woman “face to face” in the Garden where the Teacher has a cave, a platonic academy dedicated to peace and eco-justice, situated overlooking two burial grounds.  Then just as my patience was at its thinnest, the Minister tells a story about when he was boy.

As I listened, I was struck by the coincidence of the Minister’s story and the story of Nicodemus.

As a boy, the Minister would run away from his parents and hide under blankets and things. One day he hid in the cedar chest where the blankets were stored. But unbeknownst to him, his elder brother was watching and saw a chance to assert his power. Knowing his brother was in the chest, the elder brother sat on the chest. The more the younger brother tried to push up the lid or reveal his whereabouts, the more he couldn’t. His cries were muffled under the blankets. The more he struggled and the more he tried to make a sound and failed, the more frightened he became. Finally, the elder brother stood up and he was able to open the chest.

With this story told by the Minister standing outside the pulpit, from the middle aisle, a flash of insight came to me. The Rock sealing the Teacher’s tomb, holds the balance of power. Until the scruffy don from the country who carried the Cross of Jesus, stands up bald headed and clean shaven ready to fulfill his role as the Bridegroom and Don (Mark 15:21), the Teacher is trapped in his platonic cave. The Teacher, like the youngster in the Minister’s Lenten story is trapped. He cannot come out and embrace the Light as her brother and be born again. And neither can the Madonna and their followers. They must wait and put their trust in the Lord, their Don. And the Good News is…he rises every EASTER and brings the wine.