Jesus' Encounter with Nicodemus

This is the first blog entry of about fifteen in which I will be looking to the Scriptures, particularly narrative for Jesus or Paul or another key Christian leader, to evaluate the posture such a leader took with interacting with his audience.

Today, I look at Jesus' encounter with Nicodemus.

The first thing that stands out is that Jesus did not initiate this encounter. Nicodemus was curious to know more about this strange Jew who spoke with authority regarding the Scriptures despite being a carpenter. This is how the discussion began:

Nicodemus: "Rabbi, we know that You have come from God as a teacher; for no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with him."

Jesus answered: "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God."

I'm sorry, but Jesus doesn't seem like he's too concerned with making Nicodemus feel welcome. That response to such a premise is cryptic, if not downright standoffish. Nicodemus came to Jesus because he recognized Jesus had a connection with God. Jesus' first words were that none could participate in knowing and understanding God's work unless they were born again. Okay, step into Nicodemus' shoes; there's a familiarity with this phrase that Nicodemus never had. He interpreted this as thinking one had to exit the womb of one's mother a second time. That's how cryptic Jesus was speaking.

It never got any better. Jesus remained very mysterious, speaking riddles in a sense. Why? I thought Jesus was all-loving, all-embracing, always approachable. At least, that's the construct we build of Him in our minds, the image we hold of Him that inspires our posture with others. Okay, so this is one event in Jesus' life and by all means should not define His predominant posture with people. In context, this posture was taken with a religious leader, one of prestige. We know Christ discerned the hearts of mankind (John 2:23-25) and so knew that Nicodemus had a to accepting His gospel; yet Jesus remained cryptic. Was this a test for Nicodemus? Like speaking in parables, was Jesus deliberately making it hard for him, knowing Nicodemus would have to truly wrestle with these words if he wanted to know God?

So I have one posture of Jesus. More to come.