Night School – Aftermath

The following is a non-fiction review of what might have happened to the character reflected in the historical fiction “Night School”, following the event which is presented in that story.

The timing of the story “Night School” is hard to pinpoint. Based on the order that John relays the details, Jesus had some of the disciples following him (Andrew, Simon Peter, Philip and Nathaniel) but not yet the full count of ‘the twelve’. Jesus (Yeshua) had turned water into wine at the wedding in Cana, and ‘cleansed’ the temple the first time, which he did during the Passover Festival, where John reports that many people saw the signs that he was performing, though a specific list of the signs is not recorded.

Again based on the order of events as reported by John, this was before Jesus spoke to the Samaritan Woman at Jacob’s well, and quite some time before the Sermon on the Mount, the beheading of John the Baptist, and the feeding of the 5,000.

After the Night School event, this character, Nicodemus, is not mentioned again in the Bible until what was probably about a year later.

We can only guess what was happening in his head and heart between the night visit and this next mention. Perhaps in this intervening time Nicodemus thought Jesus was a fraud. Perhaps he was an ‘undercover’ follower. Perhaps the truth could be found somewhere in between.

When Nicodemus is next mentioned, he is still a member of the ruling council. This is the description of this second event as it unfolded, from John 7:25-52:

²⁵ At that point some of the people of Jerusalem began to ask, “Isn’t this the man they are trying to kill? ²⁶ Here he is, speaking publicly, and they are not saying a word to him. Have the authorities really concluded that he is the Messiah? ²⁷ But we know where this man is from – when the Messiah comes, no one will know where he is from.”

²⁸ Then Jesus, still teaching in the temple courts, cried out, “Yes, you know me, and you know where I am from. I am not here on my own authority, but he who sent me is true. You do not know him, ²⁹ but I know him because I am from him and he sent me.”

³⁰ At this they tried to seize him, but no one laid a hand on him, because his hour had not yet come. ³¹ Still, many in the crowd believed in him. They said, “When the Messiah comes, will he perform more signs than this man?”

³² The Pharisees heard the crowd whispering such things about him. Then the chief priests and the Pharisees sent temple guards to arrest him.

³³ Jesus said, “I am with you for only a short time, and then I am going to the one who sent me. ³⁴ You will look for me, but you will not find me; and where I am, you cannot come.”

³⁵ The Jews said to one another, “Where does this man intend to go that we cannot find him? Will he go where our people live scattered among the Greeks, and teach the Greeks? ³⁶ What did he mean when he said, ‘You will look for me, but you will not find me,’ and ‘Where I am, you cannot come’?”

³⁷ On the last and greatest day of the festival, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink. ³⁸ Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.” ³⁹ By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive. Up to that time the Spirit had not been given, since Jesus had not yet been glorified.

⁴⁰ On hearing his words, some of the people said, “Surely this man is the Prophet.”

⁴¹ Others said, “He is the Messiah.”

Still others asked, “How can the Messiah come from Galilee? ⁴² Does not Scripture say that the Messiah will come from David’s descendants and from Bethlehem, the town where David lived?” ⁴³ Thus the people were divided because of Jesus. ⁴⁴ Some wanted to seize him, but no one laid a hand on him.

⁴⁵ Finally the temple guards went back to the chief priests and the Pharisees, who asked them, “Why didn’t you bring him in?”

⁴⁶ “No one ever spoke the way this man does,” the guards replied.

⁴⁷ “You mean he has deceived you also?” the Pharisees retorted.  ⁴⁸ “Have any of the rulers or of the Pharisees believed in him? ⁴⁹ No! But this mob that knows nothing of the law—there is a curse on them.”

⁵⁰ Nicodemus, who had gone to Jesus earlier and who was one of their own number, asked,⁵¹ “Does our law condemn a man without first hearing him to find out what he has been doing?”

⁵² They replied, “Are you from Galilee, too? Look into it, and you will find that a prophet does not come out of Galilee.”

What seems clear is that Nicodemus challenged the summary judgement by at least some of the elders, saying: “Does our law condemn a man without first hearing him to find out what he has been doing?”

The intent behind his question is not clear, but the fact that Nicodemus raised the question rather than going along with the other leaders is noteworthy. He was risking his stature, his reputation, by seeming to defend Jesus, at least in some small way. In fact, the immediate reply makes this clear, when they asked him “Are you from Galilee too?” That might be like saying “Are you from Podunk?” Or it might be akin to someone from Boston explaining the opinions of a football fan by asking “What? Are you from Green Bay?”. Regardless of the background to their reply, Nicodemus was taking a risk by raising this question.

What are possible reasons he would do this?

• Perhaps he was trying to one-up one of his opponents on the council (as our elected officials so often do today)

 

• Perhaps he was a stickler for following the letter of the law, and just wanted all the t’s crossed and the i’s dotted (though neither character is actually part of the Hebrew or Aramaic written language).

 

• Perhaps he wondered, in his own mind, whether Jesus was being ‘railroaded’ (though there were no railroads at that time).

 

• Perhaps he was one of the people mentioned who at least suspected that Messiahship was actually a possibility.

 

• Perhaps he was a believer (a closet believer, possibly) who hoped to see the heat turned down around Jesus. If so, the person who said ⁴⁸ “Have any of the rulers or of the Pharisees believed in him? ⁴⁹ No! But this mob that knows nothing of the law…” was oblivious to that truth.

 

• Perhaps it was his intention for Jesus to have the opportunity to prove his Messiahship.

 

Whatever the reason, he stood up in a tense situation and spoke in, at very least, a limited defense of Jesus, when others on the council were seeking to eliminate Jesus.

 

Nicodemus returns in the historical account (the third mention if him) after Jesus died. John 19:28-42:

²⁸ Later, knowing that everything had now been finished, and so that Scripture would be fulfilled, Jesus said, “I am thirsty.” ²⁹ A jar of wine vinegar was there, so they soaked a sponge in it, put the sponge on a stalk of the hyssop plant, and lifted it to Jesus’ lips.³⁰ When he had received the drink, Jesus said, “It is finished.” With that, he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.

³¹ Now it was the day of Preparation, and the next day was to be a special Sabbath. Because the Jewish leaders did not want the bodies left on the crosses during the Sabbath, they asked Pilate to have the legs broken and the bodies taken down. ³² The soldiers therefore came and broke the legs of the first man who had been crucified with Jesus, and then those of the other. ³³ But when they came to Jesus and found that he was already dead, they did not break his legs. ³⁴ Instead, one of the soldiers pierced Jesus’ side with a spear, bringing a sudden flow of blood and water. ³⁵ The man who saw it has given testimony, and his testimony is true. He knows that he tells the truth, and he testifies so that you also may believe.  

³⁶ These things happened so that the scripture would be fulfilled: “Not one of his bones will be broken,” ³⁷ and, as another scripture says, “They will look on the one they have pierced.” ³⁸ Later, Joseph of Arimathea asked Pilate for the body of Jesus. Now Joseph was a disciple of Jesus, but secretly because he feared the Jewish leaders.

With Pilate’s permission, he came and took the body away. ³⁹ He was accompanied by Nicodemus, the man who earlier had visited Jesus at night. Nicodemus brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about seventy-five pounds.⁴⁰ Taking Jesus’ body, the two of them wrapped it, with the spices, in strips of linen. This was in accordance with Jewish burial customs. ⁴¹ At the place where Jesus was crucified, there was a garden, and in the garden a new tomb, in which no one had ever been laid. ⁴² Because it was the Jewish day of Preparation and since the tomb was nearby, they laid Jesus there.

Here we read that the Jewish leaders asked Pilot to have the legs broken of the men on the crosses so that they would die before the holiday began, because they did not want the bodies left on the crosses during the Sabbath.

Why did the timing matter to them? There are a few possible reasons for this, and probably more than one was concurrently at play:

 

• Jesus had a history of doing miraculous signs in Jerusalem on Passover (at least during the last few years, and reportedly even when he was twelve years old, and stayed at the Temple for some days when his parents were not aware that he was with their large group until the second day of their journey). They may have wanted to be quite sure that there was no chance of his doing a miracle on the following day, which was Passover.

 

• As the Jewish leaders, it was their job to encourage all faithful Jews to experience the Passover as required in the Torah. Those coming to Jerusalem might have had a different attitude if they had to look upon those on the cross as they came toward town (or for those in town to look out and see them hanging there on the holy day).

 

• The Jewish leaders wanted the Roman authority to have Jesus killed, but they did not really want to highlight the power of their oppressors during the High Holy day, neither the authority that they had seeded to Rome or the ongoing implicit threat to all Jews who might challenge Rome.

 

• Dead bodies were ritually unclean, so could not be handled during the High Holy day of Passover without making the handler unclean also. This would have resulted in bodies staying on the crosses for multiple days.

 

• For someone to take down a dead body and do anything with it, whether dump it in the trash, or bury it, or anything else, they would have to work, and work was not allowed on the Sabbath, which began at sunset that same day.

 

• The idea that some might see blood on Jesus and on the cross, from his beating and the crown of thorns (he had not yet been stabbed to confirm his death) and make some connection to the blood of the lamb, sprinkled on the doorposts of a house, may have come late to the Jewish leaders, sending chills down their spines.

 

• Perhaps this was an act of compassion on the part of the Jewish leaders to end the suffering (and oh, by the way, also to end their discomfort as they stood and waited these long hours to assure the utter and complete death of Jesus).

Whatever the reason, Nicodemus steps back into the picture.

First, Joseph of Arimathea asked Pilot for Jesus body. There is no record or suggestion that this Joseph was a family member of Jesus. This was clearly NOT his earthly father Joseph, even though they have the same first name.

Luke 23:50-54 describes this Joseph, recording:

⁵⁰ Now there was a man named Joseph, a member of the Council, a good and upright man,⁵¹ who had not consented to their decision and action. He came from the Judean town of Arimathea, and he himself was waiting for the kingdom of God.”

So Joseph reportedly did not consent to the decision of the council. What we do read in John is that this Joseph was a secret follower of Jesus. Now, chances are, he knew of other secret followers too. This type of secret is usually not contained ‘between his ears’. Most of us do at least some of our thinking out loud, in the presence of others. This is where Nicodemus comes back into the story. Nicodemus ‘accompanied’ Joseph of Arimathea. It is not clear whether Nicodemus accompanied Joseph during his visit to Pilot. But it is clear that in the errand to collect the body, Nicodemus was there.

And, oh by the way, Nicodemus happened to be carrying 75 pounds of myrrh and aloes for the burial. This load did not just happen to be in his pockets. And it was not just sitting there on the side of the road to be picked up by any passersby.  There would have been a significant financial investment in this load. And 75 pounds would have been a substantial load to carry, even for a young man. Add to that the load of a body, and these two had quite a job. Perhaps there were others there who were helping, but were not named. Luke reports:

^“55 The women who had come with Jesus from Galilee followed Joseph and saw the tomb and how his body was laid in it. ⁵⁶ Then they went home and prepared spices and perfumes. But they rested on the Sabbath in obedience to the commandment.”

How closely the women followed is not clear. Perhaps they walked alongside; perhaps right behind. Perhaps they followed from a distance. In any case they saw where the body was delivered, then they went home to prepare spices and perfume for the body in the tomb. But they did not go directly back, because of the Sabbath requirements. They waited until sunrise on Sunday to go back, but that is another story. It is not clear if the women knew about the 75-pound load, or its purpose. The fact that they were preparing other spices provides reason to suggest that they were not aware of that load.

It is also possible that others accompanied Joseph and Nicodemus. But why, then, would they not have been listed, especially in an age when more named witnesses would have increased the strength of the message that John and Luke sought to deliver.

In any event, somehow the 75-pound load and the body were delivered to a nearby tomb owned by Joseph of Arimathea. Perhaps they had one or more donkeys to haul the load. In any case, two men on the evening before a holiday would not have coincidentally been carrying these items on a trip outside of town. This project would have required at least some level of planning and preparation.

The timing was also most important to these members of the ruling council. Being ceremonially unclean on the Sabbath would require that they be removed from their assigned roles for that day. And given that THIS Sabbath was the annual Passover celebration, that would have been a hard price to pay. Why would anyone risk their position to handle the dead body of someone with whom they had no connection?

One final thought regarding their intentions: It was not at all customary for ruling elders to handle the bodies of executed criminals (not then, not now). We might note that Joseph did not also ask for the bodies of the other two men that died on crosses that day. Nor is there any command written anywhere else in the Bible that priests, let alone ruling elders, accept this job.

So it seems clear that, at some point, Nicodemus became a secret follower of Jesus, just as Joseph of Arimathea was. When that might have happened is not at all clear. Nicodemus did not start following Jesus during ‘Night School’, as did many other disciples who started immediately to follow when they were called. He did not travel with Jesus, though he probably witnessed some events around Jerusalem along with other members of the ruling council who were watching Jesus closely.

Perhaps everything snapped into place when Jesus was on the cross, if Nicodemus recalled that Jesus said that he would be lifted up on a stick as Moses lifted up the snake that would heal all who looked upon it. Perhaps it was seeing the way that Jesus faced his death. Perhaps it was at a much earlier date.

It is also possible that Nicodemus did all this just because he was buds with Joseph, and so wanted to help his friends with this chore before the holy day started. Would you have done that?

We have no reason to think that Nicodemus or Joseph believed that Jesus was still alive after he was taken from the cross. They made no effort to resuscitate Jesus. Rather, they prepared the body for burial and placed it in a tomb. If Nicodemus believed that Jesus was the Messiah (moshiach), we have no reason to think that he thought that Jesus would rise from the dead. If such a thing were thought possible, why would they wrap the body in burial cloths with the 75 pounds of spices?

Whatever potential that Nicodemus thought Jesus had during his life, there is no indication that Nicodemus thought he had any potential left after his death.

But for all the considerations listed above, and knowing the pressure that Nicodemus would be feeling from his peers, not only the next day (the Sabbath) but also the day after that (called, by some, Resurrection Day), and then for some years to come as “The Way” grew and became a thorn in the side of the Jewish leadership, I expect that Nicodemus, at some point, became a believer.

Nicodemus had to process what he knew, limited though his understanding was, and make a potentially life-changing decision regarding that information, just as each of us must choose.