Nicodemus visits Jesus at night – in the darkness – to check out this “teacher” whose amazing actions have come to his attention. As a religious leader, Nicodemus is also unhappy with some of this “teacher’s” actions and words. They are disturbing the religious establishment.
It is quite a journey for Nicodemus, who eventually comes into the light after the death of Jesus, to assist at his burial.
The move from darkness to light is however a radical one. So radical that Jesus speaks of it as ‘being born again’, ‘being born from above’, ‘being born of water and the Spirit’.
In some ways this transformation is akin to dying and rising. The old is put to death and the new has come. It is nothing less than a ‘new creation’ II Corinthians 5:17
In Luther’s explanation of Holy Baptism, he refers to this as a ‘daily drowning’ of our old sinful self and the rising of the new child of God.
