XXV. NICODEMUS AND JESUS

John 3:1, 2.—“There was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews: The same came to Jesus by night, and said unto him, Rabbi,” &c.;

It is a remarkable and characteristic feature of the discourses of our Lord, that they are often prompted, or shaped, or illustrated, by the event of the moment; by some scene or incident that presented itself to him at the time he was speaking. It is scarcely necessary to give examples of a fact so undisputed. Thus it was the day after the miracle of the loaves, and it was to the persons who had witnessed that miracle, and profited by it, that Jesus said, “Labour not for the meat which perisheth, but for that meat which endureth unto everlasting life,” [John 6:27.] &c.; and much more to the same effect. It was at Jacob’s well, and in reply to the question of the woman, “How is it that thou, being a Jew, askest drink of me, which am a woman of Samaria?” [John. 4:9] that Jesus spake so much at large of the water whereof “whosoever drank should never thirst,” &c.; It was whilst tarrying in this same rural spot, that, calling the attention of his disciples to the scene around them, he said, “Say not ye, There are yet four months, and then cometh harvest? behold, I say unto you, Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields; for they are white already to harvest;” [John 4:35.] and he then goes on to remind them of sowing and reaping to be done in another and higher sense. These are a few instances out of many which might be produced, where the incident that gave rise to the remarks is actually related; and by which the habit of our Lord’s discourse is proved to be such as I have described. But in other places, the incident itself is omitted, and but for some casual expression which is let fall, it would be impossible to connect the discourse with it; by means, however, of some such expression, apparently intended to serve no such purpose, we are enabled to get at the incident, and so discover the propriety of the discourse. In such cases we are furnished once more with the argument of coincidence without design—as in the following passage: “In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink. He that believeth on me, as the Scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water,” [John 7:37, 38.] &c.; Now, but for the expression, “In the last day, that great day of the feast,” we should have been at a loss to know the circumstances in which that speech of our Lord originated. But the day when it was delivered being named, we are enabled to gather from other sources, that on that day, the eighth of the Feast of Tabernacles, it was a custom to offer to God a pot of water drawn from the pool of Siloam. Coupling this fact, therefore, with our Lord’s practice, already established by other evidence, of allowing the spectacle before him to give the turn to his address, we may conclude that he spake these words whilst he happened to be observing the ceremony of the water-pot. And an argument thus arises, that the speech here reported is genuine, and was really delivered by our Lord.

The passage, then, in St. John, with which I have headed this paragraph, furnishes testimony of the same kind. It describes Nicodemus as coming to Jesus by night—fear, no doubt, prompting him to use this secrecy. Now observe a good deal of the language which Jesus directs to him—“And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. But he that doeth truth, cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God.” (3:19–21.) When we remember that the interview was a nocturnal one, and that Jesus was accustomed to speak with a reference to the circumstances about him at the instant, what more natural than the turn of this discourse? What more satisfactory evidence could we have, than this casual evidence, that the visit was paid, and the speech spoken as St. John describes? that his narrative, in short, is true [I was put upon this coincidence by a passage which I heard in one of Mr. Marden’s Hulsean Lectures.] ?