Pharisee – Being a Pilgrim

“There was a man named Nicodemus, a Jewish religious leader who was a Pharisee. After dark one evening, he came to speak with Jesus. “Rabbi,” he said, “we all know that God has sent you to teach us. Your miraculous signs are evidence that God is with you.””
John 3:1-2 NLT

A Jewish leader, a Pharisee called Nicodemus, emerges in the account in John, and we can read an important conversation between him and Jesus. Nicodemus emerges again in various places in John’s Gospel, but through it all he seemed to be a man who probably became a disciple of Jesus, albeit secretly.

The Pharisees were legalists who believed that their salvation could be attained by following the Law, every jot and tittle of it, and including all the additional rules and regulations the Jewish rabbis had developed over the years since Moses gave them the tablets of stone. So why would Nicodemus want to talk to this itinerant preacher called Jesus? After all His ministry was a threat to the cosy club the Pharisees had built for themselves. But Nicodemus had observed the teaching and miracles of Jesus and something stirred within him. Could this man really be the Messiah the Jews had been waiting for? Perhaps he thought he would go and find out secretly, one to one with Jesus.

He probably did well to find Jesus available for the conversation, and he started respectfully by acknowledging Jesus was a rabbi, and that God had sent Him to teach the people. The miracles, he said, were the evidence needed to endorse Jesus’ ministry. But what was he hoping to gain from the conversation? Perhaps he was hoping that his position of being a leader in the Jewish faith would be endorsed and that he would find special favour. Or perhaps he just wanted to know more about Jesus and His background and faith so that he could gain some insight into Jesus’ future ministry and who He really was.

There are many today who would like to know more about Jesus. People have vague ideas about who Jesus was, perhaps gained from nativity scenes or memories of childhood Sunday school lessons. Perhaps they have puzzled over the liturgies in Christian marriage and funeral ceremonies. As an aside, I can remember at my daughter’s wedding one of the guests, a niece of my wife’s, asked why the minister kept mentioning Jesus in the service. Some people have preconceived ideas about Jesus perhaps fuelled by negative press reports about an errant priest or off the wall sect. But whatever the occasion, the devil has come along and has snatched away any curious thoughts about Jesus.

What a tragedy that the Son of God Himself should be marginalised and forgotten about. Or reduced to a swear word in a conversation. But we pilgrims know differently. We have heard the Voice of God and have responded on our knees in repentance. We have worshipped the God-Man Jesus, acknowledging who He is and all that he has done for us. Like Nicodemus, there was probably a day when curiosity blossomed into our faith in Jesus. We don’t know what really happened in Nicodemus’ life later on but we know what will happen in ours. That’s all that matters. And from that faith, we tell others, introducing them to Jesus.

Dear Lord Jesus. Once again we thank You for coming to this errant world, riven by evil and sin. But You were, and are, the answer. We worship You today. Amen.

“In his kindness God called you to share in his eternal glory by means of Christ Jesus. So after you have suffered a little while, he will restore, support, and strengthen you, and he will place you on a firm foundation. All power to him forever! Amen.”
1 Peter 5:10-11 NLT

When we consider the word “foundation” what comes into our minds? A builder will think of the concrete and stone that he is building a wall or house on, a base strong and firm enough to support the weight of the structure above it. And that picture will extend into all manner of activities that we get involved in. So a sportsman or woman will develop a foundation of fitness that will enable them to compete in their sport. Their foundations are built on a regime of the correct muscle-building foods, the long hours spent swimming, or running, or repeating the very process they will go through on the competition day. Paul used the sporting analogy when he wrote this in 1 Corinthians 9:24-27, “Don’t you realise that in a race everyone runs, but only one person gets the prize? So run to win! All athletes are disciplined in their training. They do it to win a prize that will fade away, but we do it for an eternal prize. So I run with purpose in every step. I am not just shadowboxing. I discipline my body like an athlete, training it to do what it should. Otherwise, I fear that after preaching to others I myself might be disqualified”.

A business will develop prosperity based on the skills and knowledge of its workers. In this context we talk about the founders of a company, who put together a few ideas perhaps in a bedroom or garage, and from there became a success story, growing into a large and even multi-national company. A “foundation” is a beginning, a starting point, something solid and tangible. And something essential for the success of whatever is built upon it.

The Apostle Paul was a Pharisee in the days before he met Jesus on the Damascus Road. Not just any Pharisee, however. We read about his Jewish upbringing in Philippians 3:5-6, “I was circumcised when I was eight days old. I am a pure-blooded citizen of Israel and a member of the tribe of Benjamin—a real Hebrew if there ever was one! I was a member of the Pharisees, who demand the strictest obedience to the Jewish law. I was so zealous that I harshly persecuted the church. And as for righteousness, I obeyed the law without fault”. Paul’s foundation was on the Law of Moses and the plethora of accompanying rules and regulations that made up the lives of Pharisees. But imagine what happened to his foundation when he met Jesus. It took him days to get his mind round the reality that he had built his life on the wrong foundation. Referring to his heritage and pedigree, we read more of his story in Philippians 3:7-8, “I once thought these things were valuable, but now I consider them worthless because of what Christ has done. Yes, everything else is worthless when compared with the infinite value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have discarded everything else, counting it all as garbage, so that I could gain Christ”.

We pilgrims have built our lives on a true and strong foundation – the person and work, death and resurrection, of Jesus Christ. In fact He is the only way, the truth and the life (John 14:6) that we need. Everything in our lives must be built upon Him. Paul wrote in Ephesians 2:20, “Together, we are his house, built on the foundation of the apostles and the prophets. And the cornerstone is Christ Jesus himself”.

There is an old hymn written in 1866 by S J Stone, and the first verse is:
The church’s one foundation
Is Jesus Christ, her Lord;
she is His new creation,
by water and the word.
From heav’n He came and sought her
to be His holy bride;
with His own blood He bought her,
and for her life He died.

It was a favourite of mine in my early Anglican days, and the truths within it haven’t changed at all in the last 160 years or so. Our faith is truly founded on the Chief Cornerstone – Jesus Himself. There is no other foundation that will support our lives on Planet Earth and in the life to come.

Dear Lord Jesus. You are there only foundation that will last when all else is destroyed. We build upon You and Your ways, this day and every day. Amen.