Plots

John 7: 49-52

“‘ No! But this mob that knows nothing of the law—there is a curse on them.’ Nicodemus, who had gone to Jesus earlier and who was one of their own number, asked, “Does our law condemn a man without first hearing him to find out what he has been doing?’ They replied, “Are you from Galilee, too? Look into it, and you will find that a prophet does not come out of Galilee.'”

Yesterday we examined the topic of rationalizing what one believes. The Pharisees had decided that Jesus was a deceiver because he had people convinced he was the Messiah when he did not follow the Sabbath laws. (The idea that God was not subject to the laws of man obviously hadn’t occurred to them.)

In this passage, Nicodemus tries to reason with his own kind, Pharisee to Pharisee. Nicodemus was the Pharisee who visited Jesus at night in chapter 3. He had actually listened to Jesus and had been amazed at what Jesus told him. Of course, Nicodemus started with the correct premise that, “we know that you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the signs you are doing if God were not with him.” (John 3: 2) The other Pharisees started from the opposite premise that signs Jesus did were evidence of Satan rather than God.

For his efforts in trying to gently guide his associates toward the truth, Nicodemus was rebuked sharply. To be accused of being from Galilee was like being told he was a country hick. Not only that, but the Pharisees were apparently unaware of the fact that Jesus was born in Bethlehem. Assuming he was originally from Galilee they justified their belief that he could not be the Messiah.

Q: What do you think Nicodemus was thinking and feeling as he watched his fellow Pharisees plot against Jesus?