A Fair Hearing

John 7:45-52

The officers then came to the chief priests and Pharisees, who said to them, “Why did you not bring him?” The officers answered, “No one ever spoke like this man!” The Pharisees answered them, “Have you also been deceived? Have any of the authorities or the Pharisees believed in him? But this crowd that does not know the law is accursed.” Nicodemus, who had gone to him before, and who was one of them, said to them, “Does our law judge a man without first giving him a hearing and learning what he does?” They replied, “Are you from Galilee too? Search and see that no prophet arises from Galilee.”

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Nicodemus is a fascinating character in the New Testament. In chapter three of John's account, Nicodemus has a private evening conversation with Jesus, asking him questions and getting some surprising answers. Why did they meet at night? Probably because Nicodemus was one of the Pharisees, the group of religious leaders who were largely opposed to Jesus. During this late night conversation, Nicodemus is told that he must be "born again" in order to enter God's kingdom, which seemed to confuse him. The chapter ends without a clear picture of whether Nicodemus believed Jesus or not.

Now, in chapter seven, Nicodemus reemerges. Jesus does no miracle in this chapter. He is asked by his unbelieving brothers whether he will go to the Feast in Jerusalem. We are told that Jesus is already under threat of arrest and possibly death. He goes to the Feast privately, but is drawn into open debate about his authority. John records several responses from the crowd, some of whom deny this could be the Messiah, but some are becoming convinced by both the miracles and the teaching they hear. We also read that the Pharisees attempted to have Jesus arrested at this time, but the guards actually returned empty-handed simply because his teaching was so uniquely powerful!

In response to these guards, the Pharisees are dumbfounded. Who is this man? The religious leaders don't endorse this, so why is everyone so smitten with him? They curse the crowd for being so insubordinate.

And then Nicodemus speaks up.

Little Nicodemus who has met with Jesus in private, probably for fear of his colleagues finding out that he was interested in Jesus. He spoke up and asked his fellow leaders to give Jesus a chance to speak for himself. He called them to consider that their own law did not allow an accusation without first hearing testimony. But they were not interested in fairness. They didn't even answer his reference to the law. Instead, they just berated Jesus for being a Galilean. He was different, strange, not from around here. He therefore did not deserve to even be heard.

What gets in the way of us actually hearing Jesus speak for himself. Do we give him a fair hearing? Do we buy the stereotypes that others have told us? Do we associate Jesus with some foreign culture or strange zealous cult? Do we judge him by appearances? Have we really read and researched to understand the most accurate picture possible?

Are we like the Pharisees who judged him without a hearing? Are we like Nicodemus who wanted his friends and colleagues to give him a chance? Or, if we really heard Jesus, would we be more like the officers, unable to carry out our judgment because we have never heard anything like this before?

Who are you?