Nicodemus, Patron Saint of the Seekers

by Gary Nesdahl

The following monologue presents Nicodemus as he might have represented himself.  He is best known as the person who helped to bury Jesus, but this monologue is also used to give us more information about the lives and deaths of Jesus' disciples.

    Greetings from Jerusalem.  This is time of our Passover. It is the time shortly before the death, the crucifiction of Jesus Christ. 

   I'm a scholar - a Pharisee - and a member of the Sanhedrin.  I'm here to speak to you of  Jesus, the Rabbi, and of my small part in his life and death.

   I visited him to ask him about his teachings.   People said that He performed miraculous signs, things done only the greatest prophets could do, and I wanted to talk with him. I was curious.  

   Over the years, since these times, I'll become an object of curiosity, of debate.  Some will think I'm a seeker of wisdom, and that I met with Jesus so I could better understand his words and his message.  They will believe that I must have had some stirrings of belief in order to go to him.  Others will say that I'm a dullard, responding to his statement about being born again as if I believed that we must crawl back into the womb to achieve this.  Some will even say I was a spy for the Sanhedren.  They will make it a big deal that I went at night.  Was I a coward, sneaking around so my friends wouldn't know?  Did I go at night so I could catch him away from the crowds? 

   Some say that night is the time that we study and so it is appropriate that I go at night to learn what he had to teach.

   Why did I go?  I'm a scholar.  I was curious.  As a Pharisee I need to know the law very precisely because God shows us who he is through the law.  He gives us this law to relate to him. Jesus was a Rabbi.  He knew the law.  He knew the history of our people and God's instructions to us.  Even as a young child he came to temple and spoke with words well beyond his years.  People saw him as a religious leader with a special knowledge of God.  There was something about him. ?  I was curious.

   At least that's what I told myself.

   When I went to him that night he didn't talk about the law.  He didn't talk to me with words and images that I understood at that time. I'm a Pharisee. I'm used to things being black and white. I understand the world through God's law. .  I leave to His understanding what is His to understand.  But Jesus didn't talk to me about the law.  He talked about something beyond it.  He talked to me about the Spirit, the Wind.  He talked about putting on a new life, of being born again, of shedding my old self and taking on a new one simply by believing that he came to teach me this lesson.  I didn't understand him, but he intrigued me.  Perhaps, even then, there was a truth that I was beginning to catch on to.  If I'm such a scholar, why couldn't I understand?

   The second thing I'm identified with is the time I scolded my colleagues for condemning Jesus without a hearing.  They were frightened about where he might be leading the people and angry because they believed he was blaspheming by making himself equal to God..  I said that he deserved a chance to be heard but their minds were made up. They turned their anger on me when they thought I stood up for him.  When the Sanhedren was rushing toward condemning him, I reminded them that we are Jews and that Jews don't condemn people without at least hearing them.  Some have said that I was brave for speaking up for Jesus.  Others say that I was a coward because I didn't say enough. 

   I didn't think I was being either brave or cowardly.  I was a member of the Sanhedren who was only speaking properly.  All of my colleagues weren't of one mind and it is our tradition to treat people properly when accusing them of serious crimes.  The reaction by the leaders - that I either wasn't seeing what was in front of my face, or that I was in league with Jesus, shows how desperate they were becoming.  They were accusing me of being unfaithful to my responsibilities and to them because I reminded them of what they should have known.  It was as if I was unpatriotic simply because I disagreed with them.

   At least that's what I told myself at the time.  

   Later, after it's over, I'll stand at the foot of the cross.  Joseph of Aramathea is a friend.  He, like me, is a man of means and a leader of the people.  He is, I believe, a secret disciple of Jesus and wants to give him a proper burial.  I'll help him with this.  I'll bring a hundred pounds of aloe and myrrh to anoint the body before burial.  This will create quite a stir, because it's only the wealthy who are treated this well.  It's the least I can do. Some say that I'm generous and brave to embalm Jesus' body as if he is a noble.    Others say I am a coward because I didn't go with Joseph to Pilate to beg for his body.  To some every little thing I do proves my righteousness.  To others I never do enough.  

    What is it about this Jesus?

   If I am such a scholar, such a leader of the people, why don't I know why he has to die?  Jesus has instructed his disciples to spread the Gospel, his story, to the ends of the world.  And so they will.
  
   Andrew will preach the Gospel in Macedonia, Greece, Scythia, Asia Minor, Russia and other countries in Asia. James the son of Zebedee will go to Spain as their first Christian Missionary; Philip to France, southern Russia, and Asia Minor.  Bartholomew mostly preaches in India and Armenia.  Thomas spreads the Gospel in India, Parthias, Medes, and Persia;  Matthew in Egypt and Ethiopia.  James the son of Alphaeus will travel to Persia. Thaddaeus will preach in Mesopotamia and Persia;  Simon the Zealot in Egypt, Mauritania, Africa, Lifya and Britain;  Peter in Pontus, Galatia, Bithynia, Cappadocia and Asia among many places, including Rome.  

   These were days without airplanes and automobiles.  Most of these men walked where they had to go, or they took a long voyage on a ship. Look again to some of the places that they were able to get to:  Armenia, Asia Minor, Bithynia, Britain, Cappadocia, Egypt, Ethiopia, France, Galatia, Greece, India, Lifya, Macedonia, Mauritania, Medes, Mesopotamia, Parthias, Persia, Pontus, Russia, Scythia, Spain, and other countries in Africa and Asia.

   This was the great commission.

   What is it about Jesus that each of these men will spend the rest of their lives traveling with His message?

   Some say that I'm brave to embalm and help bury Jesus.  I'll lose my position, I'll lose my wealth and I'll be expelled from Jerusalem, but all of these men, except John, will lose their lives in his service.  And what is his service? To spread his word.  And what is his word?  He, His story, is his word.  They are killed for telling His story.

   Tradition will say that only John, of the original 12 disciples, will die in his sleep.  All of the rest are to be martyred.  

  James the son of Zebedee will become the first martyr among the apostles when King Herod Agrippa orders his execution.  Andrew is to be crucified in Greece. Philip is martyred in Hierapolis, in today's Turkey.   Bartholomew ,  will be beaten, then flayed alive, afterwards crucified and then beheaded in Armenia. .  Thomas will be martyred in India; Matthew in Ethiopia.  There will be two versions of the death of James.  One will say he is to be crucified in Persia, the other will say he's stoned and beaten to death by Jews at the age of 93.
   One tradition will say that magicians will kill Thaddeus with clubs and stones in Persia.  According to another one he will be crucified in Edessa, Turkey.  Simon the Zealot  will be crucified in Britain.   Simon Peter will be killed in Rome at the order of Nero, one of thousands of Christians martyred during this emperor's reign.  He'll be crucified head downwards at his request.  He'll say he's unworthy to be crucified the same way as Jesus Christ.

   The disciples are to be martyred as they carry out his great commission.   In the simple telling of his story they all die.  What is it about that story?  

   In the years ahead there will be an argument about who is really responsible for Jesus' death.  Some will say it is the Romans because of their fear of Jesus' growing political power.  Some say it is the Jews, who are afraid that the Romans will punish them for failing to keep Jesus in his place.  Some say it is people like me, leaders who are too blind or too cowardly to protect him.  Some say it is the people who praised Jesus and then turned against him.  

   I'm here, now, and I'm not sure who's responsible.  Not really.  Perhaps it's because of us Jews and our particular political situation with Rome. But Jesus is a Jew.  And his disciples were Jews.  And I am Jew.   It won't be the Jews who hang Peter upside down on a cross in Rome, or who will kill Simon the Zealot in Britain.  Thomas will be killed in India, not Rome or Jerusalem.   Matthew in Ethiopia, Philip in Turkey, Andrew in Greece.  There will be many other martyrs in many other places.

   In the simple telling of that story, they all died.  What is it about that story?

   What is it about that story?