Meditation 235
John 3:1-17
This is one of the best known and loved passages in the gospels, the story of Nicodemus coming to Jesus by night to ask about the things that Jesus was teaching. Nicodemus knew of Jesus and his teaching and he was impressed. He recognized that the signs Jesus performed could only be done because God had sent Jesus. He said “no one can do these signs that you do apart from the presence of God.” Nicodemus needed a trusted spiritual leader to talk out his questions, and so he went to Jesus. It seems that while he could tell that Jesus had the presence of God, Nicodemus also had confidence that he could come to Jesus with his questions and be helped.
We all find ourselves in the place, from time to time, where we have questions about faith. We can find that we need to talk to someone about the ideas we have to get them sorted out. We may have doubts, or we may simply be looking at things from a new point of view. In either case, we, like Nicodemus need to talk things out. There are times that talking to God allows us to get things sorted out, we pray, either in spoken words, or in writing things down, or using music, whatever the means, prayer can be a way to sort out our queries. There are also times that we look to another member of the family of faith to help us sort things out. In the Celtic tradition such a person is called a soul friend, someone who is a companion or guide in matters of faith. Today we might have a spiritual director to guide in such a way, or one’s pastor or a Christian friend can be a companion in faith.
When I was a student at Ewart College someone who helped me in my faith walk was Rev. Dr. Garth Wilson. He was my field education supervisor in my last year of study at Ewart, which was the college in the Presbyterian Church in Canada where one prepared for ministry in Christian Education. We met at a luncheon at Ewart when all of the field education supervisors were invited to the college. He told me to call him Garth, rather than Dr Wilson, and said that he hoped that he would be able to be a pastor to me in the coming year, as well as be my supervisor. That introduction showed him to be approachable and, through that year there were times that I would meet with him to talk about the spiritual questions that came to me. I do not remember the content of those conversations, but I remember being in the presence of a caring man who listened to what I had to say, and gave helpful insights.
Nicodemus was in a similar place when he came to Jesus. He had queries to raise and he was confident that Jesus would care and listen and teach. Sometimes people can feel that the raising of questions denotes a lack of faith. There may be a sense that those who know Jesus should not falter or question, but simply accept. Jesus showed himself to be understanding of Nicodemus, and if we have questions, he will be understanding of us too. It may be that as we bring our questions to Jesus that he will send us a soul friend to be our companion, or we may find ourselves playing the role of soul friend to another.