From Ashes to Alleluia: With Jesus at Night

The Second Sunday in Lent
March 1, 2026
John 3:1-17

“From Ashes to Alleluia: With Jesus at Night”

Whether we have been at a professional sports game (usually football) in person or watched it on TV, there is almost always someone up in the stands who can be seen holding up a placard that says “John 3:16.” This is a witness to that Scripture verse from today’s Gospel lesson, of course. But it’s just the citation of the book, chapter and verse in Scripture. The placard doesn’t actually say what the verse says. Maybe it would be too hard to put all of this on a placard so that it would be visible – better just to say “John 3:16.” But that’s sort of coded language, isn’t it? For people who are not familiar with the Bible, who have no idea what John 3:16 is or says, it doesn’t mean much. Of course, the Spirit of the Lord can work in mysterious and amazing ways. It may well be that someone who sees that John 3:16 placard is led to explore on their own what John 3:16 says, and by the power of the Holy Spirit, comes to faith in Christ. Stranger things have happened! Our Lenten sermon series, “From Ashes to Alleluia,” continues today on this Second Sunday in Lent. We are with Jesus at night as he and a man named Nicodemus have a conversation about being born again, about being born of water and the Spirit, about how God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him. Based on this Gospel lesson, today’s message is entitled “With Jesus at Night.” May the Lord’s rich and abundant blessing rest upon the preaching, the hearing, and the living of his Word for Jesus’ sake.

Nicodemus is a man about whom we know very little. He’s not mentioned anywhere in the Bible except here in John’s Gospel. Jesus calls him “the teacher of Israel” (John 3:10), which means that Nicodemus was a highly respected leader within Judaism. People looked up to him as a distinguished and revered person of authority in the faith. But Nicodemus was curious about this itinerant and controversial rabbi, this Jesus of Nazareth. He had heard all about the miracles he had done; how crowds of people hung on his words, and followed him wherever he went. Nicodemus had questions, but he also had a reputation to consider. He couldn’t be seen publicly with Jesus lest that be misunderstood, and so he comes to Jesus by night; under cover of darkness. What we see in Nicodemus is a person who moves from private curiosity to public discipleship. That is the arc of this man’s life revealed here in John’s Gospel as we first meet Nicodemus in his late-night conversation with Jesus. And he begins, not with a question, but with a statement: “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him” (John 3:2). Interestingly, Nicodemus doesn’t condemn Jesus for what he’s said or done. He acknowledges that Jesus is of G od. There’s an openness here in Nicodemus – an openness to Jesus.

How many people do we know in our own lives who are like Nicodemus? They’re curious about Jesus. They’ve got questions. They may want to learn more, but they want to keep it on the down-low. Their reputation might even be at stake, and yet they are looking for answers. How can we help them come to Jesus? What can we do to assist in making this connection? When we look at the questions Nicodemus asks, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born?” (John 3:4) and “How can these things be?” (John 3:9), it seems that Jesus doesn’t really answer his questions. Jesus kind of goes off in a different direction to talk about a number of things: being born of water and the Spirit, which, of course, is a reference to Holy Baptism; how the Spirit’s working is like the wind blowing – seeing the effects of what the wind does, but not knowing where it comes from or where it’s going; and how the Son of Man will be lifted up just as Moses lifted up the bronze serpent in the wilderness (see Numbers 21:4-9). All of this completely baffled and befuddled Nicodemus. Even though he didn’t get the answers he was looking for, Nicodemus still persisted. In today’s Old Testament lesson (Genesis 12:1-9), Abram did not understand how God would fulfill the promises he had made, but Abram trusted and followed where the Lord was leading. So also with Nicodemus. So also with us. We often struggle to understand how God is at work in our own lives, but in faith we persist. We trust that the Lord is at work for good and for blessing.

Those blessed words of John 3:16 are perhaps the most familiar words of the entire Bible. They are sometimes called “the Gospel in a nutshell,” meaning that the Bible’s entire message is summed up in this one brief verse. They even spell out the very word “Gospel.” If someone should ask you what that word “Gospel” means, you can simply point them to this verse of Scripture. At its heart, Gospel means “good news,” and that is what John 3:16 is – good news that makes an eternal difference in the lives of people in every generation. But let us not forget the verse which follows here, John 3:17. This also is good news because it speaks of God’s heart. And God’s heart is not to condemn, but to save, through his own Son, Jesus.

Nicodemus was with Jesus at night. That’s how it began with Nicodemus’ private curiosity that moved him to meet with Jesus. But it then moved into broad daylight as that private curiosity would lead to public discipleship. A bit later here in John’s Gospel, the religious leaders had sent the temple police to arrest Jesus. But they returned empty-handed because, as they said, “No one ever spoke like this man!” (John 7:46). The Pharisees go on to trash talk the people who listen to and follow Jesus, and Nicodemus, who himself was one of the teachers of the Law, boldly replies: “Does our law judge a man without first giving him a hearing and learning what he does?” (John 7:51). He gets slammed by these same people, but his question is evidence that Nicodemus is beginning to follow Jesus. That following would then lead him to bring an enormous amount of myrrh and aloes – some seventy-five pounds, we are told – to anoint Jesus’ body after his crucifixion (John 19:39). That, too, was a bold act on the part of this man who was led by the Spirit from private curiosity to public discipleship.

Whether we are, like Nicodemus, with Jesus by night, or by day, may that same Spirit who led Nicodemus to faith lead and guide us all to confident faith, from private curiosity to public discipleship in this same Jesus, remembering that “God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him” (John 3:17). Amen.