Narrative Lectionary Key Verse for Today
“Nicodemus said to him, ‘How can these things be?’ Jesus answered him, ‘Are you a teacher of Israel, and yet you do not understand these things?”
NL Daily Devotion for Sunday, January 25, 2026
by Pr. Matthias Lorimor, Clergy Stuff
Main Idea: It’s not on us to judge, only to trust.
Is Nicodemus a hero to emulate or a tragic figure to be wary of? For many the answer is obvious; Nicodemus is a hero. He’s a Pharisee who bravely risked his career to see Jesus, later spoke up for Jesus in a debate among the religious leaders (Jn. 7:45-52), and then returned in the final scene to compassionately help bury Jesus’ body (Jn. 19:38-42). But do these things make him a hero? Nicodemus comes to Jesus at night; an ominous sign in a Gospel that’s obsessed with the symbolism of light and dark. Nicodemus ultimately fails to understand Jesus’ teaching about being born again and even stops asking questions after verse 9. He fails to witness to Jesus (as we learned all true disciples do in Jn. 1:35-51) or to make a proper defense when he does speak to the other Pharisees (Jn. 7:45-52). And while he is there for Jesus’ death, he is nowhere to be found for the resurrection and takes no part in Christ’s new life. So, is Nicodemus a hero to imitate, or a tragic example of someone who failed to be a disciple?
Ultimately, each reader has to make up their own mind about Nicodemus’ faith, or lack thereof. Yet, what we can say for certain about Nicodemus’s story and about his first meeting with Jesus, is that it complicates our simplistic us-versus-them view of the religious authorities Jesus encounters and invites us to remember that, in the end, only God can truly judge another’s faith. As Nicodemus says when he comes to Christ, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God” indicating he is not the only one of the “villainous” Pharisees who is open to Christ’s ministry (Jn. 3:2). And the fact that his witness is not as strong or his presence as prominent as some others does not mean that Nicodemus is not trying with gradual steps to embrace the faith that would have cost him much more than most others. Is he a hero or a failure? In the end, the greatest miracle is that it isn’t up to us to judge. Only Christ can know and only Christ can judge. And Christ did not come into the world to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him; including Nicodemus.
