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Jesus and NicodemusOur Gospel reading today needs context. Jesus is speaking to a high-ranking Pharisee called Nicodemus who has come to him secretly because he thinks there is something to the things Jesus has been saying but is afraid to be seen by his peers.They have a slightly odd conversation most of which isn’t in the reading we’ve just heard. But I think in the whole conversation, Jesus is making about four quite monumental points:The first is that Jesus is the only one who can speak with authority about Heaven and the Kingdom of God because he is the only one who has come from Heaven and knows about it.The second is that Jesus is telling Nicodemus about what is on offer: the Kingdom of God, new birth by the Holy Spirit, eternal life – or the life of the world to come, as it could be translated. (He is also saying that Nicodemus doesn’t understand it because he doesn’t understand the Scriptures.)The third point is that this has to be received by faith, which I’ll come back to.The fourth is something we might not expect. Jesus tells a story: once the Hebrews were wandering in the wilderness and they sinned against God. God sent fiery serpents among them who bit them and they started to die. Moses interceded for them and God gave him a brass serpent which he was to lift into the sky. When the people looked at that serpent they would be delivered from the fiery serpents who were killing them and live.Jesus says to Nicodemus, “Something like that is going to happen to the Son of Man. In the same way that the serpent was lifted up, so he will be lifted up. And, like that serpent brought salvation, so too will his being lifted up bring salvation.”Jesus and Nicodemus – RevisitedI think that we can understand why Nicodemus might be confused by this: Why is Jesus talking about the Son of Man being lifted up? How will that bring deliverance and what will it bring deliverance from?We hear about Nicodemus two more times in the Gospel of John: once when he is cautioning his colleagues not to judge Jesus without evidence, and then another time after Jesus has been crucified when Nicodemus brings a huge and expensive quantity of spices to anoint him for burial.Both appearances show us that Jesus made an impression. The second appearance tell us that Nicodemus was likely a witness of the crucifixion. As he saw Jesus crucified – or at least heard about it – was he beginning to understand the conversation our reading today?I want you to imagine that sometime later Nicodemus was sitting alone at night, pondering the things that he had seen and heard, not least the fact that rumours had reached his ears that Jesus had been seen walking around, alive and well. What were people talking about?Suddenly, Jesus himself is there with Nicodemus, standing in front of him. He sits down and begins to speak,“Do you remember those things that I told you by night? Do you understand what I meant now? The Kingdom of God, the New Birth by water and the Holy Spirit, the Life of the Age to Come, all of this is available right now through looking to me in faith.“This was all accomplished in my exaltation upon the cross. There I demonstrated my glory for all to see. The depth of my love for the world and my willingness to suffer to redeem it: that is my glory. In atoning for sin, the love of God was demonstrated and the reason for sending me was made clear. Will you now come out of this darkness and step into the light? Will you look to me with faith and trust and so be forgiven and healed or will you return to a life of fear and bondage to sin?”The Transforming Power of the CrossWe have become so familiar with the image of the cross that we have lost a sense of what it meant in its original context: it was a gruesome instrument of torture, violent oppression, and death. And, yet, when Christ spoke to Nicodemus about it, he spoke about glory, exaltation, love, and eternal life.What can these things have to do with an instrument of torture and death?There is an