It is related that Nicodemus came to Jesus by night, and in two later chapters of the same Gospel he is referred to as “he that came to Jesus by night,” “he who at the first came to him by night” (Joh_7:50; Joh_19:39; in the former text the R.V. has “before” instead of “by night”). This detail seems to have become a fixed element in the tradition, and there would no doubt be much speculation as to the motive and meaning of the nocturnal visit. Why did the ruler of the Jews seek communion with Jesus by night rather than by day? He has often been stigmatized as a coward, who did under the cover of darkness what he would have been ashamed to be seen doing by daylight. But there is not a word to indicate that his visit was resented either as an untimely intrusion or as an act of cowardice. If he came to Jesus by night, at any rate he did come; and since he evidently came with a sincere desire to know Jesus better, he was welcome. Jesus had frequent occasion to condemn Pharisaism as a system, but it would be a great mistake to imagine that He regarded every Pharisee as a hypocrite. There were high-minded men like Hillel and Gamaliel among the Jewish Rabbis; and to an earnest Pharisee no less than to a contrite publican Jesus was ready to say, “No man can come to me, except the Father which sent me draw him”; “and him that cometh to me I will in no wise east out.” What Christian who recalls his first timid approaches to Christ can truthfully say that he was actuated only by the highest and purest motives? And who would care to have his first tentative inquiries about the way of salvation immediately discussed by critical and derisive comrades? Christ is too generous to confound any anxious inquirer with awkward questions as to his motives. Well pleased to receive him on any terms, He goes straight to the point, leading him without any hesitation into the deep things of personal and experimental religion.
Nicodemus was a scholar. He was the teacher of Israel. And so, when I see him seeking Jesus, I seem to behold scholarship at the feet of Christ. It would be a real difficulty in the way of accepting Christianity, says Dr. Gwatkin, if it did not attract the best men of every time. But it does! It had a Paul and an Origen and an Athanasius and an Augustine in the early days; it has had a Newton and a Kepler and a Faraday and a Clerk-Maxwell and a Tait and a Kelvin in these days of ours. The mightiest minds find in Christ their Master. And at the head of the procession of the gifted and the learned who own Christ as Lord is this great teacher of Israel who came to Jesus by night.1 [Note: J. D. Jones, The Hope of the Gospel, 137.]
Now and again we have proofs of the fact, from quarters and in forms the least likely, that there are hidden Christians-secret allies of Christianity. One instance of secret discipleship may be cited, remarkable chiefly for the unexpected reason assigned-I refer to the case of an eminent man of science. Although an avowed believer in a personal God, he was understood to have rejected the doctrine of a supernatural Christ; yet after his death there was found a paper in his desk in which he expresses his attitude to Christ in these words: “I believe in my heart that God raised Him from the dead, and I have not confessed Him with the mouth, because in my time such confession is the only way to get up in the world.” A disciple secretly through fear of misunderstanding!2 [Note: W. A. Gray, Laws and Landmarks of the Spiritual Life, 158.]
