Now there was a Pharisee, a man named Nicodemus who was a member of the Jewish ruling council. He came to Jesus at night and said, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the signs you are doing if God were not with him.” John 3:1-2
“You are Israel’s teacher,” said Jesus, “and do you not understand these things? Very truly I tell you, we speak of what we know, and we testify to what we have seen, but still you people do not accept our testimony. I have spoken to you of earthly things and you do not believe; how then will you believe if I speak of heavenly things? John [3:10]-12
Nicodemus wanted the Messiah to come. Nicodemus wanted to see God at work. Nicodemus thought that the interpretation of this was dependent upon this ‘God’ doing and responding as Nicodemus wanted and predicted.
Jesus did not do this. He did not ask for approval from the Pharisees. He did not restrict himself to the behaviors and audiences that they were comfortable with, and he certainly did not follow their ritualistic washing and clothing traditions.
Nicodemus wanted Jesus to be God – and he wanted Jesus to look, act, and talk like him. In other words, he wanted a God he could accept; not a God he could follow. When Jesus ate with unclean people Nicodemus would have been bothered, and when Jesus said we were to forgive our enemies Nicodemus would have been incensed; who forgives the Romans; those murderers, or even the Sadducee’s who celebrated their bond with the Romans.
God will inevitably appear to disappoint the man who is attempting to use Him as a convenience, a prop, or a comfort, for his own plans. God has never been known to disappoint the man who is sincerely wanting to co-operate with His own purposes.
J B Phillips Your God is Too Small
Daniel Harding