It is probable that the conversation between Jesus and Nicodemus was long, even if the Gospel has given us only a few sentences about it. As a doctor of the law, Nicodemus expected to meet a prophet, one chosen by God, but his expectations were completely exceeded: there was much more there. There was someone radically different, a man from whose mouth he could hear revelations he had never imagined.
We don’t know to what extent he understood them or how many details Jesus wanted to explain to him at that moment. Instead we know that in the arduous hours of the passion, when almost all the disciples had fled, Nicodemus publicly gave his face, wanting to give a worthy burial to the body of Christ. In those moments he will have remembered the words of that nocturnal conversation when the Lord had prophesied his own death on the cross and the fruits of that sacrifice. “As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life” (Jn 3:14-15).
Bronze Serpent
Nicodemus knew the episode of the “bronze serpent” from the history of his people. Moses had placed the bronze serpent on a rod so that those who had been bitten by the poisonous snakes of the desert, if they looked at it, would remain alive (cf. Nm 21, 8 -9). With reference to this episode, Jesus reminds us that “no one manages to, by his own strength, free himself from sin and, no one frees himself entirely from his weakness, or from his slavery to sin; but everyone needs Christ as model, teacher, liberator, Savior, life-giver”.
Gaze on Christ
To believe, to save ourselves, to learn to love, we need to turn our gaze to Christ on the Cross. From his gestures and words, we will understand what the charity he wants to instill in our hearts is like. Apart from this nocturnal conversation, his personal encounter with the cross transformed Nicodemus even more. From that moment he overcame all his fears and all his human respect to show himself openly as a friend of Jesus. Contemplating the cross always changes us. This is one of the Easter mandates for us. Having encountered Christ in a special way during the season of Lent, we should be bold enough like Nicodemus to identify publicly with Christ and testify to his love and mercy.
