What is symbol, and what merely detail? When it comes to the Gospel of John, it is tempting to see symbols everywhere. More literary than the other gospels, more informed by philosophical thought, furthered removed from the time it portrays, it invites allegorical interpretation, that way of seeing the multiple layers in a biblical text, bringing out the interplay among different texts and ideas.
So what are we to make of the time this story takes place? John is often very precise about time, noting things happening at “six o’clock” or “noon,” or “on the second day.” Here he offers just one temporal clue: “He [Nicodemus] came to Jesus by night.”
By night. There are many possibilities for Nicodemus’ choice of time. Some assume he came furtively, under cover of dark, because he was afraid of what his colleagues would think if they saw him talking with Jesus. Possible. Or maybe, given the demands on both of them, he sought Jesus out at a time when he could have a real conversation with him, without crowds and onlookers around. He wanted a personal conversation.
That’s the surface layer. Let’s go deeper – what does “at night” mean to you? Night suggests mystery, offering less clarity than daylight. There is light, but lunar light is less direct than solar, being itself a reflection. “Night” conveys insights gained in borrowed light, refracted from multiple angles, form emerging from shadows.
Nighttime is also – for those who work days and manage to stop – a time when we can be in a different mode. Our bodies in motion come to rest; we slow a bit, are solitary or social in a different way than during the day, perhaps gathering over a meal at which we can digest our experiences. Conversations at night can be different than in the daytime – longer, deeper, more connective.
And night is when we allow our conscious mind to recharge and a different way of processing information and reality comes out to play. Our dreams are full of stories and images – we don’t get didactic teachings in dreamscapes. And, like our scriptures, our dreams can contain contradictory images, mash-ups of feelings and information we have trouble processing straight on. Dreams are the land of paradox and nuance, as is the life of faith.
Who knows if the writer of John intended all this with those two words, “by night,” but allegorical interpretation sees everything as fair game. Knowing this encounter took place by night invites us to put on different lenses as we try to make sense of it.
We might say the whole enterprise of faith is a walk in the dark. If faith means believing in what is unseen, to walk by faith means stumbling in the dark. We can only really grasp God with our night vision – our “infra-red vision,” to borrow an image from a powerful dream I once had. Infra-red vision sees heat as light; it finds Life.
And doctrines such as the Trinity, God as one and yet three persons existing in perpetual community? That takes dream vision to see if we are to see it at all. Let’s polish up our night goggles as we attempt to understand what Jesus is saying to Nicodemus about flesh and spirit. Night vision will help us to get what our rational minds cannot quite grasp. And by night we might just encounter Jesus afresh.
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