We do not find any miracle in John 1. Andrew, Peter, and Nathanael were all brought to Jesus without miracles. The work was in their souls. The word, "Behold the Lamb of God!" had awakened this desire to approach the Lord, and to seek Him as "the Lamb of God," is to seek Him as those who have discovered their moral condition, that is, as helpless sinners. This is far different from having been drawn to Him by witnessing a miracle (see Acts 8:1313Then Simon himself believed also: and when he was baptized, he continued with Philip, and wondered, beholding the miracles and signs which were done. (Acts 8:13)), and the difference that followed was great. The Lord gives Himself to those who reach Him in chapter 1, but He will not commit Himself to those in chapter 2 who believed Him because they saw His miracles.
Again in chapter 4 we see that there is no miracle under the eye of either the Samaritan woman or the villagers of Sychar. Conscience was stirred. They receive Him as "the Savior," and He is at home with them at once. He commits Himself to them as He does not to those in chapter 2, but as He received Andrew and his companions to His dwelling place in chapter 1, so now He goes into the dwelling places of the Samaritans in chapter 4.
In the midst of these moral illustrations we find Nicodemus, the "man of the Pharisees," occupying his own peculiar place (chapter 3). He was attracted by the miracles, as those of chapter 2 had been, but then his soul was reached as theirs had not been. It did not end with him as it had begun. He did not merely wonder and believe, but he wonders, ponders, is exercised in his soul, and although he seeks, timidly to be sure, still he seeks, and finds Jesus. The miracle had made him search for Jesus as someone more than a mere worker of wonders, and the Lord works with him in a special way.
The Lord does not take Nicodemus to Himself at once, as He had done with those in chapters 1 and 4, nor does He refuse to commit Himself to him as He had refused to do with them in chapter 2. He is patient, and yet decided. He exposes him, forcing him to learn himself, but still encouraging him and in a measure committing Himself to him.
What does this committing of Himself to others mean? It means forming a real, living alliance with them-consenting to know them with personal knowledge and in the bonds of fellowship. Jesus cannot do this with one who believes in Him merely historically, as it were, or by force of evidence, as the multitude in Jerusalem then did, and as Christendom now does. It is with a sinner He has come to form alliance, and friendship, and fellowship for eternity. The fragments of convicted hearts must be the links between man and Himself and the outgoings of divine saving grace. Our need as sinners and His fullness as the Savior must form these links.
Such links are formed between Jesus the Savior and Nicodemus the sinner. In chapter 7 he is seen a second time, standing for righteousness in the Person of Jesus in the midst of the Jewish elders. But this, it seems to me, is but a little way beyond where he is in chapter 3. He is still the companion of the Jewish rulers and is acting with them though doubtless under some misgivings of soul. He is timid still as the one that had come to Jesus by night, and yet in a small measure he owns the Righteous One.
In chapter 19, however, he has surely advanced. Here he puts himself on the side of the world victim. He stands, as with God Himself, in relation to Jesus there. God will provide that Blessed Sufferer with a glorious, triumphant resurrection by-and-by; Nicodemus and his companion Joseph will in their way provide Him with a tomb and grave clothes now. Their spices perfume that sepulcher which was soon to be opened by divine power.
Surely Nicodemus, in this chapter, occupies the place of which the early words of Jesus in John 3:1414And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: (John 3:14) had told him. He is now, in spirit, looking at the uplifted serpent, the crucified, healing Son of man. And may we not judge that from henceforth he was one to whom Jesus committed Himself?