Week Four

The Nicodemus Trajectory

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The importance of involvement. From being on the fringes of a movement to it reaching to his very own heart — Nicodemus is learning to leap with others! His trajectory from the fringe to the heart is one we go on many times in our lives and through our faith. As well as following the trajectory of Nicodemus we are following the trajectory from darkness to light over Holy Week, and the static in-between as the passion unfolds.

SEEDS TO SOW: Over Holy Week we are thinking about a movement from darkness to light. Our week is bookended by Nicodemus under the cover of darkness, but how do we think he might have felt come the bright light of Sunday morning?

Read John 3: 1-21

Questions from the edge

Nicodemus comes to Jesus with his questions under the cover of darkness.

What questions of faith have you got for Jesus? We may not have the answers! How do we take our questions to Jesus?

Read John 7: 45-52

De-compartmentalising Jesus!

Perhaps for Nicodemus, Jesus was compartmentalised, just part of one aspect of his life. Here we see him starting to reconcile his nighttime questions with the day job.

Faith is not just something between us and God, it weaves through all of our lives.

How do we de-compartmentalise Jesus and acknowledge him throughout our lives?

And how do we encourage each other to not stay as a compartmentalised community of faith but rather be diffused into the wider community around us?

Read John 19: 38-42

Murmurs and Myrrh: Leaping together

We conclude this week with Nicodemus in the hushed mourning at the heart of the Jesus movement. Nicodemus is all in. He is beginning to separate himself from one community (the Pharisees) and transition into another community (of Jesus’s disciples). Nicodemus is moving from one way of thinking to another way of thinking.

In our faith we are constantly growing, and in order to grow we continually change how we think about God as we develop a richer and deeper relationship. We do this as individuals and as a group.

As a group how can we look out for people who have questions of faith and are looking to start, grow or deepen their relationship with God?