Saturday of the Fourth Week of Lent

 Lectionary: 249

Nicodemus, one of their members who had come to him earlier, said to them, 
"Does our law condemn a man before it first hears him
and finds out what he is doing?"
They answered and said to him,
"You are not from Galilee also, are you?
Look and see that no prophet arises from Galilee."

At the funeral of Republican Senator John McCain, then-President Joe Biden spoke of their long friendship. On many occasions over many years they met in one or the other's home and argued politics. They rarely agreed with one another and they always parted friends. The President's grief was not for a senator but for a close friend. 

He also recalled, more recently, that his Democratic colleagues sometimes came to him and warned him not to associate with the Republican. "People are talking about you!" they said. Senator McCain had received similar warning from his Republican colleagues. This made no sense to the older veterans who had seen generations of legislators come and go, and many political issues appear and disappear. Their friendship was more important than their opinions; it had a certain quality which their ideas lacked; perhaps an aura of the eternal. 

The Pharisee and member of the Sanhedrin Nicodemus is remembered reverently by Jews and revered as a Saint in Christian churches. Drawn to the truth an d committed to his Jewish faith, he had gone to Jesus one evening to meet privately with him and hear more about his teachings. If he was not convinced to abandon his privileged position in Jerusalem, he had not yet seen the Resurrection of the Lord. He could wait and see what rebirth might mean for those who followed Jesus. 

Saint John does not tell us how Nicodemus responded to the stories of His Resurrection. However, he does tell us that after Jesus died:

...Joseph of Arimathea, secretly a disciple of Jesus for fear of the Jews, asked Pilate if he could remove the body of Jesus. And Pilate permitted it. So he came and took his body. 

Nicodemus, the one who had first come to him at night, also came bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes weighing about one hundred pounds.

They took the body of Jesus and bound it with burial cloths along with the spices, according to the Jewish burial custom.

Christians will never forget Nicodemus' personal loyalty to Jesus, his piety, and kindness. It is not unlike Biden's tribute to McCain. Like Tobit, he took serious risks when he met with Joseph of Arimathea and contributed a king's ransom of myrrh and aloes to anoint his body. 

Americans would do well to ponder Saint John's stories of Nicodemus and Joseph. Loyalty and friendship are stronger than politics and deeper than religion. They endure forever.