Snapshot Decisions

Making a decision on limited knowledge or information is always a precarious activity. We all have been in the position of late with many paralyzed in their decision making because of the shifting sands of reality. Whether it is stock market or domestic cash flow decisions, the uncertainty has a striking similarity.

In another blog, http://www.therubicon.org/?p=1299, the encounter of Jesus with Nicodemus is compared with that of the Samaritan women. Whilst the conclusions are worthy it posed the question for me whether the writer had cameoed this Jewish leader by the result of this one encounter. What many Gospel readers fail to note is that Nicodemus appears a further two times in the gospel narrative.

The first is where this man stands before Jewish legislative to defend Jesus. In John 7:50 Nicodemus, who had gone to Jesus earlier and who was one of their own number, asked, 51"Does our law condemn anyone without first hearing him to find out what he is doing?"52They replied, "Are you from Galilee, too? Look into it, and you will find that a prophet does not come out of Galilee."

The second John 19:38 Later, Joseph of Arimathea asked Pilate for the body of Jesus. Now Joseph was a disciple of Jesus, but secretly because he feared the Jews. With Pilate's permission, he came and took the body away. 39 He was accompanied by Nicodemus, the man who earlier had visited Jesus at night. Nicodemus brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about seventy-five pounds. 40 Taking Jesus' body, the two of them wrapped it, with the spices, in strips of linen. This was in accordance with Jewish burial customs.

Often our snapshot, knee-jerk, spur of the moment evaluation of another, is often flawed because we are not in possession of all the facts or perhaps more damagingly, because we are selective in our reading of the entire picture.

This also raises the issue of our encounters with Jesus. All too often we fail to see the Christ in our midst because of our preconcived image of how we feel he should appear.

I am grateful to the celtic saint Patrick who urges us to see Christ in every encounter.

Christ, as a light
illumine and guide me.
Christ, as a shield
overshadow me.
Christ under me;
Christ over me;
Christ beside me
on my left and my right.
This day be within and without me,
lowly and meek, yet all-powerful.
Be in the heart of each to whom I speak;
in the mouth of each who speaks unto me.
This day be within and without me,
lowly and meek, yet all-powerful.
Christ as a light;
Christ as a shield;
Christ beside me
on my left and my right.