Nicodemus

Nicodemus was a Pharisee and a "ruler of the Jews" — a member of the Sanhedrin, the governing council. He came to Jesus at night, perhaps for privacy, perhaps to avoid the public risk of association. He opened with a statement of respect: "Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him." Jesus redirected immediately: "Unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God." The conversation that followed — on the new birth, on the Spirit like wind, on the Son of Man lifted up like Moses' serpent — contains some of the most quoted verses in Christian history, including John 3:16.

Nicodemus appears twice more in John. When the Pharisees wanted to arrest Jesus, Nicodemus raised a procedural objection: "Does our law judge a man without first giving him a hearing?" He was mocked for it. After the crucifixion, he came with Joseph of Arimathea, bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes weighing about seventy-five pounds to prepare Jesus' body. The man who came to Jesus by night helped bury him before dawn — a private devotion that had slowly become a public act of courage.