Nothing Good Happens After Midnight

“Nothing good happens after midnight!”

I remember growing up hearing that all my life. There’s something about the darkness that becomes synonymous with increased mischievousness, lack of clarity, and sometimes just downright evil. And I’m sure all of us have a late night story we could all tell where we, or someone we were with, said, “I’m not sure this is a good idea!”

Not so much the story of a late night regret, but sometimes I sit and wonder, “am I doing enough with my life?” I wonder if I’m doing enough with my career. For my family. In the world. Even for God.

But here’s the problem. I find myself getting caught up in this place of reciprocity. I’m measuring what I do with what I think I’m owed. Is my investment actually seeing a return? I want to do well in my job. And provide for my family. Serve the Lord. And be a light to the world. But sometimes I wonder what dividends will it pay. And to be honest, it begins to suck the life right out of me.

The reciprocal nature of relationships can create this surging thought of “what have you done for me lately?” And it muddies the waters of mutual love and respect. It actually turns into something that we’re trying to earn; a merit for our acts of service. The mental gymnastics of constantly trying to measure the status of our investments in some relationship compared to what we believe should be its return actually only complicates those significant relationships in our lives.

In the Bible there is a group of religious elitists who are constantly measuring themselves with others on the basis of their religious accolades. Following the letter of the law to near perfection while becoming judgmental and even condemning of those who are not. They intend to hold others to a standard of holiness that they themselves aren’t even able to keep.

Jesus actually has a conversation with one of these guys, at night, of all times. It’s not clear from the onset whether Jesus and this guy had any prior conversations or had developed any kind of friendship. But this guy comes with questions seeking to know the mind of Jesus.

The conversation includes a couple of questions from this man named Nicodemus, and Jesus provides some deeply profound theological truths. What is intriguing is Jesus identifies this man as a leading teacher of Israel who does not understand the implications of some central truths that Jesus has spoken.

Why is this so important to the narrative? Because Nicodemus is no longer able to usurp his intellectual and spiritual authority to demand reciprocity from the man in conversation with him. Jesus now controls the conversation. And Nicodemus is indebted to Him. And if, at any moment, Nicodemus is wondering how he might even the score, he can’t.

And this becomes the beauty of the kind of relationship Jesus wanted to have with those he met. For every question he was asked, for every statement that was made, for every attitude he was shown, for every deed that was done toward him–there was always an opportunity for Jesus to counterbalance the situation in His favor. But He never leveraged His influence to demean or discount the individual’s worth or the relationship He sought to have with them. While He may not have agreed on principle, He always valued the person.

This particular conversation reaches its climax with what is perhaps the most oft quoted verse in all of the Bible. It’s this statement that undergirds the entire theological exchange. And this conversation, no doubt, influenced and even transformed Nicodemus’s life forever.

In the midst of all the religious jargon, sometimes love gets lost. I don’t mean to say that we forget about God or stop caring for people. Or that we go through the motions of religious exercise. Sometimes I think we just have a faulty view of life–of self and others–because we forget this simple line about God’s love for us.

“For God so loved the world that He gave his only begotten son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life.”

In looking at this verse (King James Version), there are four key words purposefully italicized: so, gave, whosoever, everlasting. These words hold tremendous value in what John tried to convey in Jesus’ conversation with Nicodemus.

God’s love is immeasurable. “For God so loved“. What does the word so mean? Like when someone tells you that a movie was so great. Or the fish they caught was so big. Or that a public figure has so much money. How do you measure that? You can’t! And the same is true with God’s love. You can’t quantify it. In reality, God’s love has no beginning or end. When Paul writes to the Romans he says that death, life, angels, powers, present things, future things, height, depth, nor creatures can separate us from God’s love. That’s an astounding display of immense love.

God’s love is sacrificial. The Bible says that he “gave.” True love is not measured by what you receive or how you feel. It really isn’t even measured by what is reciprocated between you and someone else. True love is measured by your willingness to give as an expression of your adoration, admiration, and affirmation of the one you love. God demonstrated His love for us through the sacrifice of His son.

God’s love is exclusively inclusive. His love is broad, and it reaches to the ends of the earth. But not just anyone will experience the blessing and reward of His gracious invitation. The Bible says “that whosoever believes“ will be the recipient of this exclusive offer of generosity and grace. While He makes this offering free to everyone, not everyone will heed His call. And because of this, they deny His power, riches, and glory; they forfeit the privilege and opportunity to be in a loving relationship with the very Creator of their souls.

God’s love is a sustaining love. Can we fathom “everlasting life?“ His love spans the chasm created by sin’s great curse. We become the heirs of a life that can only be guaranteed by the God of this promise. He will never fall out of love with us. He will never deny us. He will never reject us. He will never abandon us. He will never leave us. He will remain the steady, constant, dependable, loyal, and faithful significant other, in this faith-filled relationship we have with Him. Forever.

So can anything good happen after midnight? I still don’t know. But I do know that when Nicodemus came to Jesus after dark his life was radically changed. His theology was corrected and God’s love was perfected in him. He became one of the ‘whosoevers’ that believed in Him.

What about you? Have you come to Jesus in the middle of the night, or even in the middle of the day, to have your questions answered? Your heart mended. Your mind renewed. Your life changed. He’s inviting you to believe in Him and what He has accomplished to pave the way for a life with Him forever.