February 28, 2026
In the Gospel reading this weekend Nicodemus, a religious professional, goes to see Jesus. He comes at night because he doesn’t want any of his cohort to see them together. He is fascinated and troubled by Jesus’s righteousness and the fact that he spends so much time with the bad people rather than the good ones, like himself.
What Nicodemus learns is that being inwardly righteous, righteous for the sake of himself, makes him useless in God’s eyes. Nicodemus is challenged to realize that inward righteousness leads only to arrogance and judgment and effectively shuts off our ability to think.
Nicodemus thinks being right with God means that you keep your nose clean. Jesus teaches him that being right with God means my neighbor’s life is getting better.
Let Us Pray: Father in Heaven, keep me from a complacent, self-absorbed faith that only looks with arrogance and judgment on the world and help my faith to see the world as loved by You and waiting for good to happen. In Jesus’s Name, Amen.