“It’ll be dark soon,” a character says in the 1968 western Firecreek, starring Jimmy Stewart and Henry Fonda. Then he adds, “Things happen at night.”  (1)

Well, they do happen at night. Take our lesson from John for example.

“Now there was a Pharisee, a man named Nicodemus who was a member of the Jewish ruling council. He came to Jesus at night . . .”

So begins one of the best known stories in Scripture . . . and also one of the most important. Nicodemus probably came under the cover of night because he was a member of the Jewish ruling council. How embarrassing that would be if it were discovered that a member of the Jewish ruling council was consulting with an itinerant teacher from Nazareth.

“Rabbi,” he says to Jesus, “we know that you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could p…