lent 2 2026
Lent 2 2026
Text: John 3: 1-17
The Very Reverend Dr Paul Shackerley
Dean of Brecon
In the darkness, they/we can’t see God. Yet, the yearning is for healing, peace and calm, salvation and to know God is present in the darkness calling us to light, calling us by name..
Have you ever asked the question ‘can God see in the dark?’ I thought of the question when studying today’s gospel while preparing for today’s sermon. My conclusion is ‘God can see in the dark’. John’s gospel is carrying on a theme he set at the very start of his gospel ‘the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it’ (John 1: 5). There are threads of this contrasting theme of light and darkness throughout his Gospel. Here in John 3, a Pharisee named Nicodemus comes to see Jesus ‘after dark one evening’.
One could possibly describe Lent and Good Friday as the darkest times of the Church’s calendar, when the mood and the minor key of our hymns mirrors what is inside many lives. During Christmas and Easter, the Church proclaims this polarity between light and darkness, equating light with good and darkness with bad. Advent prose Light and Dark. Holy Saturday Darkness to Light. John’s gospel has many images of light and dark. Easter comes out of the darkness. God can see in the dark. Jesus is the light of the world. A light no darkness could overcome. Or as First John says, ‘God is light and in God there is no darkness at all.’
In John 8, the Pharisees bring a woman caught in adultery to Jesus and he says ‘I am the light of the world. If you follow me, you won’t stumble through the darkness, but will have the light of life’. It must have been a dark time for Mary, at the foot of the cross watching Jesus die, bitten with grief she goes to the tomb, and now the body was gone. A dark time indeed for her. What is interesting is, she went to the tomb in the morning. So, guess what? The resurrection happened ‘at night’, in the dark when nobody was around.
We’ve all had dark times in our lives. When it’s dark and we can’t see what’s going on around us because of the grief and pain and doubt, it’s then we’re tempted to turn our backs on God, believing that God doesn’t care, or worse, believing it’s all God’s fault, or worse still, He is absent. When we look at the darkness of our world, we wonder, where is God in this darkness? Let’s remind ourselves that Mary went to the tomb “while it was still dark.” Amid the darkness, she went to the tomb because she loved Jesus, and in the darkness he spoke her name, “Mary.” So, he does with all of us when we are in dark places of pain and loss, grief and disappointment, doubts or loss of faith. Jesus is present in the darkness and he will speak our name, because we are His sheep and He is our Shepherd, and he knows us.
Yet is it not also true that God dwells in darkness, and darkness was God’s stage from the beginning. God makes a covenant with Abraham in the dark of night. Jacob wrestles with God and received not only a new name, but also a blessing from God at night. Then we have today’s story of Nicodemus meeting Jesus under the cover of darkness. With Nicodemus at nighttime, we are not alone but are in good company. Is Nicodemus a man walking in the dark, seeking light, wanting to learn with a deep sense of yearning for God? Has all he learned about Jewish tradition and religion been for nothing? He is looking for answers. Jesus says some unexplainable things to him, and he can only respond with another question ‘how can these things be?’ Nicodemus is left with less knowledge than he when he arrives. More questions, fewer answers. Often the case for those living in darkness, and message of hope for a dark world at war, God can see in the dark.
Emotional or mental darkness can overwhelm people at any time, or unexpectedly. There has been an increasing awareness of mental illnesses and how to respond. The realities of our world don’t change when depression darkens and impairs our lives, throwing us ‘off course’ to fulfilment. In the darkness, we can’t see any good in ourselves. We may do good things and continue to do the things we normally do well, but we don’t give ourselves any credit for it, no recognition of the value of who we are or what we do. People around us will often not know, understand or see the darkness others are walking. We become my own worst critic, castigating and condemning our every action and every motive behind it. In the darkness, humans can feel worthless. In the darkness, they/we can’t see God. Yet, the yearning is for healing, peace and calm, salvation and to know God is present in the darkness calling us to light, calling us by name..
The good news for us and every person who has awakened in the deep darkness of sadness, ill health, breakdown of relationship and divorce, trying to make sense of the darkness of our world, is that God can see in the dark. God’s view of you and me, and all people will not change because of darkness. God sees our worth as his beloved children. His promises that nothing can separate us from his love and that no one can take us out of our Father’s hand, are no less true because we can’t feel his presence or love. Even in the darkness, God loves us with an everlasting love. He sees clearly that I am his creation, his masterpiece, fearfully and wonderfully made.
Perhaps the darkness in Nicodemus was not the darkness of the tomb, but the darkness of the womb. The world is better with us in it, than without us, because God has a purpose for us. The darkness of the womb gives birth to life in the end, just as the darkness of the tomb gives resurrection life. Was Nicodemus ever born again? Today’s story doesn’t tell us. However, he appears again later in John’s Gospel, apparently seeing much clearer than that first encounter in the dark of night. The final time we meet with Nicodemus is towards the end of the gospel. Jesus has died on the cross and Joseph of Arimathea has petitioned Pontius Pilate for his body. Then John tells us, “Nicodemus, who had at first come to Jesus by night, also came, bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes, weighing about a hundred pounds.” I think it is significant that John chooses to identify Nicodemus as the one who came to Jesus by night, under cover of darkness. It seems to me that, while Nicodemus had sympathy for Jesus, and while he was one that always stood in the shadows or was never quite willing to come out into the light, Jesus had found him, and he followed. Let’s remind ourselves as we move through Lent, that although we live globally in dark times, God does His greatest work in the dark! Easter reminds us of that fact.
The Psalmist gives us words of comfort, “Surely the darkness will hide me and the light become night around me,” even the darkness will not be dark to you; the night will shine like the day, for darkness is as light to you (Psalm 139:11-12).
That is because God can see in the dark
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