Nicodemus said to him, “How can these things be?” Jesus answered him, “Are you the teacher of Israel and yet you do not understand these things? Truly, truly, I say to you, we speak of what we know, and bear witness to what we have seen, but you do not receive our testimony. If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you heavenly things? No one has ascended into heaven except he who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.
In particular, when Jesus says “Are you the teacher of Israel and yet you do not understand these things?" I was reminded that God doesn't rely on people with special qualifications in order to preach his message. When it comes to the will of God, even the most educated people are comparatively in the dark.
I'm definitely not the first person to make this observation, but it's encouraging to remember that Jesus didn't recruit his followers from among the teachers or the priests. Instead he selected his followers from among fishermen and tax-collectors, exactly the opposite sort of people you'd expect to go looking for for "spiritualness".
I think one reason that Jesus chooses "ordinary" people to spread his message is so that God get's the credit, not humans. One example of this is in Acts when Peter and John are confronted by the priests and teachers of the law. Acts 4:13 says:
When they saw the courage of Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished and they took note that these men had been with Jesus.
In other words, because Peter and John weren't educated, the priests had no choice but to attribute their abilities to Christ. In 1 Corinthians 2, Paul puts it this way:
When I came to you, brothers, I did not come with eloquence or superior wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God.a]"> For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. I came to you in weakness and fear, and with much trembling. My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit's power, so that your faith might not rest on men's wisdom, but on God's power.
Too often, I try and rely on my own intelligence to "prove" God. But the truth is that just like Nicodemus, when it comes to the things of Heaven I don't really have a clue. Instead I need to rely on God, who is the only one who can or should receive credit.
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