Genesis 12:1-9; Romans 4:1–8, 13–17; John 3:1–17

The pages of the Bible are filled with some very human people. In the appointed Readings of the Sundays in Lent, we encounter several. In today’s Old Testament Reading, we hear of Abraham, who followed the guidance of God faithfully to the land of promise. Yet in Genesis, we also read that when in a challenging situation in Egypt, he misrepresented his wife as his sister and profited from the deception. Nicodemus, to whom Jesus explained the Gospel in great detail, kept his association with the Lord a secret. Even at the time of the burial of Jesus after the crucifixion, Nicodemus labors with Joseph of Arimathea “secretly for fear of the Jews” (John 19:38). It is well that we are reminded as we confess in the Nicene Creed that “for us men and for our salvation” our Lord “was made man.” As imperfect and very human people, we are assured by the Spirit that we are loved by God, who knows us as we are, and that we truly are “precious in the sight of the LORD” in life and in death (Psalm 116:15).