This dialogue between Nicodemus and his wife, Naomi, is based on John 3:1-17. This conversation that takes place after Nicodemus goes to see Jesus at night is written by Nina Lanctot.
SCENE: Two rocking chairs, a small table, a lamp lit.
NAOMI is waiting, doing hand work. NICODEMUS comes in slowly and slowly sits in his chair as NAOMI says her opening words.
NAOMI is hard of hearing and tends to speak in a loud voice. She is anxious to hear about what happened in the meeting between Nicodemus and Jesus, and she is also worried. It was a risk for Nicodemus to go to Jesus.
NICODEMUS comes home with his head spinning from his conversation. He is still trying to work out what he heard as Naomi asks her own questions.
NAOMI:
Nicodemus, Nicodemus. Finally, you’re home! I’ve waited up for you for hours. I kept the lamp lit. I had no idea you would be out this late – talking to -- that Jesus fellow.
I HOPE you found him alone! Or did you have to wait for all the riff raff to leave? Why, I heard from Martha that he eats and drinks long into the night. So many unclean in his company…
NICODEMUS:
Now settle yourself, Naomi. And let me get settled.
(lower voice) Remember, “thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor.”
NAOMI:
What? I can’t hear you…
NICODEMUS:
(loudly) Settle yourself! (a bit softer) Please, dear…. Give me a moment.
(louder) AND DON’T PASS ON MARTHA’S GOSSIP!
NOAMI ROCKS A BIT HURT AND MORE ANXIOUS.
Pause
NICODEMUS:
It was the strangest conversation.
NAOMI:
What, dear?
NICODEMUS:
(Remembers to raise his voice and look at his wife)
It was the strangest conversation. Not what I expected at all. I’m not sure I can really remember, even, how we got going on birth.
NAOMI:
Mirth? He was telling jokes?
NICODEMUS:
No, dear – BIRTH. Remember, like when our son and daughter were BORN.
NAOMI:
Well, why on earth would a single, wandering teacher talk about birth? He doesn’t know a thing about it…
NICODEMUS:
Listen closely, dear…You have to bear with me. I am still trying to put the pieces together, and…LISTEN!
(PAUSE)
Did you hear that?
NAOMI:
What?
NICODEMUS:
The wind! It started up just now, over the roof.
NAOMI:
(laughing) Why you old coot! You know I haven’t been able to hear the wind for years. Are you mocking me!?
NICODEMUS:
No, no, dear. Of course not.
(pause)
Jesus was the gentlest of men, and it was when the wind blew that I think I started to catch on to what he was saying!
(even louder)
So let’s just sit here a spell and let me listen to the wind.
NAOMI shakes her head and goes back to her hand work.
NICODEMUS rocks and ponders.
NICODEMUS:
(softly) I think I get it.
NAOMI:
What?
NICODEMUS:
(louder) I think I get it, Naomi. Listen, and see if you hear what I hear.
I think Jesus could sense as soon as I greeted him how nervous I was. He knew he had insulted many of our friends, shaming Simon for not properly greeting him and washing his feet and all of that.
NAOMI:
Why, Martha told me about that visit with that horrible woman crying all over his feet….
NICODEMUS:
Naomi! (with a look)
NAOMI RETURNS TO HER HAND WORK
NICODEMUS:
You know sometimes when the children were small and begging for a treat without ceasing – how we would just say out of the blue: “Look at that big old horse over there, eating all the dates of your favorite tree!” And the begging for snacks would vanish as they went chasing for the horse…
NAOMI:
Why, yesssssssssss….
….And this would have to do with Jesus, how…???
NICODEMUS:
Well I felt just like a child. (laughing at himself)
I greeted him as a teacher, expecting to talk about the law,
(clears throat…hmmm…hmmm…)
"Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher
who has come from God;
for no one can do these signs that you do
apart from the presence of God."
And you know what he asks me? If I would like to be born again!
NAOMI:
What? Doesn’t he know that men just don’t talk of these things! It’s untouchable. Well, it’s almost like gossip!
(glares at Nicodemus)
NICODEMUS:
Exactly! He threw me way off. Threw in a wild horse, so to speak. I forgot all about the questions I had been preparing. This is what he said:
"Very truly, I tell you,
no one can see the kingdom of God
without being born from above."
Born? From above? I could have left then, but I knew of his reputation, I wondered if there was more to the comment. Like a wisdom puzzle.
NAOMI:
YOU didn‘t talk to him about birth, did you!
NICODEMUS:
Well, I just tried to follow his lesson, like a student, and I asked the obvious:
"How can anyone be born after having grown old? Can one enter a second time into the mother's womb and be born?"
NAOMI:
(shocked) You said that!
NICODEMUS:
(stopping rocking and holding his hands up, speaking softly, like an AHA!)
That’s when the wind started to blow.
NAOMI:
What?
NICODEMUS:
(louder)
That’s the part I was trying to remember. That’s when the wind started to blow. While I was thinking, I looked up into the trees. At that very moment the wind rushed and russled through the leaves. And he said:
“Do not be astonished that I said to you,
'You must be born from above.'
The wind blows where it chooses,
and you hear the sound of it,
but you do not know where it comes from
or where it goes.
So it is with everyone
who is born of the Spirit."
NAOMI:
Born of the WHAT?
NICODEMUS:
Spirit…breath…ruah…pneuma…
(musing, softer)
“And God breathed into Adam the breath of life…
and he became a living being.”
NAOMI:
…giving green beans?
NICODEMUS:
(laughs tenderly, and looks into his wife’s eyes)
“Became a living being!”
This is the best way I can tell you what the Teacher said – and more – how the lesson feels:
You remember, Naomi, when our son was born? Remember how hard you worked, the tears you cried, how you called out, and how all that pain slipped away when we looked, together into his eyes?
NAOMI:
(slowly) Yeeessss…
NICODEMUS:
I have never had anyone look into MY eyes that way until today, Naomi. Like I was brand new, perfect, fresh from God.
(pause)
And remember how even the first whimper of our son was like music to our ears.
(even humorously louder)
Back then when you could hear!
NAOMI – (smiling, nodding)
NICODEMUS:
That was what I HEARD in this Jesus, in his voice. It was like new music.
Even while he was giving me puzzles, he was letting me start all over again, newborn, without my head full of laws and prayers and debates and the right things to do and say, and, well, all that it means to be right with God and the world.
It was like he was saying, “Come out, Nicodemus! You can be born and bare naked with God, all over again. Your life can be light with joy again. And then you will HEAR the good news for which your heart longs.”
NAOMI:
But, I don’t understand…
NICODEMUS:
Well…to tell you the truth….neither do I, but….I want to keep listening.
NAOMI:
But Nicodemus, isn’t it dangerous? What if he leads us astray? And what the others will say?
NICODEMUS:
Naomi! No gossip reaches the heart of God. So that is where my heart and my hearing will rest. In the heart of God. For now….
AND… (inspired – takes her ears in his hands, gently)
Whenever I hear the wind blow, I am going to listen.
NAOMI:
What?
NICODEMUS:
Listen to my heart, and to this Jesus.
And to this old-new body!
(louder – to Naomi – who pulls his hands away)
It’s been a long night. Let’s get some sleep.
BLOWS OUT THE LAMP.
THEY WALK AWAY, HOLDING HANDS.
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