The Chosen and Nicodemus: What John 3 Says That the Show Leaves Out

In Part 1 we saw that a general warning does nothing and a specific warning works. So this is the specific warning, and we’re taking it to one scene: the night Nicodemus came to Jesus in John 3.

The show’s creator introduces this scene by saying the gospel is captured accurately, and that what they added is historical, cultural, and personal context. So what standard did he pick? Accuracy. Then let’s hold the scene to it. Does it give us the good news Jesus, or a different one?

What the Scene Keeps

Let’s be fair. A lot of John 3 is there. The scene keeps verses 5, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, 15, 16, 17, and 18. The bronze serpent is in it, and it’s handled well.

And that’s exactly why the two things it leaves out matter so much.

The First Gap: Verse 13

Watch where the dialogue moves. Their Jesus says verse 12:

"If I have told you earthly things, and ye believe not, how shall ye believe, if I tell you of heavenly things?" — John 3:12 (KJV)

And what comes out of his mouth next? The bronze serpent, verse 14:

"And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up." — John 3:14 (KJV)

So where did verse 13 go? It’s gone.

"And no man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of man which is in heaven." — John 3:13 (KJV)

Read that slowly. Jesus is standing on the ground. In Jerusalem. At night. In a body. And He tells a man that He is where? In heaven. Present tense. While He’s talking.

And that’s not a stray line, is it? That’s how Jesus talks all through John. In John 6:38 He came down from heaven. In John 8:23 He is from above. In John 17:5 He speaks of the glory He had with the Father before the world was.

So take verse 13 away, and what’s left? A remarkable teacher explaining the new birth beautifully. And that fits a very different Jesus: the Jesus of the Latter Day Saints, a church the show’s makers have partnered with. LDS teaching says Jesus began as a man and worked His way up to godhood. Could that Jesus say He was already in heaven during His ministry? No, He couldn’t.

But the Jesus of the Bible came from above and was still in heaven while He walked the earth. And notice, the show didn’t soften a hard verse here. It just skipped it on the way to the next one.

The Second Gap: The Night

The show keeps verse 18.

"He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God." — John 3:18 (KJV)

And then it stops, doesn’t it? But your Bible doesn’t stop there. Verse 19 tells you what the condemnation actually is.

"And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved." — John 3:19–20 (KJV)

Now go back up to verse 2. How did Nicodemus come to Jesus? “The same came to Jesus by night.” By what? By night. Think about that. Jesus is sitting across from a man who came in the dark, and what is He preaching to him about? Men who will not come to the light. He’s describing Nicodemus, to his face. He has just told him he can’t understand heavenly things.

And John won’t let you forget it. In chapter 7, when Nicodemus speaks up in the council, John stops to remind you he’s the one who came by night. In chapter 19, at the burial, again: “Nicodemus, which at the first came to Jesus by night.” Three times. That’s not mood lighting. That’s the whole point of the scene.

So what kind of darkness kept men like Nicodemus away? John 12:43 names one:

"For they loved the praise of men more than the praise of God." — John 12:43 (KJV)

The praise of men is a darkness too, isn’t it? And skipping the hardest words of Jesus is often a symptom of that same love. So when the world loves a Jesus the world hated in the Gospels, that ought to make us stop and ask why.

What Went in Its Place

Now here’s the part that surprised us, because this isn’t only a subtraction. Something fills that space.

Right where verses 19 through 21 belong, their Jesus invites Nicodemus to come along. Follow me and you will see more. Join me and my students. In two days we leave Capernaum.

Nicodemus objects. He has a seat in the Sanhedrin. He has a family. He’s getting older. And their Jesus tells him to take his time, and names the morning and the meeting place.

Is it well written? Yes. Is it moving? Yes. Is it in the Bible? No. It doesn’t add history or culture. It adds a different Jesus.

Look at what it does to the question. In John 3, what’s the question on the table? Can a man be born again? In the show, what’s the question? Will a man quit his job and join Jesus?

Which one of those can Nicodemus decide? The second one. Which one can’t he decide? The first one. Verses 19 through 21 are a diagnosis. Men love darkness because their deeds are evil, and there’s nothing a man can do to fix that. Can a baby cause itself to be born? No. The new birth is a work only God can do.

But the show turns it into a decision about cost. Career. Family. Age. Real things. Sympathetic things. And every one of them is in a man’s own power. So a viewer can weigh them, feel for Nicodemus, and never once feel his need for God to do what he can’t.

He Didn’t Ask Most People to Quit

And there’s a second problem with that invitation. It quietly teaches that following Christ means leaving your career. Is that what the Bible shows? Let’s look.

• The man delivered from the legionIn Mark 5:18 he “prayed him that he might be with him.” He asked to come. And verse 19: “Howbeit Jesus suffered him not, but saith unto him, Go home to thy friends, and tell them how great things the Lord hath done for thee.” Jesus told him no. Go home.
• The soldiersIn Luke 3:14, soldiers asked John the Baptist what to do. He told them to do violence to no man, accuse no man falsely, and be content with their wages. That’s instruction on how to be a soldier, not instruction to stop being one.
• The publicansPublicans asked the same question, and they were told to collect no more than was appointed them. Collect honestly. Not quit collecting.
• LydiaLydia in Acts 16 sold purple. She believed, she was baptized, and the church met in her house.
• Simon the tannerSimon in Acts 9 and 10 is still called a tanner when Peter stays with him.
• The Ethiopian eunuchThe eunuch in Acts 8 went on his way rejoicing, back to his post.

Then Paul says it plainly, and he says it again in verse 24:

"Let every man abide in the same calling wherein he was called." — 1 Corinthians 7:20 (KJV)

Now, does Scripture make a hard demand? It does. Luke 14:33: “whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be my disciple.” Luke 9:23 says to take up the cross daily. But that’s not what John 3 is about, is it?

And here’s what settles it. Nicodemus keeps his seat in the council through the whole book of John. In John 7:50 he uses that seat to challenge how they’re treating Jesus. In John 19:39 he’s at the burial with Joseph of Arimathaea, and Mark 15:43 calls Joseph “an honourable counsellor.” Both men still on the council. And it was Joseph’s standing that let him go to Pilate and ask for the body of Jesus.

So the show has Christ inviting Nicodemus out of his position. And Scripture shows him keeping it, and keeping it for Christ’s benefit.

You Can’t Choose to Be Born

You can choose a career. You can choose to leave one. But can you choose to be born again? You can’t do that any more than you can steer the wind. Jesus told Nicodemus:

"The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit." — John 3:8 (KJV)

And the Bible doesn’t teach that you chose God. It teaches that God chose you.

"Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain: that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you." — John 15:16 (KJV)

So put the ledger together. What did they remove? He came down from heaven and is in heaven right now. What else? Men love darkness and will not come to the light. And what did they add? A warm invitation to join the group. The removals take out the highest claim and the deepest diagnosis.

We Can Be Nicodemus

And here’s the thing. We can be Nicodemus, can’t we? We can love Jesus in private and keep quiet about Him at work or at school, because we don’t want to lose what? Our standing. Our friends. Our seat at the table. And Jesus doesn’t flatter us about it. He tells us the truth, because the truth is the only thing that sets us free.

So what do we do? We don’t just try harder to be brave. We ask God for what only He can give, and we get into the light of His word every single day. Here are four habits that help:

• Read the passage before you watch any Bible drama. Not after. Before.
• Read to the end of the conversation, not just to the end of the famous verse.
• Ask what got cut, and why.
• Ask what got put in its place.

The Bereans in Acts 17:11 “searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so.” Not whether it moved them. Whether it was so.

How the Story Ends

And we’re not going to leave Nicodemus in the dark, because Scripture doesn’t. After the crucifixion, John says:

"And there came also Nicodemus, which at the first came to Jesus by night, and brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about an hundred pound weight." — John 19:39 (KJV)

A hundred pounds. Carried through the streets of Jerusalem. In front of everybody. In the daylight. The man who first came by night now came out in the open, at the moment God called him. And you only ever see that if you read all the verses.

Paul’s warning is real: another Jesus is another spirit.

"Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world." — 1 John 4:1 (KJV)

And there’s a real consequence to delighting in a lie about Jesus.

"And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness." — 2 Thessalonians 2:11–12 (KJV)

Keep Reading the Series

• Previous · Part 1Is The Chosen Biblical? Why a Disclaimer Is Not Enough
• Next · Part 3“I Am the Law of Moses”: The Line in The Chosen That Is Not in Your Bible
• Related · Part 7The Chosen and the Woman at the Well: The Verse They Skipped (coming soon)
• See Every PostThe Chosen series hub