Henry Ossawa Tanner had something in common with Nicodemus: failure. While it doesn’t specifically say so, we get the sense that Nicodemus leaves Jesus’ presence feeling beaten, feeling unsure of himself, feeling like he’s a failure. I mean after all, Jesus just said to him incredulously, “Are you the teacher of Israel and still you do not know these things?” As Nicodemus leaves his meeting with Jesus, he more than likely feels a little beat up.
Henry Ossawa Tanner, one of the first African American painters to rise to prominence in his home country and abroad, also knew failure. Desiring to travel out of the United States, he worked with some family friends to put together an exhibition of his paintings. The exhibition was a disaster. Not a single painting was sold. He probably limped away from that experience just like Nicodemus did.
And so, it was perhaps out of a sense of kinship with Nicodemus the failure was painted by Henry Ossawa Tanner the failure. (You can view the painting here – https://www.pafa.org/museum/collection/item/nicodemus ) But their failure wasn’t all they had in common. They also held grace in common. Henry Ossawa Tanner’s paintings were purchased by the very family friends who helped him put together the exhibition – they purchased his entire catalog, a catalog nobody else wanted. Likewise, Jesus showed Nicodemus that He was doing the same thing. He was sent by God to purchase the catalog of humanity – a catalog that was filled with failure, but He wanted to buy it anyway – with His blood.
Likewise, we have our failures. We know what it is like to limp away from something that we thought would be successful only to find that it wasn’t. But Christ redeems, He purchases. He purchases even our failures – the entire catalog of our lives, and He makes them His own.