You Light Up My Life
John 1:1-13
Introduction
One of the things that I find very interesting is the near universal fear of darkness, at least at some point in our life. We do not teach children to fear darkness, they figure it out on their own. My children will ask to have their light left on or their door left open. We don’t do that because it is too distracting for them and causes problems for them falling asleep. Still, I feel bad because they express to me their fear of the dark. I can remember back to my childhood, how I wanted my door left open so that I could have just that bit of light shining in from the dining room. There seemed to be something terrifying about absolute darkness. The truth is that there is nothing physically different between a room fully lit and a room completely dark. Yet instinctively, we prefer the light to the dark. How we feel about visual darkness may be a hint of something deeper. The concept light appears in John’s prologue. We have been saying that the Gospel writers begin their Gospels in such a way that we are given clues as to how to interpret the rest of the book. That is true here as well. Let us take a look.
In the Beginning
When I say the words “In the beginning…”, what do you think? You likely think of Genesis 1:1 “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” That is not an unfortunate distraction for John as he begins his work with the words “In the beginning”, it is exactly what he is hoping for. As he starts off the story of Jesus with the same words as Genesis, he wants us to be thinking of the story of creation. What happened long ago in creation is happening again in a different way with Jesus. With Jesus? I thought it was only God who was involved in creation? You should be asking that question and John has an answer for us. John speaks of Jesus before the incarnation as the Word. He then gives a very important clarification of the relationship of the Word to God. The Word was with God and the Word was God. First see that the Word was God. John wants us to know up front who Jesus is. Jesus is not just a prophet or a teacher, he is God incarnate, God made flesh. When Jesus forgives sins, he is really able to forgive sins. When Jesus saves, he really has the authority as God to save us. By saying that the Word was with God, John is telling us that there is some distinction within God. This is important. When Jesus died on the cross, there is a reason that the universe did not explode with the death of God. Jesus was not the only way that God was active at that time. Christians believe that God is a Trinity, that he is Father, Son and Spirit, one God in three persons. We do not fully understand it, but it is the best explanation for the biblical data we have. Even at the original creation, Jesus as the Word was involved: “Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.” (John 1:3 NIV) Think of the significance of calling Jesus the Word. How did God create in Genesis? Did he have a factory with machines producing each item? Genesis says that God spoke and it was. It was through word that God created, it was through the Word that God created. What was the first act of creation in the Genesis account? Let there be light! Even before the creation of the sun and moon or stars, light appears. John takes that image and shows how Jesus brings about light in the new creation.
Light
So Jesus comes into the world to bring light. What does that mean? I want to take some time to reflect on what kind of light that Jesus brings. First, John speaks of light in terms of life. Light is necessary for life, they are closely connected. When we read the Genesis creation, the emphasis is much more on the appearance of life than that of land formations. Jesus too, came to create life. That life, in a way was a new form of life but not the way we often think. The new form of life was a human being, one that looked liked any other human, but who was adopted into God’s family. The new creation is one born of the Spirit. The light of Jesus in this dark world will create such a life. Secondly, the light of Jesus brings truth. Darkness is ignorance and light is knowledge. The kind of light that Jesus brings is not just facts and figures but understanding of who Jesus is and what God is doing through him. As you go through the Gospel, you find that people are gradually coming to understand more and more of who Jesus is, until at the end you have Thomas exclaim “My Lord and my God!” The light of Jesus is not on a switch but on a dimmer. It is not that Jesus appeared and everyone understood but rather with Jesus appearing, there was a gradual growth in understanding. By the way, just because the light of truth increases, does not mean that people will be open to the truth. There will always be people who will plug their ears and close their eyes to the truth that is before them. But in Christ the truth is made available. Thirdly, the light of Christ brings hope to a dark and hopeless world. The world two thousand years ago was no different than the world today. People worried about how they would live and how they would die. There seemed to be little reason to hope. All you could do was hold on by your finger tips and pray that death would not be too lingering or painful. Jesus came into the world to bring hope. This was hope for this life and the life to come. The central message of Jesus as found in John is that of eternal life. Eternal life is not just a belief in some sort of continued existence after death. It is about a quality of life that exists on both sides of the grave. Jesus taught: “I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.” (John 10:10 NIV) That full or abundant life gives us a reason to hope beyond the specific circumstances that we might be facing. Finally, the light of Jesus came to bring holiness. Salvation is by faith and not be works. However, that does not mean that God has no interest in how we live or what we think or say. A part of the purpose of the light is to shine in the darkness of our hearts and reveal who we really are. One of the significant events in the Gospel of John is when a large number of followers leave Jesus because they can’t really follow him. John in his letter writes “This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. If we claim to have fellowship with him yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth.” (1 John 1:5–6 NIV) When the light of Jesus shines on us, we have two options: flee the light or allow the light to transform us and make us into the holy people we were always meant to be.
Conclusion
Christmas time is full of light. We have lights on our trees and lights on our houses. We light candles for Advent and enjoy candlelight services. But light is not just a beautiful sight, it is an essential aspect of what Jesus does in our life. Two thousand years ago with the coming of Christ, a new creation began. Just as in Genesis God spoke and there was light. So also, Jesus as the Word of God brought light into a dark world. That light was life and truth and hope and holiness. The light that was needed two thousand years ago is still needed in our life and in the life of our friends and family. May that light shine through our lives as we live in the light of Christ.
