Jesus, Light of the World

 

“The people walking in the darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of the shadow of death a light has dawned. You have enlarged the nation and increased their joy…” *

Why do we connect darkness with despair and light with hope? Well…when we’re in the pitch dark, we can’t see! It’s dangerous to move around. We lose our sense of bearing and if our feet weren’t connected to the ground, we wouldn’t know up from down.

Then there’s the fear of being attacked by a wild animal or some other unseen creature. Anxiety and panic take over rational thinking, but are quickly dispelled by one small beam of light. 

            When we are in a deep depression, again we often can’t see any way out. We feel lost, abandoned, helpless. Just like the darkness, depression creates fear, anxiety and panic. Hope, like the beam of light, pierces that blanket of despair.

During the Advent season, our “zoom” group is talking about many of the names of Jesus found in the Bible. For the first week, the week of “Hope,” we began with the meaning of “Jesus”—"the Lord saves”— and talked about the link between the prophesies in the Old Testament of the coming Messiah and Jesus Christ.

The people of Israel had been living in spiritual darkness, separated from God by sin and rebellion. However, through the prophets and the knowledge of their scripture, they had been given the promise of hope, of salvation. As foretold to Mary by the angel Gabriel, the son whom she would miraculously conceive would be the long-awaited Messiah.

Jesus is also referred to as the light of the world. That name resonated with the people in our group. John 1:3-4 tells us that “In him was life, and that life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it.”

Another way to read verse four is: “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it,” (NIV footnote) which gives us the additional insight that although people living in spiritual darkness didn’t understand that Jesus was indeed their promised Messiah, He was not and could never be overcome by the darkness.

On Sunday morning, Al and I lit a candle for the first Sunday in Advent in front of the computer screen as our daughter and grandsons watched from their cottage in northern Michigan. We explained that we were lighting a candle as a reminder of hope, anticipating the birth of our Savior.

“What happens when you light a candle?” Al asked the boys.

Back came a quick and unexpected reply… “You get smoke!”

Al then asked, “At the candlelight service when everyone lights his or her own candle and lifts it up, what happens?”

Ah, revelation! “It (the room) gets brighter!”

At the Christmas Eve candlelight service, no matter how huge the sanctuary or how dark it is in the room, when the first person strikes a match, it catches everyone’s attention. As the flame is passed from first one candle to the next, and then down the rows, from the front to the back, the room indeed gets brighter.

When the candles are lifted high, light fills the once darkened room…along with the melodic strains of “Silent Night.” The music, the candlelight fill hearts with hope and joy. God’s love is close, personal, real.

One little candle by itself is insignificant and useless. But as our pastor pointed out in his advent sermon on hope,  “No amount of darkness can extinguish the light of a single candle!”  Just think about it—one lit candle overcomes the darkness and tens, hundreds, thousands of them together can cause even the darkest places to glow.

Jesus, not just the hope of the Jews, but the hope of all mankind. Jesus, not just the light of the world back in his day, but the light of the world for our day too. Jesus, our Savior.

May we let His light shine in our hearts and through us so that those who dwell in darkness may know the power of His love.

“When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, ‘I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.’” (John 8:12 NIV)

*Isaiah 9:2-3a