About a week and a half ago the winter solstice occurred, the shortest day and longest night of the year. Now that this day has passed, the daylight hours are slowly returning. Most people don’t like the longer nights. We want more daylight, and look forward to the days when the sun sets later. Nobody likes to sit in a dark room, which is why the first thing we do when coming home at night is to turn on the lights. We feel safer in a lighted house or on a lighted street. In our Scripture passage for today, one of several topics that the Apostle John touches on is that Jesus is the Light. Let’s look into our Gospel reading for this week.
John begins his Gospel with the same words as in the Book of Genesis, yet they take us back in time to long before creation, back to when there was only God (vs. 1-5). Jesus is more than just a prophet or good teacher. The Scriptures declare that He is fully God, who created everything, and came to earth to save mankind from condemnation. Jesus was there before the beginning, as He is God. He is the source of light and life. Before the universe began the Second Person of the Trinity, Jesus Christ, always existed. Jesus always was. He was God the Father’s agent involved with creating everything in the universe (vs. 3). He then willingly gave up His heavenly status, taking the form of a man and became subject to the death on the cross. And although Jesus took upon Himself full humanity and lived as a man, He never ceased to be the eternal God who has always existed. Jesus is fully God and also fully man (Colossians 2:9).
Throughout John’s Gospel he portrays Jesus as the Light of the world, which was one proclamation that Jesus gave of Himself (John 8:12). Satan and sin are darkness, and people who follow his ways prefer the darkness rather than light because their works are evil (John 3:19). However, darkness is not able to overcome or conquer the light of Jesus (vs. 5). God is light, and in Him there is no darkness at all (I John 1:5). God sent His Son to be our Savior. Jesus destroyed the power of darkness and rescued us from evil. Darkness does not have the last word. Jesus shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome Him.
Whoever follows Jesus will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life. When we are troubled and wandering through the darkness of this life, look to Jesus. He is the Light that we can follow. When we follow Jesus, the true Light, we can avoid walking blindly and falling into sin. He lights the path ahead of us, opening our eyes to salvation so we can see how to live. We can let go of the darkness of our old life and walk in His light.
As our Scripture passage continues, we read that Jesus came into a world that rejected and hated Him, including His own people. Though Jesus was the Creator, the world He made rejected Him (vs. 10) Though He was the promised Messiah of the Jewish people and of their own blood, they did not receive Him, despite having all of the Old Testament Scriptures (vs. 11). Only those who receive Jesus Christ, accepting His claims and placing their faith and trust in Him, are children of God (vs. 12). God is the creator of everyone, but only those who have accepted Jesus as their Savior are truly children of God. We are then adopted into His family (Romans 8:16).
Though the Gospel of John does not give any narrative of the birth of Jesus as both Matthew and Luke do, we see in the closing verse of our Scripture passage today a verse that completely describes what occurred on Christmas. Jesus, the Word, became incarnate, or took on flesh, and became man (vs. 14). Jesus is the perfect expression of God in human form (Hebrews 1:1-3). We must never minimize the humanity of Jesus, nor minimize His divinity. Jesus is both God and man.
We praise Jesus, the Word, for the gift of His Word, the Bible. We give thanks to Jesus, the Truth, for the truth He has revealed to us. We glorify Jesus, the Light of the world, for the light of Scripture that guides our way. All are Jesus, who for the sake of our salvation, took on human flesh.
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