One
Tiny Light
John
1:1-9
In the beginning, God spoke. “Let there be light!” And there was light.
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with
God, and the Word was God.”
Christians believe that the Word (capital W) was—and is—Jesus Christ. Paul says (Colossians 1:15-17) that Jesus
Christ existed before anything else came into being, and that all things were
created by him, through him, and for
him. John says the same thing in
abbreviated form in vv. 2-3: “Through him all things came to be, not one thing
had its being but through him” (Jerusalem Bible: this is slightly different from the way this
verse is usually translated but I think it’s easier to understand). God spoke
the Word—and all things came into being.
God’s first command was: “Let there be light.” Many centuries later John called Jesus Christ,
“the light of humankind.” John tells us
that Jesus Christ referred to himself as, “the Light of the world” (8:12). This is one of seven “I am” statements John
records. Jesus also called himself “the
Bread of Life,” “the door of the sheep,” “the Good Shepherd,” “the resurrection
and the life,” “the way, the truth, and the life,” and “the true vine.” Taken together they paint an accurate picture
of who Jesus Christ was, his relationship to the world, and why he came to
earth. Since John focuses on Jesus as
the light of the world at the beginning of his gospel, let’s do the same.
From the beginning light plays an important part in
Scripture. It is God’s first
creation. If we accept the big bang
theory (and there is nothing contradictory between this theory and God’s
creation of the cosmos), the bang
released the energy of light, cooling over time to form suns, moons, planets,
and other celestial objects. God said,
“Let there be light,” and light exploded into the emptiness of space. What a sight that must have been!
In
the ancient world the darkness of night was complete. Yes, there was the light provided by the moon
and stars, but no other source of illumination.
There were no streetlights, no neon signs, no automobile headlights—not
even a bulb on a front porch. In
darkness that complete any source of light would stand out with a brilliance
difficult for us to imagine.
When Jesus calls himself the Light of the world he is not
comparing himself to other sources of light.
He is comparing himself to the total darkness that surrounded him. Jesus Christ came into a world that was as
spiritually dark as it was physically dark.
In John 8 Jesus is trying to help the Jewish leaders understand the
darkness of their souls. He tells them
they can’t see him for who he is—worse yet, they cannot know his Father, because
their darkness prevents them. Their
spiritual condition was like walking about on a moonless night without even a
candle to light the way.
As brilliantly as Christ’s light shone during his time on
earth, it shines even more brilliantly now.
We see his light reflected in millions upon millions of people scattered
throughout the world, all shining with the glow from the Light of the world.
But that light didn’t begin brightly. On that first Christmas night, two thousand
years ago, it was merely a pinpoint, shining out of a stable, reflected in the
faces of his parents—but it was enough. That
tiny light was enough to dispel the darkness, and the darkness couldn’t extinguish
it.
“It is better to light a candle than to curse the
darkness.” This is what God accomplished
in the birth of that one tiny light
May
the light of Jesus Christ dispel the darkness of our souls and the darkness of
the world he came to save.
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