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…The true light that gives light to every man, was coming into the world (John 1:4,5,9).
To the photographer, light is that subtle, indispensable – yet elusive – component to refine the image captured through the lens.
To the physicist, light is electromagnetic radiation perceived by the human
eye.
And the physics of light is the essence of a centuries-old
controversy: is light formed by waves or particles? Is light reminiscent of the
repetitive crashing of waves?? Or is it the hail of bullets from an automatic
weapon?
To the theologian, the creation of light constituted God’s first recorded words. He spoke into the void – Let there be light! – and physical light eviscerated the darkness.
And to the student of God’s Word, light and darkness are common biblical metaphors.
Darkness signifies
ignorance, foolishness, deception, evil and wickedness.
A related image is that of spiritual blindness. The Lord Jesus connected spiritual darkness with the inability – or unwillingness – to see.
In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus declared, But if
your eyes are bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light
within you is darkness, how great is that darkness! (Matthew 6:23).
Christ accused
His adversaries of being confined in a trap of their own making.
Intentional sightlessness
resulted.
Jesus said, For judgment I have come into this world, so that the blind will see and those who see will become blind" (John 9:39).
By contrast, light
in the Scriptures is used to characterize truth, righteousness, justice,
goodness, order and life.
And the
deliberate avoidance of spiritual darkness by following Christ.
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).
Now, back to John
1.
What are we to make of John’s assertion regarding Christ: In him was life,
and that life was the light of men (John 1:4)?
How, in a pluralistic
and multicultural culture where inclusion means everything, could the Lord Jesus
be the exclusive light of men?
How is that even
rational?
As we look out to our neighbors and colleagues we observe some embracing Christ’s Gospel submitting to Him as Lord and Saviour. But that cohort is decidedly in the minority.
We could
categorize most others as apathetic; passively deny Him.
And we all know
of those vehemently rejecting Christ with every fibre of their being.
Are we to understand Christ as imparting life and light to those in the latter categories?
Part of the answer lies in the capacity of mankind – alone created in the image of God – to perceive acutely in three ways:
The human person looks outward
Different from other earth-dwelling creature, humanity possesses intellectual light – a compelling desire to understand the world around us.
We create music, art, literature, architecture – often for no reason other than to find joy in its beauty. Humans are driven to understand physics, biology, mathematics, astronomy.
We contemplate inquisitively and think abstractly, wondering why the
cosmos is ordered, predictable, mathematical, functional, beautiful?
The human person also looks inward
Members of the human race possess the unique ability to
self-consciously contemplate our own existence. And that self-consciousness
underpins our understanding of our place in the wider world.
We engage in meta-cognition: thinking about thinking.
Alone on the earth, humans intuitively affirm objective moral values and duties. Mankind possesses a highly developed conscience – an ethical compass by which to adjudicate our behaviours, words, attitudes, thoughts.
We look inward self-reflectively, introspectively and recoil at the
contradictions in each of our natures: the ability to do right and the
corresponding capacity for evil.
Within, we recognize the desire to support and provide for others.
And yet at the same time persists this heavy, stubbornly insistent,
plaguing desire to promote self.
Each of us possesses heavenly aspirations and earthbound desires; the yearning
for goodness but the inevitable pull to godlessness.
The human person looks upward
In addition to outward and inward, was it to this upward dimension that John was primarily pointing?
Every person possesses sufficient spiritual light to know God exists.
And each holds the comprehensive capacity to interpret the evidence of God’s existence, His invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature (Romans 1:20).
Takeaway: Christ is the Cosmic Creator of life and light, making man alone in God’s image and endowing humanity with multi-dimensional light: intellectual, artistic, moral and spiritual.
This Christmas might our capacity be enlarged to perceive the truth in John’s Gospel prologue:
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…The true light that gives light to every man, was coming into
the world (John 1:4,5,9).
graphic:
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