Photo: Pexels – Gantas Vaiciulenas

A very happy Christmas to you!

My last post before Christmas is an adaptation of the address I gave at our Carols by Candlelight service – drawing from Jonathan Edwards’ sermon ‘Christ the light of the world.’

Introduction – Our need for light

Light. Most of the time we take it for granted: It’s just there. It’s there in the daytime – and we don’t always see the sun but we know it’s there because we can see other things. And at night time we flick a switch. But at the moment we’re very aware how much we need it: Energy prices have gone up; there’s talk of power cuts; we turn off the lights when we leave rooms; some people are stocking up with candles.

And that concern about light is symbolic of a general sense of hopelessness – about the economy, about strikes, about mental health, about public services, about Ukraine. As it says on a meme I saw recently – it sometimes feels as though ‘the light at the end of the tunnel has been switched off.’

And of course when we lose light, we feel lost, hopeless, like we can’t find our way. And so perhaps for more than several generations we appreciate light – we appreciate what it gives us. But we’re also more aware that we need a light that will never go out.

The real light – Jesus

Each year at the Anlaby Churches we focus on one of the parts of the Bible that talks about the true, historical Christmas events, and this year we’re looking at John 1. John doesn’t talk about mangers and shepherds and angels and wise men; rather he takes a step back and he asks “what is the significance of that birth in Bethlehem? Why is it so important?” And one answer he gives, in v9, is:

The true light that brings light to everyone was coming into the world.

John 1:9

Clearly he’s not talking about physical light – that was already in the world. Notice he calls the baby in the manger at Christmas ‘the Word.’ (verse 1). And he says that this Word made all things (verse 3): including physical light. And then in verse 4 we see that ‘in him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind.’ So here is a person – the Word – who made physical light and who is the light of the world. Not just physical light – rather, real light, light to which physical light merely points. In John 8 Jesus says exactly that  – ‘I am the light of the world.’ (John 8:12). So Jesus, the baby in the manger at Christmas – he is the real light. He is the ultimate light. Physical light – from the sun, or from the LED bulb in the kitchen, or from a candle – is just a little picture of this real light. Or to put it another way, as theologian Jonathan Edwards once said:

Christ is the same to our souls as light is to our bodies.

Christ the light of the world

What light shows us about Jesus

What does physical light show us about the real light – Jesus. How do we need and benefit from light – and what does that show us about how we need and can benefit from Jesus? There’s no more powerful image of light in the physical world than the sun – so we’re going to compare the sun to Christ. And I encourage us to remember these things each time we see the sun.

Think of the sun rising on a clear morning. I saw it just the other morning while walking down at Anlaby Woods. Its effects appear before it does: Slowly but surely driving out the thick darkness of the night; first bringing a dull morning light – and then eventually shining the full rays from its face to brighten the darkest corner of the earth. Everything that was hidden is now seen. Though if we got up in the darkness we stumbled and perhaps fell, now we get up and can see everything around us. And when it’s fully risen we see the sun itself in all its beauty and glory – a massive glorious shining globe of light and heat and flame. How does the sun, the greatest light we experience, teach us about Jesus the real light of the world?

1. Reveals everything else

Think of the last time you looked out of the window on a clear morning, before the sun had appeared over the horizon. Before you could see the sun, you could see everything else: Trees – the grass – other houses.

How is this like Jesus? In verse 9 John writes: ‘The true light that brings light to everyone was coming into the world.’ Jesus gives light to everyone. Because Jesus has come, the whole world sees things that it wouldn’t otherwise have seen.  The author CS Lewis wrote:

I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen: not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else.

C.S. Lewis

And historians have shown that many of the good things we take for granted – modern science, democracy, health and education, compassion, just to name a few – all of those are just a few of the benefits that we all enjoy because of the light Jesus brought into the world.

2. Exposes the things in darkness

As the sun begins to rise – before it’s appeared over the horizon, in that kind of twilight period – there is a kind of battle between light and darkness. The darkest parts of the landscape are still in darkness. The light hasn’t yet broken in.

How is this like Jesus as the light? John gives a hint of a negative reaction in John 1:10, but  he says more in chapter 3:

This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed.

John 3:19-20

What Jesus is saying is shocking. He’s saying that naturally we all hate the light that Jesus brings, because that light exposes us – it reveals what we’re really like. He’s saying that naturally we prefer to be in the darkness – in the shadows; we prefer to hide from the light. Think of the last time you tried to hide something from those around you – those you love. Perhaps you even try to hide things from yourself – pretending something isn’t true. How much more do we hide things from God. It’s why we don’t try to get to know God more than we do. We’re worried that the true us will be exposed.

3. Breaks into dark places

Wonderfully that’s not the end of the story. As the sun continues to rise it shines its light further and further into those dark places, and many parts become light. It breaks through into the hedgerow, into a glade of trees. And as those places become light, they are revived – they are brought to life. The things that live there begin to wake up, to revive, to move around. To live properly again. Or think of a flower, receiving the light and warmth of the sunlight and beginning to open up its petals to receive the life-giving rays.

And in the same way Jesus says in John 3:

Whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God.

John 3:21

For some people – not all, but for some – the light breaks through. Their souls are revived. They’re intrigued. They want to know more about the light. They want to see more by the light. And so, even though it’s uncomfortable – even though things in their lives might be exposed – they venture out, into the light, to explore – to investigate the light – and to investigate everything they can see by the light. And it may be that that will happen to you who are reading this. You’re intrigued; you want to find out more. But you’re also scared. You wonder what you might discover; you wonder what might be expected of you; the darkness in some ways is attractive, it’s comfortable.

Perhaps this image of the sun helps you – encourages you to come into the light. For it asks us the question – “who would stay in the cold and misery of the darkness, when we can have the light and warmth of the sun? The life-giving, reviving warmth of the sun?”

4. Reveals its own glory and beauty

At the end of its rising, the sun finally appears over the horizon. A glorious, bright, blazing sphere. Dazzlingly beautiful – and yet so bright you can’t look at it directly. It reveals its own glory and beauty.

And in the same way Jesus, the light of the world, reveals the glory and the beauty of God. He is the Word – who is God and is with God. And we’re told in verse 14: ‘We have seen his glory.’ As we gaze on Jesus in the pages of John’s gospel and the rest of the Bible – So we see not only that he is God, but also that he is magnificent, he is beautiful, he satisfies. Let me give you some examples from John’s gospel:

  • Jesus heals – he restores sight to a man who was born blind – he goes to the tomb of a man who had been dead for days and he raises him to life;
  • He loves and cares and serves – but is also stern when he needs to be;
  • He teaches with wisdom and truth – speaking of his relationship with God the Father – “the Father loves the Son… the Son is sent by the Father” (John 5:20, 36-37);
  • In his love he lays down his life – saying “Greater love has no man than this, that he lays down his life for his friends” (John 15:13);
  • He lays down his life taking the darkness – the sin – of those who believe in him on himself, so that we can come out of the darkness and into the light;
  • And he rises from the dead and returns to his Father in heaven where he rules even now;
  • And he promises that one day he will come back to take all who love him to be with him forever.

Jesus is the real light – that the sun simply points us towards. He is ultimate magnificence, beauty, splendour.

5. Drives out the darkness completely.

There’s one more thing to notice about the sun after it’s risen. When it’s at its height it drives out the darkness completely. There’s no place for the darkness to go.

And Jesus promises that when he returns one day in the future there will be no place for darkness. We read in the book of Revelation at the end of the Bible that in heaven

There will be no more night. God’s people will not need the light of a lamp or the light of the sun, for the Lord God will give them light. And they will reign for ever and ever.

Revelation 22:5

So what?

So what does this mean for us this Christmas? What does it mean for us as we appreciate physical light, perhaps in a way we never have before? For John it’s clear what we’re to do – Come into the light; walk in the light. Later in John’s gospel Jesus says this:

You are going to have the light just a little while longer. Walk while you have the light, before darkness overtakes you.

John 12:35

A time will come for each of us when the opportunity to walk into the light has passed. But today we have the opportunity – today Jesus invites us. So let me gently ask you this Christmas: Have you come into the light?

How do we do that? Remember what Jesus said in John 8:12: “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” He says we need to follow him: that is his call – that is what he calls each of us to do. Later on in chapter 1 he puts it in terms of believing:

Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God – children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.

John 1:12-13

Those who believe are children of God. Isn’t that a wonderful promise? As we come into the light – as we follow Jesus – as we believe in him and trust him – so we are children of God, dearly loved and accepted by God: and we can enjoy all the blessings of the light. Will you come into the light? Will you choose to walk in the light – the real light, that is Jesus Christ?