John 1:1-18 The Light Vs the Darkness

Living and Dying in the Dark

Longing for Light in Our Darkness.

Can you remember back to when you were a child, at a time when images of creepy crawlies were lurking in the closet? When the boogie man was lying in wait to scare you from under the bed? Every time darkness was upon you the things that scared you most came out to play, or at least that is the way you felt. Did you ever wish that a light would come on and frighten those monsters of darkness away?  What would you say if I was to tell you these images aren’t all wrong? We live in a world of sin, of death and of evil. We sin in hiding, we do the things we know we shouldn’t and they become the skeletons in the closet, the monsters under the bed which need to be illuminated by the light to be expelled.

When we were children, we wanted the light to come and get rid of the darkness. Isn’t it the same now? Everyone, wether we know it or not, whether we believe it or not, we all want and even yearn for the light to come and get rid of the darkness from our lives, we want the sin, death and evil to be removed.

In the gospel reading today we heard that God sent John the Baptist to bear witness to the light. So that all might believe in the Light that was coming. The problem is, although God sent people like John the Baptist to testify about the light, the people didn’t listen to him, and didn’t recognise Jesus or accept him as the Light.

Are we any different today? Aren’t we sent people who proclaim God’s word? Do we recognise Jesus as the true Light? Or do we do the same thing as people have always tried to do and try find “lights” of our own to help us?

Believing in the Dark.

When we try and find or make our own lights to help us, we are really just showing the real problem. Instead of fearing, loving and hoping in the Word that was made Flesh, the light of the world; we place our hopes in false lights or false gods. It could be the false light of placing our trust in lights other than Jesus. It could be the false light of believing that we are good people and that we have done all that we need to do to get our one way ticket into heaven. It could even be the false light of believing that there is no hope. Or as the proverb found on bumper stickers around the world say: Life’s a _____ and then you die.

Anyone who is living a life; fearing, loving and trusting in anything other than Jesus Christ, the true Light of the world, is really living a life believing and worshiping the Dark.  

Dying in the dark.

The situation for those who are living in the dark is not good. They place their trust in the false lights of the world and do not fear, love and trust in The True Light, Jesus Christ. By failing to recognise and accept Jesus Christ as the True Light, who expels all darkness, we are left powerless; we are left like children scared of the dark without a Father in heaven, to turn the light on for us. We are left to deal with the sin which is condemning us from under the bed or from inside the closet, which is envelopes us with fear. All of us... dying... in... the... dark.

Living and Life in the Light

The true Light overcomes the Dark.

Thankfully as we heard in the reading God does not want to leave you in the dark to die. He wants you to know Him. The Word in flesh, the True Light of the world, Jesus Christ, came into the world and dwelt among us. What’s more, he took on all that is darkness. That is, sin, death and the devil. The true light, Jesus Christ shone and the darkness did not overcome. When Jesus died on the cross, he took upon himself the sin of the world, he took on the devil and he took on all that is evil. And He conquered them.

Jesus did not stay dead, for death could not contain him. He rose again on Easter morning showing that darkness could not overcome. The light expelled all darkness.

Jesus Christ the True Light came to you to be your light, to shine on you, to expel all evil from your life. If you have faith and believe in His name.

Believing in the Light.

The power of this Gospel message of Jesus Christ being God’s “True Light”, is also given to us personally, and this makes God known to us. Jesus gives us the gift of faith. This faith was given to you firstly at your Baptism, It was given when the Light was shone upon your life and all darkness fled from the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. You were born, not of blood, or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God. Our Father gave you the most amazing gift through His son. He made you His Children, children of God.

The faith which you have received replaces the faith which you had in those false lights that I mentioned earlier. As the reading says: “From his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. The law indeed was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God. It is God the only Son, who is close to the Father's heart, who has made him known”.

Living in the Light.

Having received this gift of faith, and having received this gift of the True Light in our lives, we are empowered to make this “True Light” known to all who live this world which has been enveloped in darkness. People who are hoping and longing for the Light of the world to be switched on for them; whether they know it or believe it at this stage of their lives.

As children of God, you, like John the Baptist, are given the power to be witnesses, to be witnesses of the light, so that all might believe through him. By the grace of God and the power of the Holy Spirit, God will use you to shine His light for others. Telling them that Jesus is the True Light. That He is the light that they have been searching for. That he has come to scare away all the darkness.

God sent the Christ to us shine on us. To shine away all that is bad, all that is scary. All that was hiding has been revealed. The light has destroyed it. He has shone on you and cleaned you from all that had its hold on you.