Unquenchable Light

“The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of deep darkness a light has dawned” Isaiah 9:2

These are unprecedentedly dark times for most of us. Every new day brings with it physical, emotional, financial, relational challenges. Each day we seek out glimmers of light to help us through the gloom - and there are plenty. On social media we share heartwarming pictures, cartoons, jokes and comedy clips that lift our spirits; we bear witness to kindness and generosity and let our families and friends know how much we love them and miss them.

So many glimpses of light, but they are not enough to take me through the darkest of times. I need to know God is in all of this. I know he hasn’t caused these times, because he is love, but I need to know that He is with me in every moment, that he will walk with me and lead me through it. In order to know that, I need to know him better.

So I am in my lockdown quest to know Jesus more deeply, and no better place to start than with what he actually said about himself.

There’s this amazing statement in John 8:12 where Jesus says “I am the light of the world; whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life”.

Now that’s one astonishing claim! Jesus didn’t say, as almost all would-be leaders of new religious movements do, “I bring you fresh enlightenment”. He said I AM the light.

To claim to BE light is paradigm changing. Light is a universally recognised metaphor for good; knowledge is light against the darkness of ignorance; light is the source of all life, and is also the way we source truth - as light reflects off our retinas we see to read and explore the world as it is; we need sunshine for our physical and mental wellbeing. I am discovering daily that light is also a mixed blessing, as I discover afresh in the mirror each morning my increasing resemblance to Doc in Back to the Future. Light reveals the darkest truth about ourselves.

So wow, when Jesus said “I am the light of the world”, that small statement was dynamite.

“The true light that gives life to everyone was coming into the world.”(John 1:9)

When and where Jesus made his incredible statement was so significant. He was in Jerusalem on the last day of Feast of Tabernacles, a great week-long festival where Jerusalem was filled with people celebrating the goodness of God in bringing his people through the wilderness. They had experienced his presence and his provision through their dark times - God had led them through a cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night. In remembrance, part of the festival involved the lighting every night of four great candelabra, whose light reached every corner of the city. Bands played, and they partied.

But when Jesus walks into the courtyard it is the last night of feast and they are clearing everything away, so the lamps have not been lit - a visible reminder that the glory of God hasn’t been seen in the temple for years. They are still waiting for Messiah to come.

Jesus walks into temple courts and right in front of the darkened candelabra he says "I am the light, the one you have been waiting for. I am God come to you". Wow.

His light is the thing we most need - which is why he can say “follow me and you will have the light of life”. The light of Jesus is forgiveness and peace, because God Himself came and lived the life we should have lived and died the death we should have died.

The light of Jesus is freedom. It is without boundaries. It is not confined to ways of being, or thinking, to church buildings or structures; not restricted to certain ways of expression.

C.S.Lewis puts it beautifully:

“We do not want merely to see beauty . . . We want . . . to be united with the beauty we see, to pass into it, to receive it into ourselves, to bathe in it, to become part of it.”

Bathing in the beauty of Jesus is at the heart of true prayer. It is transformative, changing our narrow, judgmental way of being into life giving, life enhancing love. We become the light of the world as we immerse ourselves in THE light of the world. Even the darkest parts of my life can become light in the light of his presence.

No need to be afraid to be myself; no need to judge others for fear they will judge me; no need to feel superior to others in order to bolster my own self worth; no need, in the midst of a pandemic to search around for understanding of what God is up to, to try to explain God’s plan, to seek for special knowledge.

He is enough.

This pandemic is here long term. But there is no corner of darkness where the light of Christ cannot go, and my access to Him is undiminished by our changed world. I don’t need a priest, a church building, a liturgy, a worship band or a robed choir to gain access into the heart of Jesus. His light penetrates even the darkest of prison walls, the most sterile of hospital wards, the loneliest of places, the most fearful of hearts.

Without the light, without Jesus in my life, life is in monochrome. I only have effective sight in one eye. This makes night driving very difficult, because without daylight I have no perspective. The same is true for my life. Without the light that is Jesus my life is monochrome, lifeless, aimless, purposeless. My life is on lockdown. But with the light that is Jesus in my life I can know joy, love, peace, freedom. No darkness can separate me from the source of life if I have Jesus.

As Martin Luther King Jr. said, “Darkness cannot drive out darkness. Only light can do that.”

Our present darkened reality needs something from outside itself. That something comes in the person of Jesus.

One day, Jesus will set all things right. His light will banish darkness forever. Until then, in the midst of the darkness, I have Jesus. And that is enough.

“He who has God and everything else has no more than he who has God only.”

C.S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory