Jesus the Light

Jn 1:4,9 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
   
A world without light would be a terrible place. If we did not have the sun we would not see the moon and the only light we would have would be the stars shining twenty four hours a day. Hardly anything would live. At the beginning of the Bible, God created the earth and it was dark (Gen 1:1,2) and so the very next thing God created was light (1:3). Light is essential to life. Life and light go together.
   
Modern science says something interesting about light – it is energy. In the previous meditation we thought about the life that is God, the energy that He brings to us to make us living beings. The life, the energy that Jesus brings, acts as a light for men. Imagine a completely dark world. Imagine someone coming who glows and each person he touches also glows as he conveys his energy to them. There is something of that with Jesus, the one who comes bringing real life as against the form of life that is so often acted out in the world around us.
    
In John’s Gospel, light is mentioned twenty four times. Later on we’ll look at Jesus’ declaration “I am the light of the world” but for the moment we’ll simply consider some introductory things about light. John spoke about Jesus shining in darkness, implying that the world was in darkness. In philosophy there have always been distinctions between light and darkness, good and evil. Darkness and evil have always gone together. Later John was to write, “Light has come into the world, but men 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 his deeds will be exposed. But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what he has done has been done through God” (Jn 3:19-21)
       
There two pictures or uses of light are given. As we just said, darkness is equated with evil. Sinful man, says John, preferred evil to the light who came among them and (he has in mind) they excluded him or put him to death. But running in parallel to this is the idea that light reveals. In a dark room when you turn on the light you suddenly see everything. When Jesus arrived, suddenly everyone’s actions were revealed for what they were. His utter goodness (light) showed up the falseness and pretence at goodness in the religious people; that was why they killed him. His ‘life’ showed up everything else for what it was, a sham. His life was like a light that showed everything as it really was.
     
But there is more to this. John also described him as the true light that gives light to every man. The truth is that every person who hears about Jesus has his light shone on them. His goodness radiates from him to them. This doesn’t mean to say that they accept it, for many reject him as their own darkness is shown up. It is the writer’s belief that at some time in every person’s lifetime (and perhaps many times) God shines the light of truth and goodness into every person. There will be none who, on Judgment Day, will be able to say, “I never knew.” Even if it is for a fleeting moment, they know. They choose to reject the light and continue in their darkness. Yet, for whoever will, if they open themselves to The Light, then they will find he fills them with his light so that he can then say to them, “You are the light of the world” (Mt 5:14) Glow! Shine!