Celebrating the good news of Christmas-tide.
For many years the prologue of John’s Gospel (John 1:1-18) has been a favourite passage of Scripture for me. As a student I could recite from memory the whole prologue in Greek, although today I can hardly get beyond the second verse. But I have grown to understand its message much more. “The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it.”
This is the central message of the Gospel and it expresses the tragedy of our human nature. God has sent his truth like the sun penetrating the darkness of the night: but it has not been understood by human beings, whom God created in his own image for intimate fellowship with him.
Through the Prophets of Israel, over a period of many centuries, God progressively revealed his nature and purposes to humanity. This prepared the way for the coming of Messiah, Jesus, who added to that revelation an understanding of God as our Father who loves us with an unconditional and un-ending love. That love was so great that it even took Jesus to the Cross in order to provide for our salvation.
The Incarnation: Blessing and Tragedy
The tragedy of the incarnation is emphasised in verse 10 which states “He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognise him.” Traditionally, theologians have understood the enlightenment brought by Jesus as the illumination of reason and conscience, thus bringing the Gospel into line with Stoic ideas about the logos as something that dwells in every human being, a seed within each one of us that enables us to develop full understanding of truth.
But the coming of the light actually brings judgment, because it reveals the fact that human beings love darkness rather than light; although it is not God’s purpose to bring judgment but to create faith leading to salvation. The amazing truth of the incarnation is that “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us,” so that we can actually see the light shining in the darkness of the world around us.
Of course, human beings prefer the darkness because they cannot understand the light, which actually requires a change of mindset. Indeed, it requires accepting that we need the light in order to be able to understand anything at all in the created order of the universe. Only the true light of the world can give us real, genuine understanding. It changes everything, giving us a different position from which to perceive reality.
In order to accept the light, we have to be prepared to forsake the pursuit of our own self-interest. But in the process, we actually become children of God instead of being creatures of the world, which is an entirely new status. As Paul said, “Anyone who is in Christ is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come” (2 Cor 5:17).
Opportunity to Respond
Of course all human beings, whether they believe or not, are surrounded by the light of Jesus, because he has made his dwelling among us. This was part of God’s intention from the time he created the universe and made human beings capable of being in relationship with himself, the Creator. He chose the people of Israel to be the means through whom he would bring light to the world and fulfil his purpose of enabling everyone to become children of God – part of the community of believers.
This was revealed to the Prophet Zechariah 500 years before the coming of Jesus. He shouted for joy when he received this revelation: “Shout and be glad, O Daughter of Zion. For I am coming, and I will live among you, declares the Lord. Many nations will be joined with the Lord in that day and will become my people. I will live among you and you will know that the Lord Almighty has sent me to you” (Zec 2:10).
The prologue of John speaks about the true light of the world – the person and power and wisdom of God, who created the universe – coming to take a permanent place among human beings, so that they could perceive truth in a way that had been hidden from previous generations.
In order to accept the light, we have to be prepared to forsake the pursuit of our own self-interest; but in the process, we become children of God.
The nativity that we celebrate at Christmas has very flimsy historical links with the date of Jesus’ birth and even less to do with the tinsel and wrappings and commercial Christmas of today. But the fact that lights are switched on in our towns and villages and decorate our homes is an acknowledgement of the central truth of the incarnation – that the true Light has come into the world of humanity.
As we are each a creation of God, there is built into each one of us the ability to respond to (or the freedom to reject) the true light. For those who do respond, there is the wonderful experience of becoming a child of God which changes our perception of everything: in the same way as the light of a new day dispels the darkness of night and enables us to see things that were only dimly perceived in the darkness.
Witnessing to the Light
The Fourth Gospel prologue tells us that John the Baptist was sent ahead of Jesus to prepare the way and to be a witness to the light. He was not the true light – he was a reflection of the light, but when Jesus came, the true light which was there in the beginning, and through whom the universe was made, was now available to human beings in a new way.
God actually humbled himself and took human form as his final great act of salvation, to enable sinful men and women to see the truth and to give them the power to overcome the forces of darkness that drive us all towards self-destruction. This is the good news of Christmas-tide - the coming of truth and light into our world of sin and darkness.
Surely there has never been a greater need for such a message than there is today! As children of the light we need to take a break from all the works of darkness around us (including our Parliamentary Pantomime) and take every opportunity of sharing the good news with others during this Christmas season. Let’s make it truly a season of light and truth!
The Lord be with you and bless you as you bless others.
