Light Part 1

My son loves lights. Any kind of light. The big bulb hanging over the island in our kitchen that he sees every morning when coming out of his room for breakfast. The twinkling lights in our living room that Tanya has put out for fall. Christmas lights on cold December nights. The overhead light in the car that he bumps his head on every morning getting into his car seat. The lume on my watch that he loves to play with when I put him down at night. The glow of an alarm clock in a dark room. Any kind of light brings him joy.

I don’t think he is unique in this. Humans are drawn to the light.

Over the next few weeks, I want to meditate on the idea of light and particularly the implications of Jesus’ claim when he announced that he is the light of the world (John 8:12). 

Halloween is coming up and I have fond memories of trick-or-treating with my dad. Every year he would bring a flashlight and chant over and over all night, from house to house in a ghoulish tone of voice, “Follow the light, follow the light.” This is a tradition I plan on keeping with my son as he gets older.

After Jesus claimed to be the light of the world he went on to say, “Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”

In the ancient world, light was associated with life. When the sun went down the world became a dark and dangerous place.

Light was life. Darkness was death.

With Jesus’ claim about being the light of the world, he isn’t making some off-the-cuff statement about his identity. He is tying himself to the larger story of the people of Israel. When Jesus made this claim, he was talking to the Pharisees, the religious leaders of the day. Their minds would have been steeped in the Hebrew Scriptures. When Jesus made this claim their minds would have been flooded with the many ancient prophecies about light. Such as the words from Isaiah when he wrote, 

            The people who walked in darkness
have seen a great light;
those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness,
on them has light shone. (Isaiah 9:2)

While light in the darkness is often seen as a comforting thing, Jesus’ claim is a bit confrontational, especially to his immediate audience.

To follow Jesus is to walk in the light.

Choosing not to follow Jesus is to remain in the darkness.

Was Jesus insinuating that the religious leaders of his day were actually walking in darkness? Were they actually dead, not alive when it came to their relationship with God? This couldn’t be true! They were the religious folk. The people who were supposed to be walking in the light!

Light can be a bit jarring when it suddenly bursts into the darkness. We can even have an allergic reaction to it. Every morning when I go to wake up Soren and turn on the light he sneezes. Or if he goes outside into the bright sunlight, he sneezes. We have all experienced the wincing pain of a bright light being shown in our eyes when we weren’t expecting it.

When light shines on the dark places of our lives it can be uncomfortable. It can be exposing. We can have an allergic reaction to it. But that doesn’t mean it isn’t good.

We are no different than the Pharisees. It is easy for us to think we are walking in the light because we perform religious activities or because we try to be a good person. That is all fine and good. But can we be honest with ourselves and with God that the truth is that there are areas of our lives that we are happy to keep in the dark?

It may seem easier, less complicated, and less painful to keep these areas of our lives in the dark. But when we do that, we are keeping ourselves from experiencing true life. A life that is free from the death that is associated with the darkness that is in each of us.

As you go about your days the rest of this week, I encourage you to engage in a little practice. Each time you turn on a light or walk outside or light a candle take a moment to ask Jesus to shine his light into the dark places of your life. As you do this create space in your heart, soul, body, and mind to allow Jesus to expose the areas in your life that are in need of healing and then allow him to go to work on you. May we each be drawn to the light of Jesus.

Grace and peace ‘til we rise in glory.