Friday, January 06,
2017
Continuing with John 1:
verses 4-5: Whatever has come into being in him was life, and the life
was the light of all people. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness
did not overcome it. (NRSV translation)
Everything that exists, lives in
and through the Word, the second Person of the Trinity. In these verses John
introduces us to light. Interesting enough, in Genesis 1:3 the first
utterance of God was, “Let there be
light.” The first act of creation was to create light and John immediately
associates it with life. Later, in chapter 8, after delivering the
adulteress from death through stoning and sends her off, he speaks to the
Pharisees, saying I am the light of the
world. whoever follows me will never walk in darkness but will have the light
of life.
In John’s world view, light and
life are opposed to darkness and death. Everyone was created through and in
Jesus, so in some way that we may not fully understand, every single human
being possesses this light in the depths of his/her being. This, to be sure, is
an inclusive way of looking at things, but as far as I am concerned, it
is a logical necessity:
creation
through Christ à
possessing light and life
No one can be excluded from this
logic. “Ah,” you might say, “but what about those who have walked away from
Jesus or refused to follow Him or who even deny that He is God, but rather walk
a path of darkness and death throughout their entire lives? How about a
convicted killer who is proud of the mass murder he inflicted and shows
absolutely no remorse (such as we read about in the USA in today’s newspapers)?
Has such a person killed off the light that was originally within?”
John gives an answer to that
question in verse 4, in very simple terms: the
light shines in the darkness and the darkness did not overcome it. I
maintain that no matter what, the spark of light still remains buried deep
within. What happens to it or with it is in God’s hands. But the light is not
extinguished.
Think personally for a moment.
Perhaps there has been a time in your own life when you turned away from the
light, or from your faith; perhaps there has been time when you were without
faith; perhaps there has been a time when, for one reason or another, possibly
addiction, you were walking in darkness and heading towards self-destruction.
If so, what happened? Could it be that the light in you was never completely
overcome but continued to shine even as a tiny spark, and eventually grew
within you to the point where it helped you find the way out of the pit you had
been buried in?
My conclusion is this: we must
always allow for the existence of the light, created through the Christ, in
every human being, no matter how evil, no matter how lost, no matter how
faithless, no matter how seemingly helpless, no matter how ruthlessly
resistant.
(That, by the way, is why I am
personally opposed to capital punishment because it cuts short the work of the
light. God will still make it right in the end somehow far beyond my own
imagining, but God doesn’t give up. And consider this as well: the Church has
never ever judged that a person be in hell, not Attila the Hun, not Stalin,
not Hitler.)
Cling to these words when you
are discouraged or ready to give up or ready to judge: the darkness did not overcome it.
God bless you! Have a nice
weekend. The next posting will be on Monday.
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