A fascinating truth about light is that it must have a source: the sun, the stars, a flame, a light bulb, or even a spark from striking stones or lightning.
Unlike darkness, whose essence is the presence of nothing or that which remains when light leaves the room.
Nothing else comes from nothing.
Light reveals what darkness hides and obscures.
Light creates the possibility and opportunity for reflection. A mirror is useless in the dark.
The most obvious reveal is the source. Sunlight reveals the sun. The flame light reveals the fire. Jesus’ light reveals God and us, who we’ve become and who we’re created to be.
Light shines on things and exposes their essence, for better or for worse. It cannot lie or deceive.
“But the light will hurt us if we get too close!” We cry and tremble. “What if the sun were to touch the earth? We would die!”
And we feel the same about God. Scary, don’t get too close, bad news.
Except when the Son Light touched the earth it was nothing like what was expected or feared.
Jesus’ Light revealed God as Father, love so warm it melts our frozen hearts if we dare draw near. That’s what attracted the disciples, who’d been weened on the darkness of religion.
When meaningful discussions occur, it is often said, “In our deliberations and research, new evidence has come to light.”
With the birth, death, and resurrection of Jesus, the light of the world, there is an enormous revelation: new evidence coming to light. This revelation is not random or the stuff of myths and speculative legends. It is rooted in history and radiates back and forth throughout the vast pool of time and life. When I mention this, it’s often not perceived as good news. Typically, many who don’t yet believe remain awkward, change the subject, and repeat a well-worn story of a bad experience. It’s as hard for them to fathom and risk believing in the goodness of God as it was for those first men and women upon whom his light shone.
How did the light of Jesus impact those disciples?
His tone and attitude toward them were light. Unconditional love manifested as acceptance, kindness, relational engagement, and disarming conversation salted with wisdom, hope, and an invitation to come closer. Surprisingly free of accusation, disgust, or judgment. Such a contrast to their experience of leadership in religion, control, demands, rules, inferiority and superiority, and way too many hoops to jump through.
Many people were initially drawn to Jesus’s light because of his power and miracles. He touched and healed lepers and ministered to every need and sickness without shock, judgment, or blame. He responded to their needs before he taught about faith. Faith followed his generosity and love (in action). They were used to being told that their suffering was God’s punishment. Jesus declared healing is God’s gift; he never inflicts his children with sickness to punish them.
Jesus knew no boundaries or prejudice in his relationship with humanity. It made no difference where you were born, what tribe you belonged to, Jew, Gentile, Roman, slave, soldier, woman, child, prostitute, or priest.
The light of Jesus revealed the hearts of those who came to him. Some walked away, shaking their heads like the rich young man or the followers who couldn’t understand his teaching about his body being bread and wine. Some left when he mentioned laying down his life and suffering. They wanted a military messiah to overthrow their Roman oppressors. Facing the prospect of rejection, Jesus didn’t change his message to be accepted and popular. Truth cannot bend because liars are offended or those within earshot will not hear.
The test for all leadership is to stand beside God’s revelation of light and truth in His Son and to examine the contrast between us. Those who prefer darkness will be revealed, like an X-ray of the mind and heart. Truth exposes values, behaviour, lack of repentance, lust for power, control, riches, and what we worship (reflected in our calendar and pocketbook).
Those who welcome Jesus’ light will be only too aware of their weaknesses and failings. Grace will rest upon them, humility will be natural, a servant heart will be their guiding light, and others will be lifted up in their presence.
Jesus’ light and love never give up on anyone. As already mentioned, there is no distinction between politics and faith, secular and sacred, man or woman, culture, race, or tribe. His message is the same for all. It cannot be reduced, shaped, hijacked, or watered down to suit those who prefer twilight zones of compromise, political correctness, or an alternative spin on spirituality and God.
When faced with Jesus’ light, I fall so short in my darkness that it’s not funny. Yet in all my failings, he has never rejected me, brushed me aside, or disqualified me (others have, and I to them). The vast chasm between his perfection and my disappointing efforts to follow is bridged by his Cross, my cry for forgiveness, and his response of mercy and grace.
Sunlight can be dangerous if we expose ourselves to its rays for too long. Not so with God. Being open to His Son brings healing and restoration.
John said that God’s Word became flesh and lived among us. After the resurrection, it was left to the emerging church to reveal God’s love to others, just like Jesus did. Many are hungry and thirsty for God’s light and love. Talking, doctrine, and arguments about truth won’t be compelling. Relationships, God’s love with skin, is the light that will be most eloquent. Just as it was for the first disciples.
Let’s be kind and light-hearted rather than noisy brass gongs haranguing the darkness.
Let the poet have the last word…
.….Mona Lisa selfies, eyes empty, composed of anxiety, vanity and brush strokes of envy. Desperate to be the next.. anything. Suppress any hunger for the heavenly. Survive on a diet of Pret A-Manger and jealousy.
I met a monk dressed in robes he said, “I’m old and death is readying”
Still, he stood composed and said “son” when addressing me. He had a beard like Aaron, I asked him for his recipe, and he smiled with affection and with a voice more breath than anything said “Son, it’s been seven years since I have seen my reflection, so any compliment for my complexion or presentation has less to do with intention but a desperation to be free from self-observation and obsession.”
He said, “You are free when you forget yourself and that’s the worst way to neglect yourself, meaning self-care begins with comfort but it ends with the rejection of any pseudo sense of inner health, son this is why we live in hell. We have made ourselves God and given glory to the shadows on the wall instead of the light source in which glory dwells. Humanity knows this story well, hundreds of years before Christ said “I am the light” Plato wrote “The Cave” about a society that enslaves itself.”
I hear the art critics question if Mona Lisa is smiling in her expression. I don’t know the answer but I’ll give you my suggestion. I think she knows the greatest artists hide themselves in their creations so she laments a generation that has lost its sense of the transcendent. That old monk, like the prophet Rafiki, told me to look into the water and then look a little harder, he said at first you’ll see yourself but then you’ll see Muffassa. He said at first you’ll see your beauty or perhaps the scars that have marked you but stay a little longer and then you’ll see your Father. And when you see the eyes of God looking back through your own gaze, you might just get so caught up in reverence, that you forget your own face.
Googling God 
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