Wednesday, May 21, 2014

EMMDEV 2014-05-21 [Light] Jesus our Light

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was with God in the beginning.
3 Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. 4 In him was life, and that life was the light of men. 5 The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it. John1:1-5

Jesus is portrayed as the Word of God (the way God communicates Himself to us) and as the Light of humankind (the way God shows Himself to us).

Jesus is the light of life.
His coming into our world was the candle in the dark room
- it was the lighthouse light on a stormy night
- it was the star by which we could find our way
- it was the light at the end of the tunnel

And the light shines into the darkness.

It was dark:
We didn't fully understand who God is and what He is like.
We didn't know how to find our way to Him.
We couldn't make ourselves holy enough to be with Him
Because we couldn't find Him, we also couldn't find each other.
Our world was far from God and we are far from each other.

But the light has come!
It shines into the darkness and the darkness has no answer!

John has a bit of fun with the Greek word for "understood"... The word can mean "understood" or "overcome" and in both senses the statement is true. The darkness couldn't understand the light and those who hide from it will never understand. The darkness also could not overcome the light, even when it crucified the light.

The best thing to do with the light is do what yesterday's passage urged us to do: Arise! Shine! Your LIGHT has come!

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Theo Groeneveld theo@emmanuel.org.za
You can see past EmmDevs at http://emmdev.blogspot.com/