John 1:1-18; John 9:5 Waiting for Light

 

The Gospel of John is written by the disciple that Jesus dearly loved and as you read through John, the theme of Jesus’ love for people is woven through all the stories John shares. But John’s biggest desire is that we get to know who Jesus really is so that we will believe in Jesus as the Messiah. John writes in 20:31, “But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.” This is why John begins his Gospel with this extremely in-depth confession on who Jesus is.

There’s so much that John tells us about Jesus in these 18 verses; it’s a theological thesis on who Jesus is to help us understand Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection. We’ll focus this morning mostly on the first half of these verses. John starts at the beginning of everything, his opening verses echo straight back to Genesis 1 and 2, the creation of the universe. Before there was anything, there was the Word and the Word was with God and was God. John clearly tells us straight out that Jesus is God, he wants there to be no doubt in our minds and hearts about who Jesus is.

When you take a look at the world around you, when you stop and watch the night sky on a clear night when the stars shine down on you from trillions of kilometers away, it’s good to remember that this all has its roots and beginning in Jesus, “Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.” Life itself comes from and through Jesus. John ties together the picture of light to the life that rooted in Jesus. The Hebrews experienced the world through word pictures, they helped them to understand the world through head and heart. In Genesis 1, the first thing God creates is light, God says “Let there be light,” and there was light and it was good! Without light, it’s hard for life to exist. The further down you go into the depths of the ocean, the fewer living creatures you find, the deeper you go into caves, the less life you discover. Light and life go naturally together, this is why God’s first creative words create light.

John heads straight down that way of seeing the world, “In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.” John ties life and light together in Jesus. In the beginning light comes out of the life that’s in Jesus and that light is then what helps bring life into our world. In John 9:5, Jesus says, “While I am in the world, I am the light of the world.” Jesus takes this image of light and applies it to himself and to our lives as we live and experience life; Jesus takes the image of light and shifts it away from a physical sun, moon, stars, and lanterns and reveals that his light is about him giving us life and guiding us.

During the time when Jesus was with us, it wasn’t always easy for the Jews. Rome’s in charge; there was the Roman Peace that didn’t guarantee justice. When Jesus talks about someone forcing you to go one mile, to go two miles instead, Jesus was referring to the law that said that a Roman soldier could tell you to carry his pack for up to one mile and you had no choice but to do it. The Jews weren’t slaves, but they weren’t free either. People were dreaming of the Messiah coming who would free them from oppression, a powerful warrior king. The Maccabees had freed Israel from the Assyrian yoke for a few years, but those years were long gone. The people were losing hope, and then on top of that, the Pharisees kept coming up with new religious rules and regulations for the people to follow; rules, that as Jesus said, even the Pharisees had a hard time keeping.

John writes his gospel years after Jesus went home to heaven, during a time of persecution, after the fall of Jerusalem, and the destruction of the temple. Their faith foundations have been destroyed. It’s a hard dark time. The people are looking at what’s going on in the world and seeing only distress and fearful gloom. Many people today find themselves in a place where it only feels dark in their soul and heart. Each one of us has dark places in our lives, dark scary places in our hearts and souls that some of us try to hide behind heavy strong doors inside us. Some of us live with depression and anxiety, feeling overwhelmed by the stresses that have come with the times we’re in, some are living with a sense of fear of the virus or the fear of loss of personal freedom, others live with the darkness of addiction, abuse, great poverty, or illness. It can be easy to find yourself in darkness and feeling all alone and as if no one sees or cares. Evil, suffering, distress, confusion, and more bring darkness into our lives, into our hearts and souls. This is what Satan wants. We wait for light to come.

Isaiah 9 points with hope to “a time is coming when the people walking in darkness will see a great light, and on those living in the land of deep darkness a light will dawn.” What were people waiting for in the Old Testament? They were waiting for someone to speak into the darkness and gloom and chase it away with light. Jesus is the true light, as John writes, “The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world.” Jesus comes to lead us out of darkness into his light, if we let him.   

John the Baptist comes to bear witness to the light; he keeps pointing away from himself to Jesus. This is an important part of our witness, that we keep pointing people to Jesus, to his love and mercy to us, to his call to follow him, to rest in him, to look to him as our light. Light does a number of things. It shows reality, and therefore guides. There are many voices in our culture who are working to create a reality that differs from what Jesus teaches or lives out in the Scriptures. If you’re looking for a guide through life, go to the Gospels and meet Jesus and hear his teaching and see his life, and then go to the Old Testament and the creator God who never gives up on working to fulfil his promise of a Redeemer who will save his people. He’s a God who never gives up on his people, on his creation and all the nations. Then go to the rest of the New Testament to learn about Jesus. This helps bring Jesus’ light into our hearts and lives.

Light energizes us because it gives us hope. When things are hard, when the suffering seems like it will never end, when it feels like there is no one who can help, and then someone comes with a word of hope, a helping hand, a listening ear, and reminds us that we never walk alone. Jesus cares too much for us to live without hope, it often gives us that bit of strength to make it through the next day, week, or even month.

Light chases darkness away. Light and darkness cannot exist together. Light has the power to take the fear of the darkness away. This gives a deeper significance to what Jesus says, “I am the light of the world.” I love how Paul calls us to allow Jesus to open our hearts to his light, Ephesians 1:17–18 “I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people” When your heart is afraid, Jesus can take your fear away by shining his light of hope and peace into your heart.

Jesus, in Luke 11:33–36 encourages us, “No one lights a lamp and puts it in a place where it will be hidden, or under a bowl. Instead, they put it on its stand, so that those who come in may see the light. Your eye is the lamp of your body. When your eyes are healthy, your whole body also is full of light. But when they are unhealthy, your body also is full of darkness. See to it, then, that the light within you is not darkness. Therefore, if your whole body is full of light, and no part of it dark, it will be just as full of light as when a lamp shines its light on you.” Luke emphasizes how important it is that the light in us comes from Jesus. As we wait for the light of the world to return, we offer the light and hope to Jesus to our community, always allowing Jesus to continuously pour his light into us.