In the second chapter of Luke we read, "They hurried to the village and found Mary and Joseph. And there was the baby, lying in the manger."
In John's gospel, however, the baby, the village, the parents, the shepherds and such are given little attention. They are a means to an end.
"In the beginning the Word already existed. The Word was with God, and the Word was God.
He existed in the beginning with God. God created everything through him, and nothing was created except through him. The Word gave life to everything that was created, and his life brought light to everyone. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness can never extinguish it."
Then it reads, "So the Word became human and made his home among us. He was full of unfailing love and faithfulness. And we have seen his glory, the glory of the Father’s one and only Son."
Light into a dark world is the theme.
On that night all those years ago, on a darkened hill, God send moonlight to bathe a group of men. In the fields above a little hamlet called Bethlehem, God then send angels, heavenly beings in all their strangeness and perhaps shockingly scariness, to light up the night sky further. The angels told the shepherds about the magnificent light that was being turned on somewhere in the city below them.
On that night all those years ago, a lot was going on in the sky. The moon shined beautifully, angels lit up a small section in the sky above the city and somehow a magnificent event was occurring as well. A star, the star of Bethlehem as it would one day be known, was more than a dot in the sky. It was a sharp, bright light that someone with knowledge of astronomy would notice fairly quickly. Some men in the east of the city, maybe a great distance east of the city, did notice and they packed quickly and struck out for Bethlehem.
On that night all those years ago, the moon shined, the angels sparkled and the star burned brightly.
But John the gospel writer, the most deeply theological of the gospel writers, was for a moment the most metaphorical as well. In his first chapter, John says that the brightest of all the light that night all those years ago wasn't the moon, the angels or the star. No. It was a baby boy. In the Message translation, John writes, "Every person entering Life he brings into Light. ... The Word became flesh and blood, and moved into the neighborhood. We saw the glory with our own eyes; the one-of-a-kind glory, like Father, like Son."
Years ago, my family moved into a house that would become our home for more than 40 years. I miss it still, having sold it around Thanksgiving four years ago as my mother's illness overtook her. But early in our stay there, as an eight-year-old, I was fearful. It was in the country, and I was a city boy. So noises at night weren't welcome, but they were plentiful.
On night, I heard something on the back porch. To this day, I promise I saw the door handle turn as I tiptoed into the kitchen and looked at the back door. My father was working away from home, so I ran to my mother's room and breathlessly told her about it. She sleepily told me to look out her bedroom window, which overlooked the back porch, and see what was what. She might as well told me to fly. No way was that happening.
After long, long, breathless minutes, with me still lying on her bed in rigid fright, she figured there was only one way to end this and send me back to my room. She got up and did the unthinkable. She turned on the back porch light. Nothing was there. The light warmed the concrete-floored porch, running off shadows, forcing away evil doers, destroying my fears in an out-pouring of "Life-light."
John wrote, "What came into existence was Life, and the Life was Light to live by. The Life-Light blazed out of the darkness; the darkness couldn't put it out."
Light changes feelings, ideas, temperaments. Light inches into dark corners and turns them into parties. Light changes grudges into longings, turns temper into patience, fixes mistakes and applies love as band aids. Light is the difference between Eden and Hell. Light is the most physical of non-physical entities that has ever existed.
And this baby, this Jesus, was the light of the entire world.
Today, Christmas Eve, we celebrate by passing gifts to each other. But the most important gift that ever was passed from one being to another, was the light of the entire world that was passed from Joseph to Mary immediately after it was born into a dark cave of a stable. The light cried out. The light waved pudgy arms in fright and in newness of life.
The light was born, and it was passed.
Today we can do no less. Today please, if you are a daily reader or you came across this blog on google and are reading for the first time, take up the light and pass it to someone you love or someone you've just met.
This light is life ... "The Word gave life to everything that was created and his life brought light to everyone. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness can never extinguish it. God sent a man, John the Baptist, to tell about the light so that everyone might believe because of his testimony. John himself was not the light; he was simply a witness to tell about the light. The one who is the true light, who gives light to everyone, was coming into the world."
Merry Christmas, my friends. God loves you so much, he became flesh so that light could bathe you in its love. Isn't that thrilling?
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