"Light shines forth for you today in enlightening gifts" Christmas Day 2024
25. December 2024
Christmas Day
John 1:9-13
This is the Word of the Lord that came to me, so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing, you may have life in His + Name. AMEN.
John’s prologue is so awe-inspiring that you can hardly begin it, and then you don’t want to end it, either. Each verse builds on the previous, begging to “tell us more!” From before the foundation of the Cosmos to the manger of Bethlehem, the Evangelist proclaims all things from Christ Jesus’s perspective. No, more than that, in Jesus, we and all creation live, move, breathe, and have our being.
Day one of the old creation is also day one of the new creation. On our first day, God said, “Let there be light!” And there was light! And now we learn that that Word proclaimed is Jesus. And Jesus, who made the light, is also the Light of lights. His radiant face lit up the world, the manger, the heavens, and even now, the faces of the forgiven children of God. “The LORD lift His countenance upon you and give you peace!” “In Him was life, and the life was the light of men.”
But then something changed. The darkness, once limited to the evening and sleep, came into man's heart. The original sin blinded the sons of Adam and the daughter of Eve. They could not see the light but everything dimly through the corrupted mirror of existence. “And the light shined in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.” God would speak, but they could not see; their darkness was so great. From the eyes to the mind and to the heart, the blackness oozed into and over everything.
The light never went out, and for brief moments, the people saw. We could speak of Abraham and the promise of the stars or Jacob and the bright angels ascending and descending. But then the darkness deepened, and they became blind to their lusts and passions again. A brilliant light illuminated the heavens for our father Noah, scattered through tiny droplets of the abating rain, dispersing the dark clouds of judgment, a sign of promise revealed from one horizon to another. “I will never again destroy the world with a flood.” And coming out of the ark, Noah built an altar and worshipped the LORD as the patriarch Seth had taught him.
But in the time it took for a vineyard to grow, grapes to mature, and wine to ferment, Noah is exposed naked, intoxicated not with the Spirit and the Word but with the spirits in the wine. The darkness has again overwhelmed the light of the new dawn and remade earth, a darkness that is locked away deep in the human heart. His son attempts to cover Noah’s shame, but the word is written. Noah’s shame is no former thing but persists for your learning until the coming of the true Light.
And what can I say of Moses and Israel? The brightness of Christ’s light shone in the burning bush, calling Moses out of darkness into light. He brought that shining light into the land of death. The darkness of Pharoah and plague, the angel’s dread sword and blood smeared, broke into light, a pillar of fire leading Israel through water and standing behind to destroy the blackened fear of all of Pharoah’s horseman and all of Pharoah’s men. Waters came crashing down and drowned them, saving God’s people again.
God took them into the desert and led them to the holy mountain, where He spoke with Moses and elders, feasting and feeding with manna, quail, and water from the rock. But the darkness deepened, and the people longed to return to the despair and hopelessness of the enemy. “And the light shined in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.”
God’s light did not fail, even if the people’s hearts failed with fear and foreboding. He brought them to the Jordan, sending his messengers to survey the land of promise. They return seeing but not believing. Only Joshua and Caleb trust, their eyes illumined with the Word of promise. But they had to wait while God brought an end to all doubt. Then, after forty years of wilderness wandering, the bright Angel, commander of the Sabaoth, led His Yeshua to a shining victory over all the Canaanite idolaters. The brilliant promise is fulfilled, and the inheritance is given to the sons of Jacob.
But again, as before, the darkness could not comprehend it. Doubt, with its poisonous fruits of vice, corrupted the heirs of promise again. Heartless idols, wicked kings, and golden heifers were erected to justify the darkness and cast a shadow over the light. Brief moments of daylight would punch through, the windows of heaven opening briefly, spotlighting Hezekiah or Josiah, Hanna and Ruth, or seemingly insignificant figures of faithfulness, holding on for dear life to the simple promise of a Messiah. Thank God that “the light shined in the darkness, [even if] the darkness did not comprehend it.”
Finally, when all hope was lost, the Word became mute, and the light had finally gone out, God sent His prophet John to kindle into flame the smoldering wick. The dim glow and thin tendril of smoke was fed with the breath of God’s Spirit, proclaiming of his cousin, “Behold! The Lamb of God, who comes to take away the sins of the world!” “This man came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all through him might believe.” John was not the Light, but his preaching shone a spotlight onto Jesus, the babe born of Mary, the son of David born to raise the sons of earth, the “true light which gives light to every man.”
God had been sending little lights to lead His people—Seth, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, Joshua, David, Solomon, and many more whose stories are told in the Holy Scriptures. They all shone with the reflected glory of God, but often dimly or only for a time. However, inbred darkness inherited from Adam always found a way to blot out the Sun of righteousness. Every one of these leading lights burnt out in the end, their eyes grew dim, and they slept in the darkness of the earth. And if their own weakness weren’t enough, the ones to whom God sent them refused to be enlightened but preferred to live in darkness.
No wonder then that when the Light of Lights shone in a manger stall, at Transfiguration height, or on the Good Friday cross, Jesus was rejected and despised. The greater the light, the deeper the darkness. “He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him. He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him” (Jn 1:10–11). Even those closest friends, who had seen the light in Word, miracles, and resurrection, finally chose to lock themselves away with worry and dread. They saw Him in unveiled splendor and then refused Him, too.
The only way through is for the Light to shine so bright that the darkness can never rise up again. And at the dawn of the new and eternal day, Christ Jesus burst forth from the tomb and death and showed forth in resurrected glory. The light that once illumined the faces of Mary, Joseph, shepherds, and Magi now would bring light and life to all the world. The dim leading lights of old, their lives, and God’s promises find their fullness and completion in Christ incarnate, Christ crucified, and Christ risen and victorious.
Jesus is the Light no darkness can overcome. This Light shines forth for you today in enlightening gifts, the brilliant flame of faith stirred by the mighty rushing wind of the Spirit. Every promise we once only saw as in a mirror dimly, now we see with the brightness of Christ’s rising. You cannot help but shine now aglow with Christ’s life because you are in Him, and He is in you. You were adopted, made new, and resurrected into Jesus by the washing of water and the Word. The joy of Christmas Day is the joy of those newly born who have unwrapped the greatest gift of all—Jesus, the light of the World.
“But [to you who have] received Him, to [you] He gave the right to become children of God, to [you] who believe in His name: who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth” (Jn 1:12–14).
This is the Word of the Lord that came to me, so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing, you may have life in His + Name. AMEN.
Rev. Christopher R. Gillespie
St. John Ev. Lutheran Church & School - Sherman Center
Random Lake, Wisconsin
