A few years ago I was in the eye ward of Princess Alexandra Hospital in Brisbane for pterygium surgery. Another patient in the ward had an accident at work in which a steel shaving had embedded in his eye. The eye couldn't be saved. We were all wearing eye pads, but this young man was distressed - "My little light has gone out!"
Light and sight - they belong together. There are electro-magnetic frequencies we can't detect without instruments, but when we talk about "light" we usually mean the "visible" part of the spectrum.
Light reveals. When we are "in the dark" about something, we can go to the library - or, these days, onto the Internet - to read some facts that will "throw light" on the subject.
John's gospel introduces the story of Jesus with a grand panorama of history. He uses two expressions - "word" and "light". The Word - God's expression of himself - was eternally divine, eternally with God. Through the Word, God created the world. "In him was life, and that life was the light of men" (v. 4).
But humankind failed to receive the light God was offering through the Word - "The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it" (v. 5). The Word was "in the world" - the very principle by which it all holds together. The Greek expression is logos - which comes over into the names of all those sciences which seek to expound the principle, order and meaning of things - geology, biology, physiology… "But the world did not recognise him" (v. 10).
And even when God chose out a people and a land to be the vehicle through which his character and purpose would be revealed to all the world, the prophets and messengers who carried the Word weren't warmly received - "He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him" (v. 11).
Yet not all rejected the message. To whose who welcomed it, God gave the right to become children of God (vv. 12-13) - people like Abraham, Moses and David, Hannah, Naomi and Ruth… and others un-named in the record.
Then the climax - "The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth" (v. 14).
Here is the Word - not just in the laws and principles of the created world, not just on the lips of the prophets - come personally as a human being to reveal and redeem - "full of grace and truth."
John makes this significant comment, "For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ" (v. 17). We need the law - it tells us how to live and alerts us when we go wrong. But "grace and truth" don't just inform, they redeem, reform and transform.
With Jesus, we have the coming of the Light. John the Baptist wasn't the Light. But he had come "as a witness to the light" (v. 8) He acknowledged Jesus as the one coming after him who "has surpassed me because he was before me" (v. 15). "The true light that gives light to every man was coming into the world" (v. 9).
Through Jesus Christ - through his redemptive work - everyone has the possibility of knowing God, the opportunity for a relationship with God. The coming of the Light isn't for a select few, but for every person on earth.
On Thursday Island they have an annual celebration of "the coming of the Light" - so great was the impact of Christian missionaries on the whole fabric of their society.
The Light reveals. In Jesus we see the character of God. He could truly say, "Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father" (Jn 14.9). Paul affirmed that God who made light shine out of darkness in the creation "made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ" (2 Cor. 4.6).
In Jesus we also see what humanity was meant to be. Paul wrote that Christ Jesus, fully equal with God, "made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death" (Phil. 2.7-8). Jesus, the Son of God, lived on earth with all our human limitations. Paul speaks of Jesus as "the last Adam" (1 Cor. 15.45). The writer to the Hebrews calls him "a high priest… who has been tempted in every way, just as we are - yet was without sin" (Heb. 4.15).
In Jesus we become aware, by contrast, of ourselves as we really are. Following on that well-known and best-loved Bible verse, John 3.16, we read, "This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil" (v. 19).
There was a struggle between light and darkness, good and evil, truth and falsehood… The one who was the Light of the world died through the scheming of the "upright" men of the time - and through the weak acquiescence of the local keeper of the law.
It looked as if the wrong side had won. His disciples were all in disarray. For three hours darkness hung over the land. An earthquake shook the city of Jerusalem. But the true light that gives light to every man had come into the world to stay - on the third day the tomb was empty, for he is risen!
Jesus said, "I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life" (Jn 8.12).
We gather here today to affirm the value that God has placed on every human life. It doesn't say, "For God so loved the good people, the worthy people, the healthy people, the strong people…" No! "God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son that whoever believes in him…" Whoever… that is inclusive of every person. And we have it again in the promise of Jesus the Light of the world - "whoever follows me… will have the light of life."
Easter 1999 we set off on the long trip from Buderim to Ingham. Our daughter was being married on the following Saturday. We returned home after the wedding and on Wednesday were able to show Alison's parents a video taken at the wedding. The next morning her mother, Agnes, had a stroke. Her body tone was gone. Her mind was still active, but her ability to communicate became increasingly restricted. Alison was able to spend time with her the week before last, when she went south for an uncle's funeral. Word came through on Monday afternoon of last week that Agnes had died. She was ninety and her funeral in Buderim on Thursday last week was a celebration.
My father-in-law at 92 lives in a hostel where all of them now are widowed. He says, "I have to get used to the idea that Agnes isn’t there." He said to Alison last Saturday morning, "Not lost! Just gone before!"
It isn’t easy for us to watch a loved one lose their ability to be and to do so much that has been part of their life with us. It’s even harder if the skilled care of nursing and medical staff has, withs the best will in the world, no knowledge and appreciation of the "person" who is trapped in a failing body.
We hear so much these days about "quality of life". But we want to affirm the "value of life". Too often we have valued people on the basis of their perceived quality. Rather we should give ourselves to ensure as much quality as possible because we value them.
Jesus came as the Light for everyone. Follow him! Live in his light! Shine his light into the lives of others!
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