LENT 2023 - Jesus Said: I Am The Light of the World

LENT 2023 - Jesus Said: I Am The Light of the World

Monday February 27, 2023

 

There wasn't always light on this globe where we live.

 

In the beginning, when God created the heavens and the earth, the earth was without form and was void, a deep abyss filled with darkness. 

 

One day, by the Spirit of God who was hovering and moving over the face of the waters, the all-powerful voice of God called out "Let there be light", and light was created and came into existence. When He saw the light, God saw that is was good, and He separated the light from the darkness that filled the abyss. God called the light, Day; and the darkness, He called Night. All this happened on the first day of creation. 

 

It wasn’t until the fourth day of creation that God created the sun, the moon and the stars: to separate the day from the night; to be signs to mark the seasons, days and years; and to light up the earth. 

 

I ask: How is it possible that a Being could create something as extraordinary as light by merely speaking a few words? Unless that Being Himself was light. 

 

And that’s it.

 

God “alone is immortal and… lives in unapproachable light” (1 Timothy 6:16).

 

“God is light; in Him there is no darkness at all.” (1 John 1:5)

 

Light is God’s very nature and character. He isn’t a light, nor is He a kind of light. He is light in the most absolute sense. He is the essence and the source of light, and all other lights flow out from Him.

 

That is why the Word who was in the beginning with God because He too is God, that is Jesus Christ (John 1:1), could one day say as He was walking on this earth:

 

“I AM THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD.

Whoever follows Me 

will never walk in darkness, 

but will have the light of life.”

(John 8:12)

 

We live in a world of darkness, filled with sin and evil, perversion and depravation, cruelty and immorality. Wherever we look, there is darkness in the thoughts and words and actions of mankind.

 

So, what can be done?

 

As Martin Luther King Jr. said:

 

“Darkness cannot drive out darkness:

Only light can do that…”

 

That is why we need Jesus, the light of the world, who alone can drive out the darkness. Only He is “the true light” (John 1:9) that exposes all the lies and all the deception that hide in the darkness. Only He is “the true light” that can light up a better and more correct path for us to walk along. 

 

Jesus is the light of “the world”, “a light to guide the nations” (Isaiah 42:6) - because He is light for every human being, in every place and at all times. His mission has a universal scope and an eternal significance.

 

So what should we do then? We must follow that light of the world, we must follow Jesus. So that we will not continue walking in darkness and death, but that we might have the light of life.

 

John Newton (1725-1807) - first, a sailor with the British Royal Navy; then, a captain of commercial slave ships; and finally, when the grace of God reached him and transformed him, a preacher of the infinite love of the Lord - declared from personal experience:

 

“There are many who stumble in the noon-day, 

not for want of light 

but for want of eyes.”

 

May we not be like those who, in the radiant sunlight at twelve noon, fall simply because we do not see. Jesus, the light of the world, is in plain sight. May it not be that we do not have eyes to see Him as He is.

 

And may it not be that we do not have eyes to see ourselves as we are.

 

“For at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light (for the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true), and try to discern what is pleasing to the Lord.” (Ephesians 5:8-10)

 

“But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.” (1 Peter 2:9)

 

Elie Wiesel - an ex-prisoner who survived the nazi concentration camps during World War II - said after coming out alive:

 

“No one is as capable of gratitude 

as one who has emerged from the kingdom of night.”

 

Let’s be thankful then to Jesus who has called us out of darkness into His marvelous light. 

 

And finally, a quote from Edith Wharton, a 19th century American author:

 

“There are two ways of spreading light:

to be the candle

or the mirror that reflects it.”

 

In your life and mine, may Jesus always be that candle that shines and spreads the true light of the world - and may we, as children of light, always be the mirrors that reflect that light.

 

+ REFLECTIONS