The light
shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. – John 1:5
Friday was a
day of deep darkness in our nation. A
gunman loose in an elementary school. Twenty
1st graders dead. Teachers
and administrators slain. Lives taken
away…and other lives changed forever. A
community and nation traumatized. Yes, darkness has settled in. It’s hard to detect any light in the midst of
it. It’s hard to understand how a loving
God could allow such pain. Why,
God? Why?
We live in a
season of darkness. We literally experience
it as the daylight fades by 4:30, but our lives sense it in family squabbles,
in money anxieties, in depression, in loneliness, in uncertainty about the
future, in an abiding sense of loss of those we love. Every person experiences moments of deep
darkness…despair…hopelessness. It can
seem that light will never shine again.
In the midst
of the darkness, a light shines: the light of Jesus Christ. This isn’t the
church simply being Pollyanna. It’s not just
wishful thinking. It’s not
self-delusion. It’s reality. We proclaim the God who came to live among
us, who experienced the grief that death brings, who knew what it felt like to
be abandoned by everyone around him, who knew the physical pain of torture, who
cried out from the cross, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me.” Jesus knows darkness as well as anyone.
We proclaim
the God who rose from the dead, defeating death forever. The light of Christ shines on earth,
beginning in a manger in Bethlehem, continuing in an empty tomb in Jerusalem,
and continuing forever. This light will
never go out. Darkness can, and will, come
into our lives. We don’t deny that! But darkness cannot have the last word. We are never alone in the darkness of this
world. Jesus came to be with us,
comforting us, caring for us, loving us.
Sometimes it’s hard to remember that.
Sometimes the darkness seems too deep to overcome. Yet in the midst of darkness…a flicker…a
flame of light pierces the darkness. Evil and death will be defeated...in that we hope.
May we sense
the presence of Christ in these dark days...and may Jesus use us as a light to others in darkness around us.
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