Better Than A Lightsaber - John 1:1-14
We gather here today just
over a week after the release of probably the most anticipated movie of the
year, or at least the second half of the year.
Proof how greatly anticipated the movie was reflected in the fact that
during opening weekend, it shattered the all-time opening record by almost $40
million and the opening day record by nearly $35 million. When you think of Star Wars, several things
come to mind, Darth Vader, Luke Skywalker, Yoda, the Millennium Falcon, and of
course the tool that every young boy, and probably a few girls, as well as
numerous grownups have longed to really possess, a lightsaber.
Who wouldn’t want a
lightsaber? The lightsaber was the weapon
of choice for both the Jedi and the Sith, Jedi (the good guys) representing the
positive side of “The Force” and the Sith (the bad guys) representing the dark
side. In addition to serving as a
weapon, the lightsaber was a pretty versatile tool. It was a defensive tool, used not only to
parry and block the incoming swings of an opponent’s lightsaber, but, with the
force guiding them, a Jedi could parry any laser blasts coming at him. The lightsaber, though had other uses. Among them was that it was the ultimate “sawzall”
with the ability to cut through steel doors—the blade of pure energy slicing
through steel like a hot knife slicing through butter. The lightsaber could also be used simply to
slice not through an enemy, or steel door, but also to slice through the
darkness, the light emanating from the blade dispelling the darkness around it.
God’s people were not
waiting for The Force to Awaken with Star Wars, but there were waiting for God
to reveal Himself in a new and powerful way to dispel the darkness that they
found themselves in. You can hear that
longing in the prophecy of Isaiah when he talks about the day when, “The people
who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who lived in a land of
deep darkness—on them light has shined.”[i]
The people had felt
oppressed by the darkness of one empire after another crushing their spirits,
taking them into exile, destroying their homes, their cities, and God’s
Temple. The darkness hung over their
hearts and minds, clouding everything.
They longed for the light.
It was a Christmas
premier that shattered that darkness.
There were no actors only real individuals with real lives. There were no props, only the landscape of
Israel, particularly Bethlehem. There
were no special effects, only true to life amazing sights, as the light of an
army of God’s angels filled the sky singing to shepherds in the fields. There was no high paid director and producer,
God Himself was both producer and director.
We are used to Luke’s
earthly account of Mary and Joseph entering Bethlehem, finding no room, Jesus
born in the stable and laid in a manger, the angels visit to the shepherds, and
their rush to the manger. Matthew offers
us the earthly sequel to the story of Luke as he brings in the Wise men later to
offer their gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh, declaring Jesus to be King,
Priest, and Sacrifice. Mark decides to
skip forgo the origin storyline. Then
there’s John…and John goes beyond the earthly account of the birth of Jesus,
and instead offers us the galactic picture:
“In the beginning was the
Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him, and
without him not one thing came into being.”[ii]
These words from the
Gospel of John are meant to take us all the way back to the story of
Creation. As John shares these words, in
the back of our minds we are supposed to hear spoken alongside them, these
words:
“In the beginning when
God created the heavens and the earth, the earth was a formless void and darkness
covered the face of the deep, while a wind from God swept over the face of the
waters. Then God said, ‘Let there be
light’ and there was light.”
Darkness was everywhere,
all that existed was God and the void, the nothingness, and God spoke His Word
into the darkness and said, “let there be light,” and then faster than Han Solo
can take the Falcon into hyperdrive, boom, there was light and life in God’s
created world was on its way.
God saw that darkness had
settled once more over the world. It was
not the darkness of the oppression of political empires that troubled Him the
most, as it did His people. It was the
darkness of sin that had laid it’s claim on His people ever since humanity
first chose to eat of the fruit, trying to make themselves like God, rather
than live into the light of an eternal relationship with their Creator.
God spoke His Word into
the world once more and said, “Let there be light,” and this time it was not
the light of the sun that came to give life to the world, but it was the light
of the Son, that God shone into the world: “What has come into being in him was
life, and the life was the light of all people…the true light, which enlightens
everyone, [came] into the world.”
The Word…the Son of
God…God Himself…the True Light…took on our flesh and came into the world, into
the darkness of our sin, and lived among us, and revealed to us the light of
God.” He came that we might be able to
live in the light…He came not to defeat the dreaded empire, but to defeat the
dark force itself…to defeat both sin and death.
He revealed to us how to
live in the light…how to live through the power of the Holy Spirit, a life that
is light drenched and focused upon God.
Jesus, the Word, the Light, made flesh, revealed to us what it looks like
to live in the light of God’s love—how to love God completely, heart, soul,
mind, and strength, and how to love our neighbors as if they were ourselves. He revealed to us what it means to shine
light into the darkness of hunger, the darkness of being an outcast, the darkness
of loneliness, the darkness of judgment, the darkness of sickness, and the
darkness of sin.
Because of this the
darkness sought to quench the Light and nailed it to a cross. The darkness tried to bury the light in a
stone cold tomb. However, this Light
could not be quenched by the darkness and shown forth three days later,
revealing to the world the Light that can cut through any darkness. This is the Light that can cut through the
darkness of depression. This is the
Light that can cut through the darkness of addiction. This is the Light that can cut through the
darkness of oppression. This is the
Light that can cut through the darkness of disease. This is the Light that can cut through the
darkness of death. Praise be to God that
He said once more, and speaks into our lives each day, “Let there be Light.”
My brothers and sisters,
we gather this season not to celebrate a box office smash, but to celebrate the
fact that God has cut through the darkness with the Light of the World. May the Light that God has spoken into this
world shine through our lives during this season of Christmas and every day of
the year. In the Name of the Father and
of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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