Friday, January 14, 2011
John 1:4-5 In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.
EPIPHANY LIGHT
What is life? Everybody senses that between things living and non-living there is a huge difference. Furthermore, a scientist can analyze what elements make up a living substance, but when he puts it all together it does not have life. The elements are there, the chemistry is there, but something is missing. It will not grow; it will not develop; it is not alive. What is life? No one knows. Life is one of the great mysteries.
But what the Word declares to us is that God alone is the source of life. Jesus is life! Plants have life; He gave it to them. Animals have a higher form of life; He gave it to them. Humans have a still higher form of life, and He is the source of it. Jesus stands at the beginning and the end of every human life.
But the life of which John speaks here is more than mere breathing -- even human breathing. We see this in the linking of life and light. In the physical world light is necessary for life. In the spiritual realm the same is true. Light here is a symbol of knowledge, of truth, of understanding. Jesus alone gives the knowledge that makes for eternal life -- a life that does not die. And it is in the message of who He is and what He has done for us by living and dying in our place. As He says, "I am the Way the Truth and the Life" (John 14:6).
It is as the Apostle John declares in his first letter, "He that has the Son has that kind of life, and he that does not have the Son does not have that kind of life." (cf. 1 John 5:12).
O Jesus, precious Sun of Gladness,
Fill Thou my soul with light, I pray.
Dispel the gloomy night of sadness
And teach me this Epiphany
How I a child of light may be,
Aglow with light that comes from Thee.
(The Lutheran Hymnal, 88:4)
