Jesus Came to Dispel the Darkness

Jesus came to dispel the darkness.

In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. –John 1:4-5

It was Christmas and the family was gathered around the tree, reading the Bible and rehearsing the truths of the greatest story ever told. Seeking more participation, the dad asked the kids if they knew the words to “Silent Night.” The youngest, 5 years old, proudly volunteered to sing it:

Silent night, Holy night. All is calm, all is bright. Round yon virgin, mother and child, Holy infantry, tender and mild. Sleep in heavenly peace, Sleep in heavenly peace.

Holy infantry? Not quite right, of course, but not totally wrong, either! As New Testament scholar N.T. Wright correctly points out, Christmas is less an introduction of peace and more a declaration of war. Christmas, he says, is typically considered to be...

....a season of nostalgia, of carols and candles and firelight and happy children. But that misses the point completely. Christmas is not a reminder that the world is really quite a nice old place. It reminds us that the world is a shockingly bad old place, where wickedness flourishes unchecked.... Christmas is God lighting a candle; and you don’t light a candle in a room that’s already full of sunlight. You light a candle in a room that’s so murky that the candle, when lit, reveals just how bad things really are.

And that is why Jesus came. Jesus came both to expose and dispel the darkness. He shines into our night of sin, our night of death, and our night of judgment with the radiance of His life-giving glory. The darkness is great. But Jesus is greater, and the darkness has not, cannot, and will not overcome it!