We Don’t Just Receive the Light—We Follow Him
Daylight in December fades early as we experience the shortest days of the year. Darkness settles—yet the light is coming.
In these short days the impact of the outdoor and Christmas tree lights is increased. Our homes, neighborhoods, and towns are illuminated with a variety of white and colorful lights and there is anticipation in the air.
We decorate in celebration, and we gather in celebration. We can easily get swept into the current of holiday schedules, parties, gift purchasing and giving, and travel to be with family, all beautiful things. Certainly, this season can be incredibly difficult amid loss and suffering. Yet isn’t there within us longing and hope for a time, even a moment, of true adoration and wonder thinking of Emmanuel?
A question was asked at a recent advent gathering: What is a moment that marks Christmas for you? For some it is Christmas music, for others it is the candle lighting—the culmination of a Christmas Eve service—and for others, it is finding a quiet moment to simply take in the illuminations, be it candles or lights of the season.
Though all are touching and yearly treasured, I fall in the “quiet moment alone with lights” category. As a child I remember Christmas being the only time I could have candles in my room. Somehow it was poignant, even at a young age, to light those candles that collectively unfolded a holy moment. I marveled at the wonder of our Savior.
In The Vigil: Keeping Watch in the Season of Christ’s Coming, Wendy M. Wright describes “advent is not only a time of promise and preparation, it is a time to rejoice. The rejoicing we do is in great part a celebration of the initial fulfillment of the promise made; it is a living into the unspeakable mystery…The mystery is this that God is born.”
In this season we celebrate Jesus arriving in unexpected humility. Yet, He comes as the Light of the world. He is Emmanuel, God with us. As declared in the Nicene Creed, He is God from God, Light from Light.
Light of the World
In the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God he was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; Without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life and that life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness but the darkness has not understood it. (John 1:1-5)
The Gospel of John starts “In the beginning…” with a prologue that hearkens to Genesis 1 and the beginning of life and light. This gospel proclaims the story of Jesus’s life and ministry. Jesus is the Word made flesh and in Him is life and light.
In John 8:12 Jesus declares “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness but have the light of life.” The setting of Jesus’ declaration as the light of the world is within the Feast of Tabernacles. This feast was in celebration of the Exodus and the hope for a second Exodus among the Jewish people. Specifically, Jesus’s declaration was during the illumination of the Temple. This involved the lighting of four golden oil fed lamps upon 75-foot candelabras in the court of the women.2 It is in this context that Jesus declares himself “the light of the world.” The Jewish people would have understood the light as something to be followed instead of only to be received, as this is what the people experienced in the wilderness of the Exodus.
Living the Season
In Wright’s The Vigil, she offers the order of advent as “Waiting,” “The Coming,” and “Living the Season.” One of many poems Wright includes in her book is situated in the “Living the Season” introduction. It is a poem written by Ephraim the Syrian (ca. 4th century):
You are utterly utterly a wonder. In every side that we seek You,
You are near and far, but who is it that reaches you?
Investigation is not able to stretch it[self] to reach you.
Whenever it stretches out to reach [You]
it is cut off and falls short.
It is too short for Your mountain. Faith reaches [You]
– and love and prayer.
The Magi, too, sought Him
and when they found him in the crib,
worship instead of investigation they offered him in silence.
Instead of empty controversies, they gave him offerings.
You, too, seek the First-born, and if you find him on high,
instead of confused searchings,
open your treasures before Him
and offer him your deeds.
The Magi follow the light of the star to the Light of the World. We, too, are to follow the Light, to open our hearts, our worship, and our attention this Christmas to the Light of the World.
May the light of Christ, Emmanuel, illuminate your season.