How does the familiar Christmas story point to our own inner darkness?

Scripture: John 1:1-14

So here we are. We've made it to Advent. 

This season points us to the unknown second coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. But amid all the familiar scriptures and seasonal-favorite songs, there is a bit of a problem for us almost every year. As we allow ourselves to settle, we become too easily satisfied with what we believe is the meaning of it all.

We come to worship, we come to special Christmas events, and we sing carols. We become dreamy and happy because we immediately connect the season to good things, even if our past seasons of Christmas haven't been so dreamy and happy. We keep hoping that maybe this year it will be different. But we're not sure what we're hoping for. 

If we're honest, we settle for the familiar and the predictable year after year, when the meanings to be found in Advent are inexhaustible and filled with powerful, life-changing truths. 

But as this Advent begins, let's recognize where we are. We are sitting in darkness, just as we do each year, trying to push through to goodness, beauty, and an idealization of our lives. We're reminded that things are not exactly the way we long for them to be.

Recently, we took our six-year-old granddaughter to the matinee showing of The Lion King at the Orpheum Theater here in Memphis. We were eager to experience the same thing with her, just as we had with our son and daughter when they were close to her age. However, when we walked into the theater, I stooped down to adjust her mask and was reminded yet again that our world is not what we want it to be. When we got home, we learned that the remaining performances had been canceled because COVID had surfaced among the actors and the stage crew; Another reminder. 

We're trying so hard to push forward to joy, aren't we? Then it feels again, like a long, brutal, no end in sight kind of push. Finally, we recognize that all is not what it needs or want it to be. We need a light to break through our darkness to show us a way, don't we? How can we push towards that today? 

One way is that we give attention to John 1:1-14 (this post's Scripture) that explains why rugged shepherds and educated wisemen felt compelled to go to Bethlehem and fall on their knees before the newborn Jesus. We can give Him our heart and our hopes at this moment by giving attention to the opening lines of the Gospel of John.   

“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.” (John 1:1-3)

These are such clear and beautifully crafted words; it begs to be set to music. I want to suggest that as you read these words to embrace your heart in a new way. So let's look more closely at John's words. 

The Gospels of Matthew and Luke also bring forward the account of the birth of Jesus. They’re accounts are more matter-of-fact. They tell us the facts. There was a young pregnant woman and her fiancé, there was a horrible king, there was the burden of taxes and everyday living. There were shepherds, there were angels, there were wiseman, and there was a baby in a manger. 

On the other hand, John offers words that guide our understanding of what's going on underneath and behind what was seen in Matthew and Luke. John provides the meaning behind the events that were given descriptive coverage in the other gospels. 

There are so many words and thoughts in the passage that beg to be preached, but we're going to lean into one critical aspect in particular. This is found in verses four and five, then in verse nine.

"In Him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it." (John 1:4-5)

"The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world." (John 1:9)

You see, in Him, meaning Jesus, was the life and the light that all have longed for, and it's the same longing that we're all experiencing right now. So we're going to look at the substance of John's words in two ways: 1) how they were anticipated, and 2) how they are personal. 

How Were John’s Words Anticipated?

John makes a declaration at the beginning of the passage that sets what he is about to say within the larger context of God's story with his people. "In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God." We are immediately pointed back to the opening pages of God's word in Genesis. 

"In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty. Darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. And God said, Let there be light, and there was light. God saw that the light was good. And he separated the light from the darkness." (Genesis 1:1-4)

John tells us there is a long story being told that God began in the opening words of His plan. That story has now reached the climax as God the Creator always intended it through his son, Jesus. 

Why was such a plan even needed? Because the darkness has existed since the very beginning. 

We have needed something, or rather, someone to guide and lead us out of the darkness. John boldly and unashamedly declares that Jesus is the very one who is all of that. That Jesus is the one who is indeed the life-bringer and the light-bearer. 

Hundreds of years before John wrote those words, the prophet Isaiah described the one who was to come, who would be described as the Wonderful Counsellor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace. But that prophecy began by proclaiming that the people walking in darkness have seen a great light on those living. So in the land of the shadow of death, a light has dawned. These are beautiful words of hope. 

And you see, Isaiah was standing on tiptoe, looking down the lane of time wondering, what would be the fulfillment of His words? We find that John declares in a single sentence, what Isaiah prophesied hundreds of years before when he writes: "The Word of God became a human being and lived among us.” (John 1:14). He is the life-bringer, and a light-bearer, shining in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

John writes his entire Gospel account intending to ensure we know that this life-bringer and life-bearer was the man, Jesus. But John will also write that even though the light of Jesus shines in the darkness, the darkness doesn't begin to understand it. So, therefore, even though Jesus was the light shining in the dark, He was not received by all but was hated by many. 

What reason did they have to hate him? Why hate someone who puts little children on his knees? Why turn your back on someone who says, "Come to me, all who are weary and heavy-laden?"

John could see Jesus went out of His way to change the life of a woman whose relationships were so broken that she could never have imagined that the jigsaw puzzle of her life could ever be put back together again. Jesus allowed a roof above His head to be opened with the shards raining down on Him when a group of friends did anything needed to bring their friend to the feet of Jesus. And how did Jesus respond? He said, "Go and sin no more."

We could recall one story after another of the way Jesus moved among the people. He did so healing, teaching, loving, and changing people's lives from the inside out. Yet still, He was hated. It wasn't that they didn't recognize Him; They hated him. How was that even possible? 

Luke records that the Son of Man came seeking to save those who were lost. Both first-century men and women and 21st-century men and women are hard-pressed to admit that we are lost and need to be found. We try to believe we do not need this extraordinary life-transforming message of life in the light. 

Here now are hard words for you and me. We are nice people. We really are, for the most part. But, unfortunately, many of us are content to rest in our niceness and are unprepared or unwilling to face the darkness in our hearts. You may be saying, "You don't know me. There's no darkness in my heart. That's not true." Others will say, "How did you know that about me?"

To answer both: it's because I know the darkness in my own heart. 

If our good deeds save us, many of us would be walking lighthouses. However, I know that I don't even know the depth of my own heart's darkness, and neither do you. It is only by God's mercy and grace, and with limited knowledge and acceptance of my own darkness, that I know I need a Savior. I need a life-bringer and a light-bearer. 

Friends, what we're talking about is so much bigger than whether or not we see the depiction of a manger scene in the public square during December. We're not talking about whether people greet each other with "Merry Christmas" rather than "Happy Holidays" (as if "Merry Christmas" sums up all that it means that Jesus has come to those He loves). 

There is only one significance to seeing a plastic baby doll in the manger: When we see that baby doll it shines a light on the direct path of that newborn baby Jesus to the man Jesus hanging on the cross. 

The only possible way we can understand the baby Jesus in the cradle is by looking at Jesus suffering and dying on the cross for the sake of yours and my sin. For John, this is very personal. You can feel it beneath the words he’s written. The light of Jesus was with John; It brought him life, and he knew it. That could only be the result of the awareness of his own darkness. The life and light that existed from the beginning of time had been brought to him by the man Jesus. 

How are John’s words personal?

Even if you skim the Gospel of John, you see that John was right there with Jesus in the grand moments and the very intimate ones. Maybe you smiled or thought it a bit forward of John to write of himself that he was the disciple that Jesus loved. But he was there at the foot of the cross, looking up to a dying Jesus after being entrusted to care for Mary. So we can grant him that, Jesus is the life-bringer and life-bearer meant everything to John. That's what he wants us to know and believe so that you and I may have life and life eternal in the name of Jesus. 

It became even more personal for John in the closing days of his life. John was persecuted and banished to the island of Patmos. He lived his last days in the sweltering heat and loneliness of that rock island. But John writes at the beginning of the revelation of Jesus that he was in the spirit, meaning he was worshiping, despite his circumstances.

John heard a loud voice like a trumpet behind him, and he turned to see the voice that was speaking to him. The words he used to describe this person are hard to envision, but he tells us that "…The person had a face that was like the sun shining and all its brilliance." (Revelation 1:16)

He said he did exactly what you and I would have done in such a moment. He fell at his feet as though dead. What happens next is breathtaking. John says that this person, who we recognize to be Jesus, placed His right hand on him as he lay on the ground and said, "Do not be afraid. I am the First and the Last. I'm the Living One. I was dead and now look, I'm alive forever and ever." (Revelation 1:17-18)

The glorified Jesus, the glorified life-giver and light-bearer, bent down towards John, the loved one, and touched him to offer reassurance. Friends, this was personal for John, and it's personal for us. John's words are rich with great promise and hope. The light is not just a principle. Divine creativity is a person who loves you and me beyond measure—someone who bends down towards us. 

If the world is as dark as God tells us, and if Jesus is the one who came to dispel it, how do we move from living in the darkness to living in the light? John tells us that it's not as complicated as we might imagine. 

"He said yet to all who did receive Him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, receive and believe." (John 1:12)

This is the moment to ask Jesus to show you how to repair your heart. Ask Him to show you the life He brings and the light that He bears for you in a new way. 

Friends, do whatever you need to do to draw close to Jesus because the life-giver and the light-bearer came in a most remarkable moment in time. We eagerly look forward to the next most remarkable moment in time, when He will return in all His glory.

John's message to us is clear: The life-giver has come in our confusion, in our heartache, and in our pain. The darkness repeatedly tries to put it out, but it cannot. When you and I humbly acknowledge the darkness of our hearts and our lives, we will reach out to the hand of God that He extends to us in Jesus. Then we will discover for ourselves that Jesus is our very life and light that he claimed to be. In Him, we will never walk in darkness for another moment for another day. 

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About Christ Church Memphis
Christ Church Memphis is church in East Memphis, Tennessee. For more than 65 years, Christ Church has served the Memphis community. Every weekend, there are multiple worship opportunities including traditional, contemporary and blended services.