Overcome By Light

“In the beginning,

God…

created the heavens and the earth. 

The earth was without form and void,

and darkness was over the face of the deep.”

(Gen. 1:1-2)

Just imagine that scene.  Imagine the darkness.

This past summer my family and I traveled east to visit some national parks.  First along the way was the Mammoth Cave National Park in Kentucky.  Besides being home to 13 species of bats, Mammoth Cave is the world’s longest recorded cave system with over 400 explored and mapped miles of subterranean tunnels reaching depths of 350 feet below the surface. 

We had to take a tour.

Minutes into our tour we were 140 feet down and about a thousand feet in to the cave in what has been named the Rotunda Room; a massive round limestone cavern capped with an arching sandstone ceiling.  It was really quite something to behold… 

Until our tour guide killed the power. 

Darkness.

Not darkness like we typically experience, turning lights on and off around the house.  It was darkness so total that our eyes would not adjust.  No matter how much we blink or squint or wait anxiously in the dark cold cavern, we could not see even our hand inches from our face.  We were blind.  We could see no depth or distance.  We could see no texture or shadows.  The whole room was a shadow.  We were part of the shadow.  With the total absence of light the sense of the presence of anything was utterly numb.

That’s what I imagine it must have been like when “darkness was over the face of the deep” in

Genesis 1. 

“Then God said, ‘Let there be light,’

and there was light. 

And God saw that the light was good. 

And God separated the light from the darkness.”

(Genesis 1:3-4)  

And light became a source of life as creation was unfurled.  Light produced depth and distance.  Light produced texture and colored the globe. 

But it came about some time further on that “the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field.”  And darkness was far more suitable for what it had to accomplish. 

Darkness greater than what had been over the surface of the deep. 

Darkness that would penetrate the deep – the deep part of the human soul, that is. 

Sin.

Deceit, murder, drunkenness, cheating, greed, lying, distrust, fear, etc.  You know the list; the arrogance, the Idolatry.  You have lived the list.  Maybe you’re living the list right now, this night before Christmas Day?  All these came into view early in Genesis, early in humankind’s beginnings.  And God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit saw “that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thought of humankind’s heart was only evil continually.” (Genesis 6:5, emphasis mine)

On earth, no peace among those with whom God was not please.

Of the increase of God’s government and of peace, there was no sign.

Only darkness; the darkness of men and women, a darkness that had blinded the heart of humankind and numbed their conscience to the presence of anything good or right or pure; to the presence of God himself even.  And this darkness of men would pervade every nation and every generation along the way…

Noah’s

Abraham’s

Moses’

David’s

Long lay the world in sin and error – in the darkness of men – pining for more, a pin hole  in the dark that might leak even a thin ray of light to illuminate a way, a truth, a life other than the way it was.

Where is the virgin of Isaiah 7?

Where is Immanuel, God with us?

Where is the Wonderful Counselor,

the Might God,

the Everlasting Father,

the Prince of Peace of Isaiah 9?

Where is the Branch from the roots of Jesse on whom the Spirit of the LORD shall rest of Isaiah 11?

Questions…asked in the darkness…century…after…century… 

Till He appeared, and the soul felt its worth!  God appeared and humankind caught a glimpse of just how valuable we all must be to Him who created us!

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” (John 1:1, emphasis mine)  This Word was there when darkness was over the face of the deep, when the Spirit hovered over the face of the waters, when light shone for the very first time into the darkness.  He was with God, He was God.  “All things were made through Him and without Him was not anything made that was made.” (John 1:3)

And the Word appeared!

More than a mere pin hole in the dark to leak in a ray of light that might illuminate a way of salvation from sin, into the darkness of men came the piercing presence of the Word of God; the incarnation of the eternal Logos of God, the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth, or faithfulness or sureness or absoluteness or you-can-count-on-it-ness!  And do you know who that Word of God is tonight? 

It’s Jesus. 

“Mild he lays his glory by,

Born that man no more may die:

Born to raise the son of earth,

Born to give them second birth.” (from Hark! The Herald Angel’s Sing)

For in that infant Jesus, was life, (John 1:4a) real life, new life; a Spirit filled life, revealed most fully later in the story through the death of Jesus on the cross and the resurrection of Jesus from the dead!  In Jesus is life for you and for me today.

You might say, “But Pastor Andy, what about the darkness of men that is seeded in us from ages past?  We’re as blind and numb to the presence of God as you were to even your hand in front of your face in the blackness of that cave.”

Well, guess what?  This is the most remarkable thing that you need to hear and know going forward into this Christmas.  Our tour guide turned on the lights.  Yeah!  We weren’t left to grope our way through the cold tunnels of Mammoth Cave for the next 2 hours in total darkness.  Isn’t that wonderful! 

Nor are we left, beyond the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ to grope our way through this life we live blinded by the darkness of men; blinded by our sin.

If you’re willing to receive that real new Spirit filled life then you’ll know, as the Bible says in John 1:4, “the life was the light of men”  …is the light of men and women.  And that light – the Light of the World, Jesus Christ, God incarnate – shines into your darkness, and – you gotta hear this too – “the darkness has not overcome it.” 

From the manger to cross the darkness did not overcome the light.

From the cross to the empty grave the darkness did not overcome the light.

From the empty grave to the throne on high in the heavenlies, to this moment right now, the darkness has not overcome the light.

The Apostle Paul tells us, in Ephesians 5:8:  “For at one time you were darkness…”  There was a time – perhaps for some of you that time is still now – when we walked in darkness without the hope of Salvation; a way, a truth, a new life.  But, Paul says, “…now you are light” because of the incarnation of Jesus Christ and the events that swirled about His being.  So, Paul says to us this night, moving forward toward Christmas Day, “Walk as children of light.”