The Light of the World

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.

There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. He came as a witness to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him. He himself was not the light, but he came to testify to the light. The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world.

He was in the world, and the world came into being through him; yet the world did not know him. He came to what was his own, and his own people did not accept him. But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God, who were born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God.

And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth. (John testified to him and cried out, ‘This was he of whom I said, “He who comes after me ranks ahead of me because he was before me.”’) From his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. The law indeed was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God. It is God the only Son, who is close to the Father’s heart, who has made him known.

- John 1:1-18

As we enter into Easter and resurrection, the reading I am given for today is this beginning of John's gospel. The light came into the world and the world knew it not. We have to remember that although this light is now known throughout the world - at least the gospel is proclaimed seemingly everywhere and there is scarcely a place left in the world where people have not heard Jesus' name - that the light is still what is important. It is the grace and truth of which John here speaks that is still what is important. And that will always, in my opinion, have a place of struggle with the darkness in the world.

The other day I was sitting in church at the Good Friday services. In the service I attended there were several periods of quiet meditation. I practice the Jesus Prayer and so I took opportunity to do so during these periods. Sometimes in my prayer (contrary to the usual directions for contemplative prayer) I, through no wish of my own, encounter insistent images. These are like deep internal messages - they don't go away when I ignore them and continue the prayer, but are vivid and insistent. You can make of these experiences what you may, but I will share this one. On Good Friday I understood the image of death, the crucifixion. And then this insistent image came into my mind of the smokestacks of the death camps, of Auschwitz. The night before I'd seen a documentary on the women's camps. In the image in my mind, the smokestacks from the ovens blew and blew distributing its ash on everything and everyone. Death blanketed everyone.

I questioned this image, this internal message. I don't know why it was there. But on this Good Friday and on this Easter where we celebrate the light coming into the world (and defeating death), I feel that it's as equally important to remember that grace and truth teaches us how we must act toward unbelievers just as it teaches us how we must act as believers. One message Jesus gave to his disciples regarding behavior toward unbelievers was to shake the dust off their feet in towns where they were not received as a rebuke, and to move on. Nowhere did he teach persecution of those who do not share our beliefs but rather taught clearly that Judgment was from God - that he would send the Spirit and all would be tested in light of the Word and Spirit at work in all of us. Our job is merely to spread the gospel and to live it, and as followers to love one another as He has loved us. Unfortunately world events (such as those smokestacks) teach us that death and darkness are still all around us in this world, and the world still needs the light.

The Nazis at least understood this about the message of Christ and as He was too "weak" for them, they invented their own blood and soil pagan religion - so this man voluntarily on the cross, this one who preached praying for enemies and turning the other cheek could not interfere with their notions of the ubermensch. But it is we who must also remember that which we worship, or claim to worship - and most especially we must remember that it is still our job to help to bring the light and to celebrate the light in the world. This light is grace and truth. It is the word that is written on our hearts, and whose spirit is bestowed upon us. May we pray that light illumines us as we continue to meet our challenges in a world that still has darkness and death to overcome, and that needs this light. Let us remember that Jesus reserved his harshest words for religious hypocrites.

Last night I dreamt of painting my grandmother's house a bright spring yellow, which I associate with Easter. My Armenian grandparents were survivors of genocide based on their religion and race, one which inspired Hitler to think he could get away with his own plans for the Jews. My grandmother was a witness to murder and torture of her immediate family members, as were so many other survivors. Let us remember that resurrection lives for us in grace and truth, and in the light of His word.