The Fragility of Light

John 12:34-36

The crowd answered him, “We have heard from the law that the Messiah remains for ever. How can you say that the Son of Man must be lifted up? Who is this Son of Man?” ³⁵Jesus said to them, “The light is with you for a little longer. Walk while you have the light, so that the darkness may not overtake you. If you walk in the darkness, you do not know where you are going. ³⁶While you have the light, believe in the light, so that you may become children of light.”

When we read these words of Jesus we think of his leaving to return to heaven, that his tenure on earth was shortened by the cross, his resurrection and ascension. We realize that the Messiah did not remain forever, because it was never Jesus' intent to set up a government, but rather a spiritual kingdom that persists till today.

Yet it is true that the light Jesus brought has waxed and waned through history, that the Church often became confused about what kind of kingdom it was preserving, and that willful ignorance brought darkness. Acts of persecution and torture were done in the name of the Christian Church during the Spanish and Portuguese Inquisitions in the 14th and 15th centuries, during the Salem Witch Hunts in seventeenth century, and during the resurgence of the Ku Klux Klan in the 1920's. How could such hatred and violence have been committed in the name of the man who suffered violence rather than establish a messianic kingdom in the first century CE?

"Walk while you have the light, so that the darkness may not overtake you. If you walk in the darkness, you do not know where you are going."  The answer, of course, is in what we do with the light that Jesus left us through the Holy Spirit. The light of Christ is fragile enough to be ignored and even quenched, if we ignore it long enough. Those dark centuries in European and American history prove that we are capable of casting a dark shadow over the truth of the Gospel.

Even when Jesus lived among us, daily shedding light on the love of God, the religious leaders of the time were capable of darkening and distorting his witness. As John says, "The light was in the world, and the world came into being through the light, but the world didn't recognize the light" (1:10).  The light of truth is not so brilliant and penetrating that it cannot be blackened.

Truth has become cheapened in this millenium to the extent that lies are excused in public discourse every day. Opposing political parties, religious faiths, rival nations, rival corporations, even rival sports teams are the victims of  slander, propaganda, spin, exaggerations, trash-talking, and utter falsehoods, because we want our own kingdoms to prevail.  We excuse ourselves because the other side is doing it or because we accept that lying is the strategy of survival. Jesus did not believe that.

It is not only that Jesus stood for truth, but that we are darkening our environment every time we lie or compromise the truth.  Pretty soon we can not tell the difference. The first sign is that the opposition is always wrong, and we are always right. The next sign is that the opposition is vilified; we get angry. The next sign is we are burning crosses or their equivalent. Then suddenly we are condoning persecution in the name of purity. Then someone is murdered, but it was only by the extreme elements. Then we are either caught up in hate or shocked that we have sunk so far.

It comes from not respecting the truth, whether it indicts our people or their people. It comes from excusing lies, because our cause is right. It comes from exaggeration, because we have to make a point.  Walk while you have the light, so that the darkness may not overtake you.

Bill Tucker