1 You can see in these - Resurrection Lutheran Church · 2019-10-15 · Darkness on the other hand was about obscurity. Darkness hampered movement, caused anxiety, fostered secrecy

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Encountering Jesus: Darkness and Light 2014-03-16-YearA-Lent2

It’s not easy to find a place where we can experience real darkness. Even our

room at night, which has light blocking shades, is lit by the green glow of the light on the

smoke detector.

The one time I experienced true darkness was in Mammoth Caves in Kentucky. I

was on a tour, and at one point they turned off the electric lights that had been wired

throughout the space. That was real darkness. I held my hand six inches from my face,

and I knew it was there because, you know, it’s attached to the rest of me, but I could not

see it at all.

Otherwise, we do a good job of filling the darkness in our world today with light.

And this has become an issue

for those scientists that hope for a

better view of the universe. Neil

DeGrasse Tyson, astrophysicist and

author says in his book, “Death by

Black Hole and other Cosmic

Quandaries” that astronomers have

had to go further and further afield to find truly dark nights. The issue is light pollution

and one of the biggest contributors are streetlights that aren’t shielded, which is to say,

they don’t have downward facing shades. Communities are finding they need to buy

higher wattage bulbs because half of the lamplight points upward. Inefficient lighting has

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been estimated to cost the city of New York over $13M annually.1 You can see in these

pictures taken by my brother that the cities of Paris and Seattle are wasting a fair amount

of light as they glow in the night sky.

All this light that we generate is our human effort to fight the darkness in our

world.

In Jesus’ day, darkness had a much greater role. After the sun went down, there

was little the people could do to fight the darkness. They had the light of the moon, which

varied depending on the phase it was in, the stars, as long as there were no clouds and

light from their oil lamps. Darkness was a more significant force in the days before

electricity.

And that’s evident in the way scripture talks about light and darkness.

The first thing that God called for at creation was light. Prior to that, the earth was

a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep. Light, called forth by God,

defeated the chaos of darkness. Unlike other cultures at the time, the people of Israel did

not believe that light—or the sun—was a god. But rather that light was a gift from God,

and like the other elements of creation, it was good.

Light was appreciated for the benefits that it brought. Warmth, new life, order and

knowledge. With light, the people could see, sort out and understand their world. With

light, creation could grow and be nurtured. With light, the people were kept safe and

whole.

Darkness on the other hand was about obscurity. Darkness hampered movement,

caused anxiety, fostered secrecy and indicated a lack of knowledge.

1 DeGrasse Tyson, Neil. Death by Black Hole and Other Cosmic Quandaries. “Let There Be Dark.” W.W. Norton & Company. New York. 2007. p. 320

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Light was about potential. Darkness was about death.

Manifestations of light were understood to be God’s work and an expression of

God’s nature. So darkness was understood to be a sign of ignorance of God’s promise,

God’s salvation, God’s will. Darkness became the sphere of sin and iniquity, of a turning

away from God.

Jesus, as the greatest gift of God to God’s people became God’s light shining in

the world in a particular and specific time and place. In the beginning of his gospel, John

writes, “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.”

Light and darkness are important themes for John, and so the fact that Nicodemus

comes in the night is an important detail.

And, as he comes to Jesus, he says, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who

has come from God; for no one can do these signs that you do apart from the presence of

God.”

Why come with this comment at night?

At one level, it seems very possible that he comes in the dark because he doesn’t

want to be seen by others—like his fellow Pharisees, for instance. He comes to Jesus,

calling him teacher, intrigued by what he has heard of Jesus’ signs, and thinking that the

signs must point to a connection to God. But he comes at night… not willing, perhaps, to

be seen as interested in this one outside the religious establishment. Not willing, perhaps,

to risk his own position, his status, his authority.

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And while this top-level reading might indeed reflect reality, and a point that

John, in his gospel, wants us to consider, I think he would also like us to see Nicodemus’

nighttime visit as being about more.

The lectionary would have had us end our reading with verse 17. But clearly the

next four verses are related to our story, and John’s vision of what God is doing in Jesus.

John tells us that Jesus says that the people loved darkness rather than light, because their

deeds were evil and those who do evil hate the light and do not come to the light because

their deeds would be exposed. Remember, darkness is a place of obscurity and secrecy.

On the other hand, “…those who do what is true come to the light so that it may be

clearly seen that their deeds have been done in God.”

Light is for actions that reflect God. Darkness is for keeping secrets and hiding

evil actions from God.

Which is curious, because Nicodemus, as a Pharisee, would have been called to

be an exemplary follower of the law. Pharisees were understood to be righteous people,

religious leaders, moral and upright individuals. Surely they were engaged in actions that

would reflect God and show God’s law and justice to the people.

But it’s helpful to remember that, especially in John’s gospel, Jesus is light. In

chapter 8, Jesus says, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk

in darkness but will have the light of life.”

And darkness belongs to that which turns away from Jesus. In chapter 13, after

washing the disciple’s feet and teaching them about love, Jesus tells his disciples that one

of them will leave to betray him. Judas takes the piece of bread which identifies him and

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John tells us, “So, after receiving the piece of bread, he immediately went out. And it was

night.”

Nicodemus comes, curious about Jesus and these signs that indicate that he may

have come from God. But he comes at night. He sneaks in, full of half-measures, taking

the middle road, uncertain and uncommitted.

We hear of Nicodemus two more times. In chapter 7, as the Pharisees berate the

temple police for not arresting Jesus, Nicodemus offers a half-hearted defense of Jesus,

saying, “Our law does not judge people without first giving them a hearing to find out

what they are doing, does it?” Then in 19, he joins Joseph of Arimathea, who is called a

disciple of Jesus (while Nicodemus is not) to bury Jesus body. Nicodemus, oddly, brings

a gigantic amount of aromatic herbs and spices. Scholars suggest Nicodemus either

wanted to honor Jesus, which might show that he had finally come to see Jesus as God, or

that his belief was inadequate and the massive amount of aromatics were intended to

weigh Jesus’ body down to prevent it from being taken.

In John’s gospel, Jesus is the light, sent by God for the sake of the world. And to

come to the light is to follow Jesus, fully and unreservedly.

Those who continue in darkness are the ones who turn away from Jesus, reject

him and reject, through him God.

John associates Nicodemus, in his halfway, uncommitted approach, with

darkness.

Jesus calls us to live fully in the light, seeking and following him in all we do—in

every part of our lives—in every place that we are. Half measures won’t do it. Just being

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moral and upright people, following the law—doing what’s expected of us, that isn’t

good enough.

And we know what Jesus talks about when he says that people who do evil hate

the light and do not come to the light, so that their deeds may not be exposed. When we

fall short of what Jesus seeks for us, we often want to hide. From others, from ourselves,

from God.

When we have turned away from Jesus and his call for us, we want to cover our

tracks with the obscurity of darkness. We seek self-justification, looking for the reasons

that what we did was right and not wrong, or someone else’s responsibility, or not really

wrong anyway.

When we turn away from Jesus and his call for us, we turn away from those

friends and family who would remind us of who Jesus is, how Jesus calls us and what

Jesus had done for us.

When we fall short of what Jesus seeks for us, those are the times we are most

likely to forget prayer, to stop reading our devotional books, or coming to bible study.

Those are the times when we quit coming to church, or don’t quite look our fellow

community members quite in the eye.

When we fall short, we forget that all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of

God. We forget that Jesus came into the world not to condemn but to save. We forget that

we are saved by God and not by our own actions. We forget that we are all sinners, made

saints through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus—the light of the world.

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Jesus knows who we are and what we have done. He shines the light of new life

on each of us, washes us clean in the water of baptism, renews us in the spirit and shows

us the way that leads to life everlasting.