Announcing the Light

John 1:5-8 MSG

One of the most difficult concepts in scripture to explain to those who are living in darkness is how to find and receive the light. I think that’s because they’ve only known the darkness. Humans are by nature not brave. We seek that which is known and tried.

Seeking and receiving the light is an unknown concept.

Now…if you had parents who spoke lovingly about Jesus who lived long ago you would be more likely to listen to your parents when they told you Jesus loves you.

In Sunday School you might have a really kind teacher who reminded you Jesus loves you.

So when you heard the words from John 1:5-8 and you were told that the man being described in connection with the light was Jesus you would understand Jesus is the light of the world. “Everything was created through him;    nothing—not one thing!—    came into being without him.What came into existence was Life,    and the Life was Light to live by.The Life-Light blazed out of the darkness;    the darkness couldn’t put it out.

There once was a man, his name John, sent by God to point out the way to the Life-Light. He came to show everyone where to look, who to believe in. John was not himself the Light; he was there to show the way to the Light.”

But if you did not have parents and a kind Sunday School teacher who explained that Jesus loves you and you grew up being taught that you were on your own you might have believed early in life that everyone and everything was ‘out to get you’ and you should distrust everyone.

If that was the case and someone told you to look to the light of Jesus, you would probably not be inclined to believe them.

That is the way of the world.

Often even young children are taught to trust no one. They are taught that because in that sphere protecting ‘self’ is essential.

The question becomes how do we reverse the damage done so that those who grew up in that dark place that were taught money and power are everything can trust and see the light?

How can reversing years of pain and heartache be accomplished?

He answer is difficult when someone has never seen the light.

Most of the time when this is the case words are useless. This person living in darkness has learned that words are lies.

In order to reverse that damage the road of establishing truth is where we begin. We might mention that Jesus told truth, but since Jesus lived 2000 + years ago we must become the light of love to this person living in darkness.

The rub is that telling them won’t mean anything to them.

We have to instead love them like Jesus loved. We become Jesus to them. We pray for them and ask Jesus to help them to understand.

It is not an easy task because we are not perfect…we make human mistakes. Because of that we cannot do it on our own. We need help. We need the guidance of the Spirit to be our helper.

And so we ask. We ask God to protect the person we are praying for and we ask for protection for ourself.

We can save no one.

Only God can save and so we rely on the guidance of the Spirit to show us how to help this person living in darkness the light of Jesus.

Then we wait. We watch. We listen. We love. This is no easy task. Thankfully, God is in charge.

This is the crazy journey we are on.

Deborah/acrazyjourney.com