That makes sense!

A Christ­mas mes­sa­ge about lights, cand­le­sticks and the illuminated.

Today’s slo­gan: «Bles­sed are the peo­p­le who­se God is the LORD!» ( Psalm 144:15).

«Behold, I pro­cla­im to you gre­at joy, which shall be for all the peo­p­le: for unto you is born this day a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord, in the city of David.»(Luke 2:10–11).

We are living in a bright­ly lit Christ­mas world at the moment. We live in a para­di­se of lights, which is some­thing to rejoice in from the heart. Here and the­re, thou­sands of lights shi­ne towards us. Isn’t it ama­zing what pri­va­te peo­p­le put up and hang on their hou­ses and in their gar­dens. So for a few weeks the dark win­ter time beco­mes a litt­le warmer.

The Light-Creating God

In the first chap­ter of the Bible we read that God first crea­ted a very spe­cial light: «God said, «Let the­re be light», and the­re was light. And God saw that the light was good. Then he sepa­ra­ted the light from the dark­ness. God cal­led the light «day» and the dark­ness ’night».» (Gene­sis 1:3–5 NL).

Befo­re crea­ti­on the­re was only cha­os, hul­la­ba­loo and dark­ness – and into this con­fu­si­on God crea­ted light!

• James right­ly descri­bes God in his let­ter as the Father of Light! (James 1:17)
• A psalm sin­ger sings of God as the God clo­thed with light! (Psalm 104:2)
• And John brief­ly and suc­cinct­ly sta­tes in his 1st let­ter: God is light! (1John 1,5)

God first infu­sed his divi­ne light into creation.

The terms «light and dark­ness, day and night» at the begin­ning of the crea­ti­on account are initi­al­ly spi­ri­tu­al terms, just as they are often to be unders­tood spi­ri­tual­ly later in the Bible. The lights that God crea­ted on the 4th day of crea­ti­on are quite dif­fe­rent. They have a cle­ar­ly defi­ned, world­ly meaning:

«God said: «Let the­re be lights in the sky to distin­gu­ish the day from the night. They shall be signs by which the sea­sons, the days and the years shall be deter­mi­ned. The­se lights in the sky shall shi­ne upon the earth.» And so it hap­pen­ed. God crea­ted two gre­at lights: the grea­ter light for the day and the les­ser light for the night. And God also crea­ted the stars. He set the­se lights in the sky to illu­mi­na­te the earth, to deter­mi­ne day and night, and to distin­gu­ish the light from the dark­ness. And God saw that it was good» (Gene­sis 1:14–18 NL).

God has spi­ri­tu­al and visi­ble light sources were created.

The light-creating human being

Humans soon tur­ned out to be light-hun­gry beings and loo­ked for sources of light. At first, fire was the only source of light against the dark­ness. Then came tor­ches, oil lamps and tal­low lamps; then cand­les; later gas lamps and elec­tric lamps. And today we have an unpar­al­le­led varie­ty of light sources! Incan­de­s­cent lamps, halo­gen lamps, ener­gy-saving lamps, fluo­re­s­cent tubes, LEDs… and the light source inven­tors are far from finis­hed. Today, we can mea­su­re the speed of light and have set a new mea­su­re of time in the form of light years. It’s fasci­na­ting what peo­p­le have alre­a­dy achieved!

In con­trast, it is pathe­tic that most peo­p­le are still com­ple­te­ly under­ex­po­sed to the divi­ne light. Even though it is so illu­mi­na­ting and invi­ting! It is puri­fy­ing, true, just, holy, reve­al­ing, rene­wing – and yet meets with litt­le inte­rest from people.

Paul wri­tes in the first let­ter to Timo­thy that God dwells in an inac­ces­si­ble light, but peo­p­le alre­a­dy expe­ri­en­ced in OT times that God comes to us humans with his light. King David expe­ri­en­ced and con­fes­sed this divi­ne, spi­ri­tu­al light:

«Lord, you are my light, you, Lord, have ligh­ten­ed my dark­ness» (2Samuel 22:29 NL).

And else­whe­re: «The LORD is my light and my sal­va­ti­on; of whom shall I fear?»(Psalm 27:1 Lu).

That is the goal of Christ­mas, that peo­p­le dis­co­ver God’s light and recei­ve it within them­sel­ves! We cele­bra­te the birth of Jesus, who came into this world as God’s Son with the divi­ne light to bring us new life, hope and a future. This uni­que event was fore­told by the pro­phet Isai­ah for many centuries:

«The peo­p­le who walk in dark­ness see a gre­at light, and on tho­se who dwell in the land of dark­ness it shi­nes bright­ly. You awa­ken loud rejoi­cing, you make gre­at the joy. Befo­re you one rejoices, as one rejoices «when Covid19 times is over, as one is glad when one can put away the masks…» «(Isai­ah 9:1–2 Lu).

Why was the rejoi­cing among God’s peo­p­le not so gre­at then? Becau­se they had fal­se expectations!

Why is the­re so litt­le rejoi­cing in the churches today? Becau­se most peo­p­le do not know Jesus and the­r­e­fo­re it does not make sen­se to them that he would have indis­pensable good for us!

How does Isai­ah con­ti­nue in his song of jubilation?

«For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given, and the govern­ment is upon his should­er; and he is cal­led Won­der-Coun­sell­or, God-Hero, Ever­las­ting-Father, Prin­ce of Peace»(Isai­ah 9:5 NL).

In Jesus Christ, God has brought into the world exact­ly what peo­p­le despera­te­ly need! I have the impres­si­on that Jesus is beco­ming more and more rele­vant and meaningful in this world!

At pre­sent, would­n’t we despera­te­ly need a uni­que coun­sell­or who can give won­derful advice for all life situa­tions?! A heroic God who has unli­mi­t­ed pos­si­bi­li­ties, is admi­ra­ble and not a cheap cari­ca­tu­re; a God who under­stands us uni­que­ly becau­se Jesus hims­elf beca­me man; a father figu­re with fat­her­ly and mother­ly love that lasts fore­ver; love that for­gi­ves guilt, a brin­ger of peace with power and glo­ry like none other.

In rab­bi­nic lite­ra­tu­re, the term «light» is found in the spi­ri­tu­al ethi­cal sen­se for ever­y­thing that is aver­ted or oppo­sed to sin. They use the term «light» in the sal­va­ti­on-his­to­ri­cal sen­se for hap­pi­ness, joy, sal­va­ti­on and redemp­ti­on. They have been awa­re that the Mes­siah is the light its­elf. He will spread it, radia­te it and bring it to the peo­p­le. And now he is the­re and hopes that it will dawn on people!

I am the light of the world

Jesus went around prea­ching, heal­ing peo­p­le and cal­ling sin­ners to hims­elf. Once, in the midd­le of a ser­mon, he said:

«I am the light of the world. Whoe­ver fol­lows me will no lon­ger wan­der in dark­ness, but will have the light of life»  (John 8:12 NGÜ).

This light is the most inge­nious and also the most pre­cious! Every human being should under­stand that! But Jesus expe­ri­en­ced it dif­fer­ent­ly: in spi­te of all that he said, in spi­te of all the mira­cles and pro­ofs of power, they did not belie­ve in him. The­re were many respec­ted men who belie­ved in Jesus, but becau­se of their offices they did not open­ly con­fess him; they were afraid of pos­si­bly losing their jobs becau­se of it. It was more important for them not to lose their repu­ta­ti­on with the peo­p­le than to find reco­gni­ti­on with God.

This is still rele­vant today: «My col­le­agues would laugh at me if I beca­me a Chris­ti­an. I would be mob­bed if I came out as a Chris­ti­an!» One thing we must not for­get: Jesus is always much more than what could hap­pen to us!

Jesus Christ comes very clo­se to us at Christ­mas with his love and grace. Jesus does not come to you at a Coro­na distance: 1.5 m! He comes to you wit­hout a mask and takes from you first of all your Mask off your face. Not only the Coro­na mask, but all the others too, and then he knocks on your door.

Not at the should­er, but at the door of your heart! If Jesus is not yet the cent­re of your life, then the mea­ning of Christ­mas, the light of Jesus, should be clear to you today at the latest.  make sen­se.

Jesus loved to sit with peo­p­le: With peo­p­le who were des­pi­sed at the time. Jesus was then accu­sed by the eli­te of sit­ting down to eat with the worst peo­p­le. With tax coll­ec­tors, sin­ners and dark figures.

Don’t you need Jesus? And cer­tain­ly not eter­nal life – it’s enough for you when the one is over…!

Sure, you may have a good life, no pro­blems, not be an addict, not have had a love affair in your mar­ria­ge, not ste­al.… But the one guilt you still have is the grea­test: you have lived past God until now. You have more or less left him to the left.

God desi­res a rela­ti­onship with you through Jesus. Jesus wants you to let him shi­ne as a light into your life! Let him shi­ne into your life! Into your mind, into your desti­ny, into your dark, hid­den world of thoughts, into your uncertainty!

Jesus, the light of the world, came into our world to give us sal­va­ti­on, mea­ning and a pur­po­se in life. This is what we cele­bra­te today! Jesus would love to come to the aid of the peo­p­le who are suf­fe­ring under the yoke of the Coro­na virus and take ever­y­thing that makes them inse­cu­re and afraid under his con­trol. The light of the world is the­re for all peo­p­le! He invi­tes you: «Come to me just as you are, with ever­y­thing that trou­bles you; with ever­y­thing you have on your pla­te, with ever­y­thing you want to undo, I can make ever­y­thing new.»

Jesus gua­ran­tees eter­nal life if you con­scious­ly open yours­elf to him and place your life in his hands. This is first important and decisi­ve for yours­elf, but it also has very signi­fi­cant side effects:

What Jesus said to his fol­lo­wers then is still true today:

«You are the light of the world. A city that lies on a moun­tain can­not remain hid­den. Nor does anyo­ne light a lamp and then place it under a ves­sel. On the con­tra­ry, you put it on the lamp­stand so that it gives light to ever­yo­ne in the house. In the same way, let your light shi­ne befo­re men: Let them see your good works and prai­se your Father in hea­ven.» (Matthew 5:14–16 NGÜ).

May­be you think: Someone can quick­ly say «You are the light of the world». 

Paul jus­ti­fies it in this way: «For the same God who said, «Out of dark­ness let light shi­ne forth!» has also made it light in our hearts, so that in the per­son of Jesus Christ we see the full radi­ance of God’s glo­ry»(2 Corin­thi­ans 4:6 NGÜ).

Chris­ti­ans are not arm can­dy! They are peo­p­le with cha­ris­ma! The light does not come from being good ones­elf, but from Jesus.

This is divi­ne splendour!

Disci­ples of Jesus are vital in this world at all times and in every place!

When Goe­the was on his death­bed, he is said to have shou­ted «More light! More light!» He missed the divi­ne light that is Jesus!

Live in clo­se con­nec­tion with Jesus, then you are light in the dark­ness for others!

Amen!