Prayer of the Day: O Lord Jesus Christ, eternal Light and Giver of true life, shine into our darkness and scatter every shadow that clouds our hearts. Grant that we may grasp You in faith—both understanding Your Word and holding fast the life You came to give. Make us children of light, born not of our own will but by Your grace and truth. And as You dwell among us, let Your light be seen in us for the sake of the world You came to save; for You live and reign with the Father and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.

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 were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it. There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. This man came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all through him might believe. He was not that Light, but was sent to bear witness of that Light. That was the true Light which gives light to every man coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him. He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him. But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name: who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.

Verse 5 of our text says that the darkness could not “comprehend It,” the “It” being Jesus and all He is. The literal meaning is that the darkness could not grasp It. The question is: does that mean darkness couldn’t grasp It like “comprehend It,” or does it mean darkness couldn’t grasp It like “could not destroy It,” like something you have in your hand and try to destroy? Perhaps it means both, for darkness cannot grasp Jesus in either way.

God, however, wants you to grasp what happened on Christmas—not in the sense of destroying it (which you can’t do), but in the sense of believing it and holding on to it. God wants you to both comprehend and hold on to a couple of things in our text. One: that we have a Child born to us who is the eternal source of real life and light. Two: He is this for all the world. Jesus came to bring us all real life. The life our parents give us is not real life. Real life is the eternal, spiritual, and physical life Jesus gives us—life that conquers death and darkness. Grasp that life with both hands. It is for you!

The Holy Spirit, in each Gospel, gives us a unique glimpse into Jesus’ identity and mission. Matthew starts with a genealogy going back to Abraham, showing Jesus as the Savior of the line of David and Abraham. Luke begins with the preparation for the Savior’s coming, showing our need to prepare for the Savior with repentance. Mark skips 30 years past Jesus’ birth to show the Son of God with power over all things—even the power to forgive your sins. John goes even further back than Matthew, to the beginning of everything, to show us that Jesus has always been the source of life and light.

Darkness covers this world. I don’t mean the type that comes because the earth rotates. I mean the type from people having their backs turned toward God. There are plenty who don’t understand what Christmas is about. And there are plenty who deliberately try to make Christmas not about Christ. There are plenty of people who felt lots of joy this morning as they opened presents and spent time with family but didn’t realize they lived in darkness because they didn’t know, or didn’t think, they needed Jesus. John wrote his Gospel so that we may see more clearly who Jesus is, and see that in Jesus is the light of the world. What does our text say the light of the world is?

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 were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men.

This is talking about Jesus. You may remember from biology class that one of the defining features of life is that life can only produce life. That is true, John tells us, and the only one who can truly give us life is Jesus. While it is true that we can make children, what we give them is a pale imitation of life. Death dwells in us in both a spiritual and physical sense. Spiritually, we are born dead in sin, with a heart not knowing our God, full of sinful desires, and unwilling to believe in God. Physically, we are born with death already written into our cells. We pass both of these along to our children. With the spiritual and physical death that dwells in us, should we really call what we have and give our children “life”? John says, “no.” But through him the Holy Spirit tells us today that there is someone with real life—someone who gives spiritual and physical life free from death. That is real life. The one with this real life is Jesus, who was in the beginning and through whom all things were made.

Imagine if you were living on the street, wrapped in rags to protect you from the cold, with no one who loved you and barely surviving. If you were looking in through the windows of a house to see a well-dressed family eating a delicious meal, warmed by a fire, and with people who loved them, would you want that life you saw through the window? Yes, because you would understand that the life you were living—without love, without heat, without food—was no real life at all. When through Scripture we get glimpses of what life will be like in heaven, what life is supposed to be like, we see that our lives are no real lives at all. The “life” we live, even with food, warmth, and loved ones, is no real life at all. It is better in an earthly way than living on the streets hungry and alone, but it is still no life. It is a life of physical and spiritual death.

Even if you work hard, make millions, and live in luxury, that is no real life. Even if you have great joy in your work, that is no real life. Even if you have many you care for and who care for you, that is no real life; it only means more pain as they are taken from you and you from them. Even all three of those things together are no real life. The world, because of the darkness of their hearts, either can’t see this or won’t see this.

The homeless person at the window, looking in on the happy family, may not be able to bear the sight because it reveals how empty their life is and may turn away in anger. Similarly, some see the life Jesus offers and turn away in bitterness, and then pretend it isn’t worth having. Don’t turn away—embrace the life and light Christ freely gives. When Jesus shines a light on the shallowness of life here and when Jesus shows how you have been living for this world, how empty the things you have been living for are, don’t turn away.

Jesus shines in the darkness on Christmas, showing us there is something better than a life filled with physical and spiritual death and darkness. As verse 9 says, He is the true light who gives life’s light to everyone in the world. Our earthly life, marked by spiritual and physical death, is a mere shadow of the true, eternal life Christ came to give us. Our Savior has come. The Holy Spirit, through the light of the Scriptures, shows us that. He shows us how empty and meaningless life on this earth is without Jesus and how full and wonderful the life Jesus came to give us is.

But that is not all the Holy Spirit wants to show us in our text: “That was the true Light which gives light to every man coming into the world. ¹⁰ He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and … as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name:”

Who did Jesus come for? Jesus became human to be the light for all humans. Many reject Him. In the darkness of their hearts, they choose the life of physical and spiritual death in this world. But He came to be light for the whole world, the world that was made through Him. He came to be the light for every person in the world. The One born to us today is our God come to save you. He is God come to forgive your sins by dying for you. He is God come to make you His child and give you a real life. Grasp it. God became flesh and dwelt among us, for you and all people.

Life must come from life. We, the children of darkness and death have become the children of light and life by Jesus. Christ has born us again to a life where we will be free from spiritual and physical death. We weren’t born into this new life by our own will but by the light and life of Christ.

This Christmas, don’t let the world’s darkness cloud your heart. Our earthly parents gave us a life with spiritual and physical death. Jesus, the eternal Light, shines into our dark world, offering to you and all people life beyond what this world can give—a life free from spiritual and physical death, a life saved from condemnation. The world refuses to see that, and tries to smother it. You see it, grasp it, and proclaim it. Amen.

—Pastor Aaron Ude

Good Shepherd Lutheran Church
Rapid City, SD

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