(Teaching notes for Christmas on Union Island, St. Vincent and the Grenadines)
John is
trying to explain the significance of Jesus birth. This is one of the most
important events in human history. We measure time from Anno Domini – the year
of the birth of Jesus. This is AD 2013. John begins with an explanation that
would be clear to people familiar with Greek Philosophy. Their idea of God was
wisdom which Greeks described as The Word. Once he has their attention John
moves on to connect the birth of Jesus to being like a light coming into the
world. Let us get a grasp of what John means by light coming into the world
before we move on to look at the meaning
of Jesus birth.
1. Isaiah
reminds of what it was like to live in darkness
He uses the image of a “yoke that burdens them, the bar across
their shoulders and the rod of their oppressor” (9.4) This prophecy was written
down either just before or after the Hebrew people were taken into Captivity by the Babylonians in modern
day Iraq. The Hebrew people were punished by God for 80 years. They lost their
freedom. They lost their sense of God being with them. For the first time in
hundreds of years they felt abandoned
by God. They had lost their hope in the future. They were like many people in
our time who have lost their faith
in God and who have never had a personal experience of God working in their
lives. This describes the situation that Jesus was born into. The old religious
customs were maintained by the priests. Most people had some sort of religious
life. But many had given up on waiting for the promised Messiah. Like many of
us they only had the distant history
of relationship of the Hebrew people with God. Most did not have any personal
experience of God. It was only the poor and desperate that continued to cry out
to God for help. And they were not disappointed.
This light would ‘increase
their joy’ and shatter the yoke that burdened them. Because Isaiah mentions a child being born we can assume this was
not about the sad return of the Babylonian captives to their shattered nation. The
child is obviously the Messiah. Government
is to be on His shoulders. Not that military and political government that many
expected, but a much greater and more cosmic establishment of spiritual order.
The new spiritual order that Jesus would establish is our Baptismal Covenant or the Eucharistic Covenant
that we renew each time we participate in the Eucharist – the celebration of
what Jesus accomplished by His life, death and resurrection. It was the
sacrificial death of Jesus on the Cross
that shattered the yoke or the bar across the shoulders that burdened all
of humanity from the time of the Fall. Human sinfulness separated us from God.
Only a few very holy people were blessed with personal experiences of God.
Everyone was under the dark shadow of knowing they would eventually die and
cease to exist. We were without hope of a personal relationship with God. Jesus
was like a light coming into the world that changed human fear and separation
into joy and relationship. This is what the Apostle John was trying to explain
when he describes Jesus as being like a light coming into the world.
3.
The Apostle John tells us how to
receive the light of Jesus
This is a very condensed
overview of cosmic history. He begins with the story of John the Baptist. John
the Baptist lived in a time very much like our own. Religious practice had
become ritualistic. Many church leaders had become corrupt. In fact John had to
get right out of Jerusalem and escape to the wilderness to purify himself and
establish a powerful prayer life. He describes the clergy sent to investigate
as “snakes”. The message of John the
Baptist was to prepare to receive the coming Messiah by repenting past sins and being baptized as a sign of new spiritual birth. Jesus himself went
through this baptism to model this as a way of entry into new spiritual life.
With this introduction the Apostle John gives us a summary of his Gospel and
the bottom line for entering into this new and eternal spiritual life. He
contrasts the sad news that Jesus came to Hs own people – the Jews, and many of
them rejected Him; with the God News
that “all who receive Him, to those
who believed in His name, he gave the right to become children of God...born of
God” (Jn.1.13) All of us can chose to come out of the darkness of separation
and fear and enter into the eternal spiritual life in the light of Jesus. This
requires a serious choice to put our trust in Jesus. For many it is a long
struggle of reading the Bible and prayer before we are ready. The Good News is
we are not alone. Jesus will send the Holy Spirit to open our spiritual eyes
and help us see and give us personal experiences of God that make it real in
our lives.
May
God Bless you this Christmas as you stand in the light!
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