Darkness and Light

Some of y’all know that I enjoy photography. Well, I HAVE enjoyed photography. It’s been a few years since I last pulled out my camera.

I got into photography as a newspaper reporter for small, community newspapers, where you’re generally required as a reporter to take your own photos.

Over the years, I read a few photography books, and went to a photo workshop or two, and I learned that there was more to photography than pictures of car wrecks and house fires.

And one of the things I enjoyed for a while several years ago was astrophotography, which, as the name implies, is photographing things in space.

Now there are two things in particular that make astrophotography hard to do. One is that space is big, and the things we’d like to photograph out there are usually an unimaginable distance from us.

The zoom lens I used for shooting sports might’ve gotten me twice as close to the action in a football game. But it won’t come close to magnifying galaxies that are many light years from us.

The other thing that’s hard about astrophotography is that you have to do it at night, which means there’s very little — what? That’s right. LIGHT!

Now, most photography depends on light. In fact, you could define photography as the manipulation of light to form an image.

So, astrophotography requires very long exposures and very sensitive camera sensors. And a surprising amount of math.

Here’s one of my favorite images of the Milky Way, taken from a friend’s very dark farm in the foothills of central Virginia.

I remember standing with my camera mounted to a tripod near the side of his pond that night, thinking about what a miracle the stars are.

And I remember thinking how fantastic it is that God created all this stuff that’s so far out there it couldn’t even be discovered by mankind until we’d reached a certain level of technological sophistication.

He could’ve made the universe very simple. But in His grand design, He gave us a universe that continually reveals new insights into His glory.

But it all started with darkness. You’ve all heard the verses. But as you listen to them again this morning, I’d like you to think about what they tell us not about the universe, but about the God who spoke it all into existence.

Genesis 1:1–3 NASB95

1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 2 The earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was moving over the surface of the waters. 3 Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light.

From the very beginning, from the second verse of the Bible, we see God working to push back the darkness. We see darkness contrasted by light. And we see that darkness encompasses disorder and chaos.

God begins this week commanding the appearance of light. And throughout the rest of the week, we see Him bringing order to the chaos, filling the emptiness, and creating life itself.

This is what He does. He makes good things. And, as an aside, this is what He does for followers of Jesus.

He gives us true life. He fills the God-shaped void inside each of us. And He brings peace and order into the chaos of our lives.

Today, I want to follow the thread of light that we see throughout the Bible. Now, this might seem odd for a sermon on Resurrection Sunday. Indeed, it’s not a topic I’ve ever heard anyone preach about on Easter.

But I hope by the time we’re done, you’ll understand why I chose this topic for today’s message.

There’s something heartbreaking and something else that’s wonderful about the contrasts of darkness and light that we read in the accounts of Jesus’ death and resurrection. And I believe they both tell us something about God.

Think back to those first three verses of Scripture. We don’t know exactly what existed before verse 2. But we DO know that whatever it was, He created it.

And we know that the conditions that existed at the time were chaotic and void. The Hebrew in verse 2 can be translated as “waste and emptiness.”

So, we have this lifeless “universe,” for lack of a better term, that had existed in a state of waste and emptiness for an unknown period of time. There was no life, and there was nothing good.

And then, God steps into the picture, and everything changes. Light itself obeys His command, followed by LIFE, as He creates the birds and the fish and the animals and insects and, finally, man and woman.

And part of what we’re meant to see is that light and life are connected to our Creator. Without Him, we could have neither light nor life.

He pushes back the darkness with His glorious light. And in doing so, He brings true life.

The Old Testament is full of places where God is connected to light.

He appeared to Moses from the burning bush. He went before the people of Israel as a pillar of fire by night and a pillar of cloud by day as they traveled through the wilderness.

The idea was that where God is, there is light. So, biblically speaking, “light is the sphere of God’s presence, and life within that sphere [gives evidence of] those qualities that reflect His character” [Odor, Judith A. “Light and Darkness.” In The Lexham Bible Dictionary, edited by John D. Barry, David Bomar, Derek R. Brown, Rachel Klippenstein, Douglas Mangum, Carrie Sinclair Wolcott, Lazarus Wentz, Elliot Ritzema, and Wendy Widder. Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2016.].

On the other hand, darkness in Scripture normally represents the condition of man WITHOUT God.

That’s why we see the Apostle John describe Nicodemus the Pharisee meeting Jesus at night.

We’re intended to recognize that Nicodemus, just like all of us before we turn to Jesus in faith, was in spiritual darkness when he met Jesus to try to understand the message of His gospel.

Back in the Old Testament, Job describes this spiritual darkness in vivid terms, contrasting it with the light that’s found in God.

In fact, the word “light” appears 27 times in the Book of Job — more than anywhere else in the Old Testament.

Listen to these words of Job from the 12th chapter of that book.

Job 12:22–25 NASB95

22 “He reveals mysteries from the darkness And brings the deep darkness into light. 23 “He makes the nations great, then destroys them; He enlarges the nations, then leads them away. 24 “He deprives of intelligence the chiefs of the earth’s people And makes them wander in a pathless waste. 25 “They grope in darkness with no light, And He makes them stagger like a drunken man.

For those within God’s sphere of light, the mysteries of His glory are revealed. But those who are still in spiritual darkness — those who haven’t been brought into God’s glorious light through faith in Jesus — are still ignorant of His glory, His goodness, and His grace.

They’re wandering around like drunken fools in the dark, grabbing onto whatever they think might save them.

In chapter 24, Job equates walking in darkness with unrighteousness, with sin, with rebellion against the God who made us to be like Him, righteous and just and holy.

Listen to what Job says here, beginning in verse 13.

Job 24:13–16 NASB95

13 “Others have been with those who rebel against the light; They do not want to know its ways Nor abide in its paths. 14 “The murderer arises at dawn; He kills the poor and the needy, And at night he is as a thief. 15 “The eye of the adulterer waits for the twilight, Saying, ‘No eye will see me.’ And he disguises his face. 16 “In the dark they dig into houses, They shut themselves up by day; They do not know the light.

So, biblically speaking, being outside of the sphere of God’s light means to be lost in your sins. And being within the sphere of God’s light means being covered by the righteousness of God.

The psalms talk about this quite a lot.

“The Lord is my light and my salvation,” King David writes in the 27th Psalm.

“Send out your light and Your truth, let them lead me,” an unknown psalmist says in the 43rd Psalm.

“Your word is a lamp unto my feet and a light to my path,” we read in the 119th Psalm, which is a song of praise for Scripture itself, because it reveals to us the character of God and His demand that His created ones reflect that character.

But from way back in the Garden of Eden, mankind has shown that we’re unwilling to trust God and be righteous as He is righteous.

When Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, they were trying to usurp the authority of God.

They wanted to decide for themselves what was good and what was evil, even though He alone is worthy do declare that, even though He alone has the authority to do that.

And in their sin — in their rebellion against God, they’d chosen to align themselves with Satan, rather than God. They’d chosen to pursue darkness, rather than light. They’d chosen death, when they could have had life.

And their choice plunged the world into figurative darkness. Their choice destroyed the fellowship with God for which they’d been created. And their choice brought death into the world.

And throughout the Old Testament, what we see is people stumbling around like drunken fools in the dark, grasping at any useless thing they thought might save them.

We see that death reigns. We see that, even though they were exposed to the light of God’s truth and righteousness, they loved the darkness more than the light.

And then, a voice of hope, from the prophet Isaiah, who wrote the following familiar words that we often hear around Christmas:

Isaiah 9:2–3 NASB95

2 The people who walk in darkness Will see a great light; Those who live in a dark land, The light will shine on them. 3 You shall multiply the nation, You shall increase their gladness; They will be glad in Your presence As with the gladness of harvest, As men rejoice when they divide the spoil.

And about 700 years later, on a dark night in the hills around Bethlehem, we see the darkness once again pushed back by light, as an angel announces the birth of Jesus, the Savior who’d been promised and one who would fulfill Isaiah’s prophecy. Luke records the glorious event.

Luke 2:8–11 NASB95

8 In the same region there were some shepherds staying out in the fields and keeping watch over their flock by night. 9 And an angel of the Lord suddenly stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them; and they were terribly frightened. 10 But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid; for behold, I bring you good news of great joy which will be for all the people; 11 for today in the city of David there has been born for you a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.

Later, Jesus Christ began His three-year ministry to show God’s righteous character and offer us a way to be saved from the just punishment for our sins, for our rebellion against God.

And He made it clear that He is the one in whom we can find righteousness and peace and order and fulfilment and true LIFE. That He is the light sent to we who live in darkness.

John 8:12 NASB95

12 Then Jesus again spoke to them, saying, “I am the Light of the world; he who follows Me will not walk in the darkness, but will have the Light of life.”

Some responded positively to His message, turning to Him in faith that only He could save them from the just penalty for their sins.

But many others rejected Him, because they loved the darkness more than the light.

In fact, that’s what Jesus told Nicodemus on that dark night when the Pharisee had secretly come to visit Him.

John 3:19 NASB95

19 “This is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil.

And among those who rejected Jesus and His good news of reconciliation with God through faith in Him were the Jewish religious leaders, the very ones who should have recognized and embraced Him.

They were opposed to His message of salvation by faith in Jesus and HIS righteousness, because they put their faith in their OWN righteousness. They thought they could somehow earn God’s favor and forgiveness through SELF-righteousness.

So, they demanded His crucifixion. And as the sinless Jesus hung upon that cross, giving Himself as a willing sacrifice for our sins, He bore the sins of all mankind — and their just punishment — so that all who turn to Him in faith could be saved.

And something happened while He was on the cross that’s utterly heartbreaking when we understand its significance.

He’d hung on the cross for three hours by now, nails through His hands and feet, a crown of thorns pressed into His scalp, with thieves hanging on either side of Him and soldiers gambling for His garments below.

But I don’t think the physical abuse He suffered was the worst of the punishment He endured for our sins.

Hanging on that cross on that first Good Friday, the perfectly righteous Jesus, who knew no sin of His own, bore the shame and guilt for every sin mankind had ever or would ever commit.

And in the hours that would come, He experienced the worst of God’s righteous wrath over sin.

He who’d been with God eternally — He who’d experienced God’s perfect love eternally — He who’d been in eternal fellowship with His Father — found Himself utterly alone as God turned His back on Him.

He’d been separated from God, banished from His presence because of sin, just as Adam and Eve had been when they were cast out of the Garden of Eden for THEIR sin.

The Light of the Word was now in darkness, and so was the world. Listen to how Matthew the Apostle describes the hours from noon to 3 p.m. that day.

Matthew 27:45–46 NASB95

45 Now from the sixth hour darkness fell upon all the land until the ninth hour. 46 About the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, “Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?” that is, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?”

“My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?”

My heart breaks to know that MY sins caused Jesus to be tortured and killed, dying alone and forsaken even by His Father at the cross.

To know that the price of our sins, our arrogant rebellion against God, could only be paid with the blood and suffering and utter loneliness of God’s beloved Son — To understand that the cost of our sins was for the Light of the Word to be extinguished — is the great shame of the human race.

Though daylight returned at the ninth hour — 3 p.m. — the Light of the World was dead. And as if to reinforce the point that the world was left in spiritual darkness, His body was laid in a dark tomb, and a great stone was rolled in front of it.

Jesus, the Light of the World — He who IS Life — lay there, dead, in total darkness. And with the disappearance of His light, it seemed that all hope for mankind was lost.

But Sunday was coming! And with the dawn of that day after the Jewish Sabbath, something wonderful would be revealed. Listen to how Matthew describes it.

Matthew 28:1–6 NASB95

1 Now after the Sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary came to look at the grave. 2 And behold, a severe earthquake had occurred, for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven and came and rolled away the stone and sat upon it. 3 And his appearance was like lightning, and his clothing as white as snow. 4 The guards shook for fear of him and became like dead men. 5 The angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid; for I know that you are looking for Jesus who has been crucified. 6 “He is not here, for He has risen, just as He said. Come, see the place where He was lying.

Once again, the light had pushed back the darkness. Dawn revealed that Jesus Christ had risen from the dead. Even death couldn’t hold Him.

As the Apostle John put it in the wonderful introduction to his gospel account:

John 1:5 ESV

5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

At the cross, Jesus had conquered the power of sin, giving we sinners a way to be forgiven for our sins through faith in Him and His sacrifice.

And at the empty tomb, He’d conquered death itself. He’d used Satan’s most powerful weapon against him.

He proved He has the power to fulfill His promise of eternal life to all who turn to Him in faith that He is who He said He is and that He’ll do what He said He’ll do.

And for we who follow Him in faith, His promise of eternal life — in other words, life everlasting in the presence of and in fellowship with Father, Son, and Holy Spirit — This promise is the promise of eternal LIGHT.

For us, there’ll be no more darkness, physical OR spiritual.

Listen to how John describes the vision of heaven he received on the island of Patmos.

Revelation 22:1–5 NASB95

1 Then he showed me a river of the water of life, clear as crystal, coming from the throne of God and of the Lamb, 2 in the middle of its street. On either side of the river was the tree of life, bearing twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit every month; and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. 3 There will no longer be any curse; and the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and His bond-servants will serve Him; 4 they will see His face, and His name will be on their foreheads. 5 And there will no longer be any night; and they will not have need of the light of a lamp nor the light of the sun, because the Lord God will illumine them; and they will reign forever and ever.

Life. Healing. The curse finally gone. We’ll see Jesus face to face. And the light of God’s righteousness, the light of His peace, the light of His glory, the Light of true life itself, will shine upon us forever.

Do you have His light in YOUR life? Or are you still stumbling about in spiritual darkness? Have you turned to faith in Jesus as the only way to be reconciled to God? Or are you still hoping to save yourself?

God made you for a relationship of trust in Him through Christ Jesus. He made you to be a child of light, not a child of darkness.

If you’ve never turned to Jesus in faith that He alone can save you from the just penalty for your sins against God, then you’re still in darkness.

But the Light of the World beckons to you now. He’s calling you to the cross, where you can find forgiveness. And He’s calling you to the empty tomb, where He offers true LIFE.

The only alternative is to suffer yourself the just punishment for your sins. To be eternally separated from God in darkest hell. To suffer for eternity what Jesus suffered for those three hours on the cross. To spend eternity alone, in darkness and suffering.

Won’t you turn to Him today? Will you come into His light this morning?