Bringing the Light

I’ve had a long acquaintance with ophthalmologists. I started wearing glasses in third grade, contacts in seventh grade. And for several years when I was young, I had to put drops in my eyes every night. It was explained to me that the muscles in the back of my eyes were tightening (something like that), and those drops relaxed them. One of the side effects of the medication was chronically dilated pupils, which meant my eyes were very sensitive to light.

Case in point: a couple weeks after I first starting using the eye drops, I went to the pool. After paying at the desk in the shade, I stepped out into the sunlight again . . . and was immediately blinded. Literally. The world around me was a solid, painfully bright yellow with some vague brown outlines. I must have stood there for a while looking like an idiot because a friend eventually came and walked me in to sit down somewhere until my eyes adjusted a bit.

This came to my mind again because on Easter, Pastor Garrett gave us a science lesson about how the eyes react to light (which, weird as it sounds, did apply to the point at hand).

One of the things I remember him saying (because I liked the quote and wrote it on my bulletin) was this: “Limited light affects our perception of things around us.” Which sounds like one for the “duh” file, as Jay Leno would say.

But I wrote the quote down because it occurred to me that this isn’t just a physical phenomenon. Jesus is the light . . . and when there is not much Jesus in the area, it affects our perception of what we’re looking at. Looking at my neighbor’s sin without the light of Jesus affects my perception of the situation. Same with looking at poverty and immigration and abortion and the upcoming presidential election . . . y’all, the world’s a dark place. We definitely need Jesus to illuminate things for us.

But there’s another Garrett quote I wrote down. “To see better in low light, we have to be acquainted with the dark.”

Now, what I’m about to say is going to make some of you squirm, so do me the grace of hearing me out before you react. I know many people who are very adamant about the need to stay away from the dark, to keep your eyes focused on the light – I mean, spiritually speaking. And I suspect I have proclaimed this thought myself at times. But here’s the thing . . .

. . . we can’t get away from the dark. We live in a Good Friday world; it’s dark by nature. And . . .

. . . I don’t think we’re supposed to get away from the dark. Fight it, yes, but you can’t do battle from a distance. In John 17, Jesus specifically prayed that his disciples (and by extension, us today) would NOT be taken out of the world. And when you’re in the dark . . .

. . . exclusively staring at a light blinds us, just like I was blinded at the pool that day. I mean, if your only concern is getting yourself out of the dark room and into the light, then that may be your best course of action. In the meantime, though, you are rendered completely incapable of seeing anything in the dark. Which is a problem because . . .

. . . we need to be able to see in the dark. That’s where Jesus has us right now. That’s where we live, and he wants us to be his hands and feet there. Therefore, it behooves us to be acquainted with the dark so we can see what is what. We can’t have any effect on people we don’t know. We can’t speak to problems that we don’t understand. If we refuse to allow ourselves any acquaintance with the darkness, we are hopelessly ineffective in addressing it.

So, I’ve changed my mind. We have to become acquainted with the dark. Not controlled by it, not allied to it, but definitely acquainted with it.

Now, I want to clarify, because we use darkness in a lot of different metaphors. When someone is drowning in the darkness of depression, they need out – and yes, focusing on the light may be how they need to get there.

But the general darkness of the world is not a pit meant to be escaped; it is a broken thing meant to be renewed. And that's what Easter is about, folks: Jesus making all things new! Too many of us see the good news of the gospel merely as an escape from hell . . . but it is also a mission to help build the kingdom of heaven. And the kingdom of heaven is NOW. Here. In this Good Friday world – already and not yet.

Jesus is the light, but he chooses to shine his light through his people. So, when his people avoid the dark places, there is no light there at all . . . and hell is free to reign. We are supposed to bring light into the dark world so that people see Jesus. That requires our loving presence.

Our presence in the slums. At the border. In the abortion clinics. At the campaign rallies and in the voting booths. And yes, in conversations with our neighbor living in sin.

It’s a Good Friday world. But we are to live in it as Easter people.