This week we consider the rest of the Prologue to John’s Gospel in 1:6-18. John uses metaphoric language to describe the Advent of Jesus and its implications for mankind. In this week’s text we are introduced to John the Baptist. The apostle John points out that John the Baptist is not the light referenced in the opening verses, but is a witness to that light, the spiritual light that shines on every human being to ever live. 

When rays of natural light shine on things of this natural realm it simply illuminates what is already there. If you clean your house with the blinds closed and the lights off, and then open the blinds and turn on the lights you likely are going to see all the things that you missed when in the less than fully lighted environment. At that moment we are left with a choice: to leave the dirt and perhaps revert back to a darker environment to mask the dirt, or get out the cleaning supplies and remove the dirt exposed by the light.

Jesus does the same thing in the spiritual realm. Jesus shines the light of God’s righteousness on the life of every human, which exposes the sin that is already there. In the prologue, John identifies the responses that mankind can have to the light of Christ: we can receive it or not receive it. In this prologue John is laying a framework for the rest of the book where we will see how people responded after meeting the person of Jesus. How have you responded to meeting Jesus? That is the critical question of this passage and this book. Join me this Sunday for a message titled – Let the SON Shine In.