Genesis 1:1 In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. 2 And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. 3 And God said, Let there be light: and God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness.
John 1:1 In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 The same was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made. 4 In him was life; and the life was the light of men. 5 And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.
These verses from the first book of the Old Testament tells of actual light and actual darkness. The next verses, from the Gospel of John, are the beginning of his first-hand account of Jesus as he knew Him…as the light of God’s love, sent into a world filled with darkness. “And the darkness comprehended it not.” The darkness he refers to is sin.
Franklin Graham shared this passage in his Facebook post the other day. As I read it, those last words stood out: and the darkness comprehended it not. Sin doesn’t understand the light of righteousness, but runs from it. As we sinful men often run away from the truth in order not to admit that what we’re doing, or thinking, or feeling is wrong. Jesus Himself defines the meaning of John’s words in verse 3: 19 And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.
Many today seem not to worry about the rightness or wrongness in what they do, they just do it. If someone points out their sin, it often leads to ridicule and even violence against that person. It was the same when Jesus and His disciples went about spreading the good news of hope and salvation. At the time, Jewish leaders and lawmakers felt they held the only power needed and worked hard to keep the people in line with their ways of thinking.
When John the Baptist, a prophet sent to tell of Jesus’ coming, appeared on the scene…and then Jesus Himself appeared… those in charge felt threatened. They fought back at every opportunity, finding fault in everything Jesus and his followers did or said…but the people outnumbered them and they knew, if they acted too quickly or went too much against the will of the people, they would be out of a job.
It is much the same today with our politicians and the media. Any voice of reason or common sense they think needs to be silenced. There is still the light… and a right answer to all our problems…but the darkness fails to comprehend. We who are called by God are supposed to be a light in the world around us. Our light might often seem like a small candle on a foggy night with no moon…but it never flickers! To see the light, one has to get close to it, and so many are afraid of getting too close. It is our job to help quiet those fears.
We can tell others about Jesus and our personal encounters with Him, but they have to meet Him too… and decide for themselves whether or not to believe it.
John 4: 5-42 tells the story of Jesus and a Samaritan woman who came to draw water from Jacob’s well. Jesus was resting on the well when the woman appeared and He said to her, “Give me a drink.”
Surprised, the woman said to Him. ” Why would you, being a Jew, ask me for a drink when I am a woman of Samaria? The Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans.”
Jesus told her. “If you knew who I was, you would have asked and I would have have given you living water.”
She said. “You have nothing to draw water with. Just where is this living water?”
Jesus told her, “Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again, but the water I give you will be a well of water springing up into everlasting life.”
The woman answered, “Sir, give me this water,”
Jesus told her to go and get her husband.
She told Him, “I have no husband.”
Jesus told her. “It is good you say you have no husband, for you have had five husbands…but the one you are now with is not your husband. In that, you spoke the truth.”
Amazed that He knew all about her and having heard of a Messiah who would someday come who knew all things, she perceived Him to be a prophet. But Jesus told her, “I that speak to you, am He,”
The woman, knowing what He said was true, then returned to Samaria and told the people who she had encountered. Many of the people believed her, but wanted to see for themselves, so they asked Jesus to stay. He stayed there for two days, and many more believed because they heard it from Him personally. They told the woman who met Him at the well, “Now, we believe, not because you said so, but because we heard Him ourselves and know that this is in deed the Christ, the Savior of the world!”
Let’s pray for many more to receive the living water Jesus still offers and for His light to increase that more begin to comprehend it. There is a way out of the darkness. May we all be drawn to the Light, receive the living water… and find our way to Jesus!
