Jesus came into the world as light and became the light of the world. And his light shone in our darkness. But he did more than shine. He set in motion the eternal destruction of our darkness by taking it upon himself. It even appeared as if the darkness of our sin had extinguished the radiance of the glory of God. But it did not — because it could not — overcome him. 

O come, thou Day-Spring, come and cheer,
Our Spirits by thine Advent here;
Disperse the gloomy clouds of night,
And death’s dark shadows put to flight.

Rejoice! Rejoice! Immanuel
Shall come to thee, O Israel.

I love this beautiful stanza from one of the most beloved Christmas hymns because I love to speak of Jesus and to Jesus as “the light [that] shines in the darkness” (John 1:5). I suppose this is because the more of the world’s darkness I experience and observe, the more I love and long for “the light of the world” to fully and finally swallow up the darkness — the world’s and mine (John 8:12). And I find that singing the words of this beautiful prayer stirs up my love and longing for the Great Light.

It is an ancient longing, our deep desire for spiritual light. It is a longing that has been part of the human experience from the moment our ancestors first became aware that there was such a thing as darkness, such a joy-destroying experience as a dark night of the soul, such a hope-destroying fear as the shadow of death. And in this stanza, we hear an echo of an ancient prophecy of a coming light, the hope of an approaching dawn:

The people that walked in darkness
have seen a great light:
they that dwell in the land of the shadow of death,
upon them hath the light shined. (Isaiah 9:2 KJV)

These luminous words of hope were first spoken 2,700 years ago to a fractured Hebrew people who were watching with anguish as a fearful night fell upon them. It looked as though Israel’s lamp would be forever extinguished. But the prophet foresaw that, beyond this fearful night, a great dawn was coming. And its light would disperse their gloomy darkness and destroy death’s power so that its fearful shadow would be cast over them no more. And he told them that the light of this dawn would break brightest upon the region where their national night first fell: “the land beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the nations” (Isaiah 9:1).

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