Why does the light still shine in the darkness, both now and until the end of the age? It’s because our Lord was willing to let his Father shatter the alabaster vial, so that the divine life within him—with all the light and fragrance it was meant to bestow upon a sin-darkened world—might pour forth from his new and eternal body: us.

In Him was life, and His life was the light of men.

John 1:4

When Jesus walked the earth, the entire godhead—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—dwelt in him in bodily form. So too did the eternal life of the godhead. In him was life: the eternal life of the triune God.

Whenever he spoke or performed miracles, the divine life within Jesus poured out into the world and became the light of men. The glory of God shone forth in all he did, briefly filling the darkness of this present evil world with light.

As we know from the Gospels, some were drawn to the light. They said, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.”

Others, however, hated the light, sought to extinguish it, and—for a brief moment at the end of Jesus’ ministry—actually thought they did.

This is a great mystery, one that should cause us to marvel at God’s amazing ways. In Christ there was life; and yet, because of our sin, that life could not get out of him and into us once and for all. So God decided to let the darkness extinguish the light—

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