The Light No Darkness Could Overcome

Strike a match in a pitch-dark room. Just one small flame. And notice something. The darkness cannot put it out by being dark. Darkness has no power over light. It is always the other way round.

In the world of the Bible, nights were very dark. No street lights, no glowing screens. A family had a small clay oil lamp, with a wick floating in olive oil, and when it was lit, the whole house gathered round. John, the friend of Jesus, wrote his Gospel to people who knew exactly what it meant to wait through a long night for the dawn. And as he begins to tell who Jesus is, he reaches for the oldest picture in the Bible. On the very first day of creation, before sun or moon, God said, let there be light.

In him was life, John writes, speaking of the Word, the Son of God. And the life was the light of men. Everything alive gets its life from him. And that life is light: it shows us the way, it shows us what is true, it shows us God. Then John writes a sentence with a double meaning. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. The old King James Bible says the darkness comprehended it not; it did not understand it. Newer translations say the darkness has not overcome it. Both are true. The darkness could not understand the light, and it could not put it out.

Then John introduces another man, also called John. There came a man, sent from God, whose name was John. We know him as John the Baptist, the wild prophet of the wilderness by the Jordan River, with his clothes of camel hair. He came as a witness, to tell people about the light, so that through him everyone might believe. But the Gospel writer is careful. He was not that Light. John the Baptist was like someone in a dark street holding up a sign with an arrow. Look there. The light is coming.

And then the promise. That was the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world. Or as another translation puts it, the true light that enlightens everyone was coming into the world. Not a light for one nation only. Not a light for clever people, or good people, or rich people. A light for everyone. And it was coming. On a dark night in Bethlehem, it came. A small light at first, like a match in a dark room. A baby. But no darkness would ever overcome it.

That one Greek word in verse five, translated comprehended in the King James Version and overcome in the World English Bible, can mean to grasp, to seize, or to take hold of. You can grasp an idea, or you can seize something by force. Translators have long debated which John meant. Many think he chose the word because it holds both meanings at once.

The Light No Darkness Could Overcome. You'll find it in John chapter one, verses four to nine. That is why so many Christians light candles at Christmas: one small flame in the dark, remembering the light that came. So here is a question to carry with you. Where is it dark in your world, and how could you point someone toward the light?