- 15. A Great Light
Isaiah 9:2 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.
God promises a great light for people that have walked in darkness. For those people that live in the land where death hovers God has shined a light to dispel that shadow. The metaphor of light and darkness is used to make stark the difference between sin and forgiveness and between the threat of death and the prospect of life.
This great light has dawned in the coming of the Son of God to the earth as a human being. The heavens burst into praise and applause at the birth of Jesus of Nazareth. The exceeding bright light of the glory and life of God shined through Jesus’ human body in the Transfiguration. An explosion of light dawned at the violent resurrection of the body of Jesus Christ. That light of Salvation and Truth and Life has come to us in our Baptism and faith in the Gospel. We all once walked in darkness, groping our way blindly through a world that is darker than pitch; we did not know where we were or where we are going or how to get there. The angst of darkness was compounded by the insistent knowledge that there is a God and that there is another life, but we can’t find it. For this reason God comes to us and He shines a bright light.
The light has shined upon us who dwell in the land of the shadow of death. Sin causes death; death casts a dark pall over the land of the living, and we sinners are constantly under the cloud, or shadow, of the threat of death. Death is always lurking nearby causing fear and anxiety. This fear of death is compounded by two facts: one, we know death is an intruder and it should never be looming, and two, deep down we know it is really our own fault, our own sin. Upon this shadow of death the light of Jesus Christ shines and instantly and forever drives away death and darkness. Because He lives, all fear is gone. The light has come, and in place of darkness we end up being the light of the world. And that’s a promise we can live with.