This is March. We are moving into the summer season. In India, like in many developing countries, summer is also a season of power cuts. Power cuts make us powerless: as we are working, studying, or entertaining ourselves in the late evening, and if power fails, darkness just engulfs us; we begin to crawl from one desk to another, from one room to another –darkness makes us powerless.
According to the creation story in the Bible, in the beginning there was total darkness; we could also read it as, in the beginning there was total helplessness. Then we have one of the most powerful phrases in the Old Testament, “Let there be light” (Genesis 1:3). And there was light; and it continues to be.
Millions of years later, a Pharisee and a ruler called Nicodemus came to Jesus in the darkness of the night and asked him many questions (John 3: 1-21). Jesus listened to Nicodemus, he could perceive darkness around Nicodemus; Jesus could perhaps see shame and helplessness, ignorance, ego, and stubbornness about Nicodemus. Jesus spoke in the darkness to Nicodemus, and there was light and comfort. In other words Jesus punched holes in the darkness, helplessness, shame, ignorance, ego, and stubbornness of Nicodemus. One of the Christian duties is to puncher one’s own and others’ darkness, helplessness, shame, ignorance, ego, and stubbornness by letting light in.
The white-ruled South Africa's Nationalist Party in 1948 announced the historical Apartheid. It was an institutionalised system of racial discrimination and segregation. Thanks to Nelson Mandala and many others who resisted, struggled, and fought back, in the early 1990s apartheid was abolished, at least on records.
Though happened to be part of the large unjust system many groups and individuals in South Africa were against the apartheid, but were unable to stand against the nationalist party and its politics.
Ronald Rolheiser narrates the story of Christians caught up in apartheid. In the days of apartheid in South Africa, Christians living there used to light candles and place them in windows as a sign to themselves and to others that they believed that some day this injustice would end. A candle burning in a window was a sign of hope and a political statement. The government didn’t miss the message. It passed a law making it illegal to place a lit candle in a window, the offence being equal to owning a firearm, both considered equally dangerous. This eventually became a joke among the people: “Our government is afraid of lit candles!” now in India, and many countries across the globe, we find leaders and establishments who are afraid of lit candles. This also makes us easier to understand the verse, "the light has come into the world and people loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil" (John 3:19). Lit candles, more than firearms, overthrew apartheid. Hope and light, not guns, are what ultimately transforms things. To light a candle is to show up, to stand up, and to show courage.
There is something very unique about Jesus the light that came into the world. He did not come to shine light on us to expose our weakness to others or to condemn us. John 3:16 reads, God so loved the world that he sent his only son… not to condemn the world but to save it. We as humans tend to light lamps to highlight and show the world the weakness and shortcomings of others. That is why we hate the Light that came into the world. But in truth God shows light on us to save us. The story of prodigal son (Luke 15:11-32) could be a great example. A young man, careless and angry, leaves his family. Years passed, after many mistakes and failures he was full of regrets. Finally, longing for home, he decided to return. He braced himself for a cold reception, expecting his parents’ anger. But as he approached the house, the door flew open, and his father rushed to embrace him with open arms. Tears welled in his eyes as he realised that his love never faltered, no matter how far he strayed. The father in the story was not waiting for his son to return to show light on his son to tell him and show the neighbours how right he was and how wrong his son is; instead he waited to show light on his son, family and neighbours to show how much he loved his son.
Reflecting on our individual lives, we are often overcome with darkness. We become helpless with the weight of our personal problems, issues in relationships, challenges in the workplace, etc. we find ourselves as though buried deep in the darkness of the earth. Sometime when we are in a dark place, we think we have been buried, but actually we have been planted, says, Christine Caine, an Australian activist and international speaker.
Caught up in the darkness of helplessness we often prematurely conclude our lives; it is so automatic, and rigid, that there seems to be nothing more to come. Christine Caine recommends loosening up our lives enough to be ready for interruptions. Let there be a few cracks that the light of God can enter in. Don't structure our days so rigidly that you lock out God from working with you in the middle of them. God is able to take the mess of our past and turn it into a message. Browsing through the stories in the gospel one easily comes in term with the difficult truth that however old we are, however long our habits and ways are, there can still be change.
It is interesting to note the question of Nicodemus to Jesus, “Can a person be born again when he is grown old? Can he go back to his mother’s womb and be born again?” Can a person after so many years of living a particular way, or not living any becoming way, enter into the womb of possibilities and be born again? Jesus though not directly but in an interesting way said, yes.
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