The spring season is my favorite season of the year! I love this time, don’t you? There’s just something about hearing the sounds of the birds singing, seeing the trees bud, smelling the flowers (sneezing and getting a runny nose…those blasted seasonal allergies), the bees buzzing, the temperature rising (but not to the point of being suffocatingly hot), the days getting longer, everything coming to life. It’s a joyous time. Then, you couple the sounds and sights and feelings of spring with the celebration of the resurrection of Jesus, the joy of Easter, and it just can’t get any better! Life out of Death. Victory out of Defeat. Hope out of Hopelessness. Joy out of Mourning. Light out of Darkness.
Light out of Darkness.
What a tremendous thing.
If you have ever had the chance to wake up early when it is still dark, shuffle outside, and witness a sunrise, there’s something indescribable about the light appearing where there was only darkness. Pictures can’t capture the sentiment. Words fail. It can be an emotionally moving, spine tingling, amazing experience. First, the morning light starts to change the environment. Shapes become clearer. Things that were masked and hiding become illuminated and apparent. That “bear” that you were sure was going to come and steal your picnic basket turns out to be a shirt hanging on a clothesline. The “creepy guy” lurking down the way turns out to be an old tree. As the time passes and more light arrives, details become apparent. Leaves are given color, birds are given voice, warmth replaces the chill of the night. Light breaks forth out of darkness.
Light out of Darkness.
It is a glorious thing.
Too often, I fear, we miss that moment at Easter. That moment when the light breaks through. We miss the sunrise. Sure we celebrate, sure we’re thankful for the light of Jesus, sure we say “He is Risen!”, and we are right to do all of those things, but we miss the light breaking out of the darkness because we fail to recognize the darkness in the first place. As the church, we can have the tendency to skip over the uncomfortable parts, to miss the agony, the surrender, the betrayal that took place outside the Garden of Gethsemane. We fail to remember the darkness of Good Friday and the suffering that our Savior endured. We jump from the celebration of Palm Sunday to the glory of the Resurrection, and we miss the fact that not only were we people living in darkness, but that Jesus went through the darkness for us as well.
In the gospel of Matthew, there is a small, descriptive verse surrounding the events of Good Friday. It says this:
From noon until three in the afternoon darkness came over all the land. (Matthew 27:45)
It’s not a large passage, there isn’t a whole lot of detail, but there, during what would have typically been the brightest part of the day, from 12-3, darkness covered everything. The physical world, the creation, responded to the suffering of the Light of the World, Jesus, by going dark. Darkness came over all the land.
Jesus experienced darkness.
- Jesus experienced darkness
- when the religious leaders and authorities sought his life.
- when a friend agreed to betray him for the price of 30 silver coins.
- when he prayed in the garden so fervently that his sweat was blood.
- when his betrayer came to reveal him to the authorities with added insult, betraying him with a kiss.
- when the chief priests, the officers, the temple guard, the crowd came to arrest him as if he was a criminal or the leader of an unlawful movement.
- when every one of his followers fled and left his side.
- when one of his closest friends denied knowing him. Not just once. Not just twice. Three times.
- when he was falsely accused,
- spat upon
- struck
- beaten
- slapped
- mocked
- rejected
- scourged
- ridiculed
- whipped
- Jesus experienced darkness
- when the crown of thorns was pushed into his head.
- when he was forced to carry a cross.
- when the nails pierced his hands, his feet.
- when the people yelled and jeered.
- when he bore the weight of all of our sin.
- when he surrendered his life.
Jesus experienced darkness.
That list doesn’t even cover it all. It’s not exhaustive. Jesus experienced darkness in ways that are beyond description. His suffering was great. The sacrifice was immeasurable. The price that Jesus paid was beyond what we can comprehend. Jesus experienced darkness so much so that creation responded and the whole world went dark around him.
Friends, right now, we are in a dark time. For some of us, we are in a dark time physically. Whether or not we have been affected by COVID-19, there are still those among us who suffer physically. There are those who are hurting, those who are in pain, those who are in darkness. For some of us, we are in a dark time emotionally. The distancing of this time has taken a toll. The loss of loved ones is felt deeply. The fear of the unknown, the questions of if life will ever return to normal, the uncertainty of our days has left us in darkness. For some, we are in spiritual darkness. We are walking around in our sin and our shame, our rebellion and our loneliness, we have not yet embraced the saving light of Jesus, we are still in darkness.
But the darkness is not the end.
We are fortunate that we live on this side of the resurrection. We know that the darkness did not win. We know that in spite of the darkness, the light shines forth.
Light out of Darkness.
It’s an Easter thing.
It’s a glorious, marvelous, indescribable thing.
The people walking in darkness
have seen a great light;
on those living in the land of deep darkness
a light has dawned.
~ Isaiah 9:2
Easter is best celebrated when we first recognize the darkness. When we recognize the darkness of our sin, our stain, our rebellion. When we recognize that we have been an enemy of God and that we are unworthy of forgiveness. Easter is best celebrated when we recognize that we deserve no such grace, no such mercy, no such forgiveness. Easter is best celebrated when we realize that we have been people walking in darkness, living in darkness, and that darkness is what we deserve. Easter is best celebrated when we know that Jesus, the Light of the World, the One in whom there was no darkness at all, willingly entered into our dark, into our despair, into our hopelessness that he might pull us out of darkness and into the light. Easter is best celebrated when we realize that Jesus experienced darkness, but even the deepest darkness could not overcome the Light.
Light out of Darkness.
It’s an indescribable thing.
May we experience that this season through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Pastor Chris
