Jesus Shone Out, and Shone On

What Did Jesus Do?

The Light Shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it.
John 1.5

Yesterday my friend Philip spent some time in his sermon to talk about Dietrich Bonhoeffer. A bold and faithful Christian minister, Bonhoeffer was apprehended by the Nazis, put in prison, and just two weeks before V-E Day in April 1945 was executed. It might have appeared that Bonhoeffer, along with countless millions, had been overcome by the evil and darkness of the Nazi terror. But yesterday the light of Bonhoeffer's faith and the truth of his words were shining bright and clear sixty-five years after his death. It turns out, Bonhoeffer was an overcomer.

You know, Jesus was an overcomer. Oh sure, the world thought it had done with him on the cross, but we know Golgotha was not the end of the story. It was not Pilate or the Priests in Jerusalem who determined the fate of Jesus, the Son's life was in the Father's hands. Yes, the world hated, persecuted, rejected, and crucified Jesus, “Yet it was the will of the LORD to crush him;” nonetheless, “he shall see his offspring...the will of the LORD shall prosper in his hand.” (Isaiah 53.10). All the powers of darkness, as it were, were given the opportunity to do their worst, and they did, refusing to receive the light of Christ, the light of the Word made flesh, and striving to extinguish that light. But it was the will of the Father that the light of Jesus shone out and shone on. Darkness simply could not, and can not, overcome it.

Let me provide a little explanation here, in case you read a different Bible translation (The above is the English Standard Version), and have memorized John 1.5, “the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.” While it is true, that the world, that most people who heard and saw Jesus, didn't get him, in the sense of understanding that he truly was the Incarnate Word, the Son of God, the long-awaited Messiah, the Greek employed by John actually meant apprehend, as in a kidnapper apprehending, or seizing, his victim. In its lack of comprehension, the world thought it could apprehend the troubling rabbi from Nazareth, and make an end of him. But he was as far from their apprehending as he was from their comprehending. Jesus shone out and shone on. Darkness simply cannot overcome him.

How might this impact us as we look ahead to what 2011 holds in store for us? For starters, we all had better accept that, if we truly seek to let the light of Jesus shine in and through us, we will have to deal with much the same desire of the world to apprehend us, to persecute and reject us. We should also anticipate that many will sadly continue to be noncomprehending as well. In short, the way of discipleship will be no easier in 2011 than it has been in any of the years which have preceded it.

But, take heart, because Jesus is still an overcomer, his light still shines out and shines on. And the Father continues to prosper his will in and through the Son, and all those in whom Christ's light shines, just as he did through the faith and witness of Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Again, if we walk with the Lord every day this year we will certainly encounter opposition, and may even experience great suffering and sacrifice. But, in the end, all that we do in and through Jesus the Son will even more certainly accomplish the will of the Father and bring him glory. The world needs overcomers as much in 2011 as it did in 1945. The world needs the Overcomer as much as it did two thousand years ago, though it will still strive against him. So, how about it, shine out and shine on! That's what Jesus did.

S.D.G.

Jim
www.jimwilkenministries.org
Marion, NC
PS 37.4