Light Has Come, Chapter 3

The Hero

Key Verse: John 1:16-18
“For from his fullness we have all received - grace upon grace.”

For hundreds and hundreds of years, God’s people were expecting a Hero – a great and powerful deliverer who would lead them and drive out darkness. But no one expected this: born in a barn…born into the scandal of un-wed parents…smelly shepherds being the first to hear the news. What kind of great hero arrives this way? Where was the parade, the marching band, the pomp and fanfare, the adoring crowds, the royalty and nobility?

That kind of arrival would have been fine for a lesser kind of darkness.  A hero who was aloof, distant, impersonal and disinterested would have been enough. But that is not enough for our darkness, that is not enough for God – our Hero came as God with us.

The light of God that invaded our darkness is Jesus. He has a name, a height and weight, a complexion, a hair-color, toenails, armpits, body odor, a unique sneeze, a favorite food, and an infectious laugh. Our Hero – our Light from God – has always been intensely personal. He did not come to sit on a throne somewhere you could never get to him, unapproachable, inaccessible. He came to be with you, to know you and to be known by you.

The Great Hero King – born in a stable, lying in a manger. His earthly life began in darkness. It would end there as well. Jesus, 33 years later, would go to the cross and absorb into his body all the darkness of humanity so he could reverse the curse of sin and death. He let darkness take him so that at his resurrection His light would swallow up our darkness forever. He is the king who does not demand our life, but sacrifices his life for us. This is why we sing:

“Mild he lays his glory by, Born that we no more may die, Born to raise the sons of earth, Born to give them second birth”

And now we know…we SEE…God has revealed to us who he truly is, who we truly are, and how He truly feels about you. There are simply no bounds that will deter his enduring love for you.

This infant, asleep on the hay, is none other than the Word of God, the Son of God, The Light of God, our Great Hero to rescue us. And he will not stop pursuing you until his life is your light.