Isaiah 49.1-1; John 12.20-36

When I was a little girl, I was terrified of the dark. I would only go to bed, if I knew that my bedroom door was open and the light on the landing left on, so that I could see something. As many children do, I grew out of this, but just occasionally that sense of fearfulness because I can’t see returns.

Most recently it hit me when the mornings became dark last autumn. Some of you know that I go for a short run a couple of times a week. I do this first thing in the morning - it’s the one time of day I know I will always be able to do it, as no church services - well, except for Easter Day - or meetings are likely to happen at that time. In Sandy where I was a curate, there was no problem. I had a winter route and a summer route, so that when the mornings became too dark for one route, I’d follow a path that was street-lit.

That proved rather more difficult in Barkway. Some of the houses had individual lights but there were numerous patches where I couldn’t see a thing. And the first few times, I went running, I became quite fearful that I would fall over someone’s flower pots or run off the edge of the pavement, and so on.

Darkness can induce many fears. And for Jesus’s disciples in that first Holy Week, it must have seemed at many times as though darkness was gaining the upper hand.

However, the power of light is always greater than the power of darkness. Think about a tiny candle in the centre of an enormous cave. In spite of the greater quantity of darkness, the light will always shine out.

Light is a theme of John’s Gospel. Right in the first few verses, he speaks of how God’s light is the life of all people. Later we have Jesus proclaiming, “I am the Light of the world.” And in tonight’s reading, we see this image again.

If we think of the qualities of light, we can gain some idea of the characteristics of Jesus.

Light allows us to see the beauty of God’s creation, the colours and sights. Without light, we cannot see.

Light takes away those fears that we have about the dark. Light gives us something to follow. Think about how useful a torch is for walking around our villages at night. Light makes us safe.

Darkness conceals things that the light reveals. This can be hard since light reveals what is not good as well as what is good. In light, we see pitfalls as well as the path. Light too reveals our sin, the things that we would rather not show up, of which we are ashamed.

In equating Jesus with light, John is helping us to realise something about his character. If the qualities of Jesus are those of light, then we know that Jesus too has power over darkness.

We know that the light of Christ shines even in the midst of deepest darkness. As we think about the Holy Week story, we see Christ’s light in his response to suffering. John makes clear in his account of the Passion that he sees Jesus’s crucifixion as glorification. Throughout, the obedience of Jesus shines out.

When we view ourselves in the beam of Christ’s light, we too become aware of our sin.

But we are called also to reflect the light, we are called to become children of light.

As we become closer to Jesus, as we allow him to shape our lives more deeply, we will recognise our sinfulness and do something about it by God’s grace.

There is an old story about a little girl who went to church with her father.

During the service the little girl stared in fascination at the beautiful stained glass windows. She tugged on her father’s sleeve and pointed to the figures in the windows. “Who are they, Daddy?”

Speaking quietly, her father patiently identified each of the people depicted in the glass, and told her why their lives were an inspiration.

Later that day, after they had returned home, the little girl’s grandmother asked about their trip to church.

“Grandma, I saw the saints,” the little girl said with wide eyes.

The grandmother was taken aback. “The saints? What do you mean? What saints?”

“You know, Grandma,” the little girl said. “The saints are the people the light shines through.”

We too are called to be saints, reflecting the light of Christ, which continues shining even in the darkness.