If you look at the four Gospels, you will see that  Mark bypasses Jesus’ birth and youth entirely, and goes instead to John the Baptist, who is  heralding the coming of Jesus.  Jesus’s baptism, and his forty days in the wilderness soon follow.   

Luke, as we all know, begins with the account of the upcoming birth of a son to Zechariah and Elizabeth, the one who is to be John the Baptist. This is followed by the angel’s visit to Mary telling her she would bear a son whose name would be Jesus, and onto Bethlehem and the birth of Jesus.

Matthew  is keen to show us Jesus’s pedigree,  so he starts out by going all the way back to Abraham, and continues through Isaac, Jacob, and so on down to King David, on through Jesus’ ancestors in captivity in Babylon, and all the way to Joseph and Mary.

Then he tells the story of Jesus’ birth in Bethlehem, and the arrival of the wise men.

John, as we have heard today, has a rather mystical story. He goes further back in time than the conception of Jesus, further back even than Abraham, and the story of Adam and Eve, and  to the beginning of all time, as he tells us that  ‘In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God,  He was in the  beginning with God; all things were made through him and without him nothing was made.’

Incredibly, what John is saying is that : The God who created the universe is the same One who was found lying in a Bethlehem manger.

And John also wants us to know that Jesus is the same Messiah as was promised in the Old Testament.

The Jesus who is the Messiah, is the Jesus who is God, who is the baby born in Bethlehem.

And John the gospeller gathers signs and affirmations to prove to us that  Jesus is God here on earth as man. 

He tells us of the miracle of changing water into wine at the marriage feast in Cana; the healing of the nobleman’s son; the healing of the lame man; the feeding of the five thousand out of five loaves and two fish; calming the storm when the disciples were frightened they would be shipwrecked and drown; giving sight to the blind man, and raising Lazarus from the dead.

No ordinary man could face what John describes.

And he reminds us of  the Old Testament prophecies about the coming of a messiah, and how they relate to Jesus: that the coming Savior was going to be someone of the line of Abraham, Jacob, Judah, and David. 

Isaiah puts it this way: “ For unto us a Child is born, Unto us a Son is given; And the government will be upon His shoulder. And His name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

We have other testimony to the godliness of the man Jesus from some of those who knew him: John the Baptist who proclaimed:   “I have both seen and testified that this one is the Son of God” (John 1:34):

Nathaniel, introduced to Jesus by Philip said, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God; you are the King of Israel!.” (John 1:49)

Thomas fell to his knees when he met the resurrected Jesus in the flesh, and cried out, “My Lord and my God!” (John 20:28)

We have the words of Jesus himself, who said to Nicodemus,  “No one has ascended into heaven except the one who descended from heaven—the Son of Man” (John 3:13).

When he was challenged on this by the Jews, he responded, “ If I am not doing the works of my Father,  then do not believe in me, but if I do them, even though you do not believe in me, believe the works, that you may know that the Father is in me and I in the Father.”

And they tried to arrest him.

The religious people of the day asked for signs, for miracles that would show the divinity of Jesus but even seeing the miracles could not generate faith in their hearts.

You remember the parable that Jesus told about a poor man named Lazarus covered in sores, who sat in his rags, at the gate to a rich man’s estate?

Lazarus died and went to heaven, and the rich man also died but he went to Hades. The rich man thirsted terribly, and he asked Abraham if Lazarus could be sent down to him with a drop of water to slake his thirst. That couldn’t be, as Abraham pointed out. So the rich man asked if Lazarus could go to his father’s house and warn his brothers lest they too would come to that awful place.” If someone goes to them from the dead, they will believe, “ he said. 

And Abraham told the rich man, “If they do not hear Moses, and the prophets, neither will they be convinced if someone should rise from the dead.”

And right enough, after Jesus’ rising from the dead there were still those who would not believe. 

These people could not find faith enough in themselves to accept Jesus as the Son of God. No matter what sort of miracle he performed, no matter what message of forgiveness from sins he brought to them. No matter the utter grace, and love that shone out of him.  No matter his death on the cross and his glorious resurrection, they would not see the light.

Because they didn’t want the light.

I think, that when we come to faith in Jesus we have to face up to what we have been. We have to come into the light, and out of the darkness, and as welcome as that may seem to some of us, there are those who have a lot to hide. Coming into the light of Christ would be too revealing for them.

I knew a young woman who was a staunch Roman Catholic but  who hated going to confession. I asked her why she hated it so, and she replied that she had a hard time coming up with something to confess.

“Surely,” I said, “ You have something in your life, something on your heart, something that you are ashamed of and for which you need forgiveness?’

“Of course I have,” she said, “ But I wouldn’t tell the priest that. I usually make something up that isn’t so serious. Like I might say I have told a lie to my mother.”

I heard somewhere once that you should never lie to your doctor, or to your lawyer. Maybe you could add to that that you shouldn’t lie to your confessor.

You shouldn’t  – but some do – lie to all three.

You cannot, however, lie to your God.

Because He knows you, inside and out, as they say.

Still,  some people refuse to acknowledge Him. Refuse to acknowledge Jesus. As long as they don’t acknowledge Him then they don’t have to reveal  what is on their soul.  They can remain in the dark.

They think.

But it’s not good, is it?  Being in the dark.

I remember as a teenager, when one night, for something to do, a few of us took a walk through a local wood. There was no moon. There were no streetlights of course, and we were townies. And we had never been in such utter darkness before.

At first we laughed and joked, and sang stupid songs, but gradually we became silent. You could just make out where you were going. But there were shadows. That one looked like a man with a big stick waiting for us.  It was probably just a tree stump with a branch left on. Over there was a bunch of people encircling us – probably just bushes, swaying silently in the soft breeze.

You couldn’t see a thing. But you could imagine plenty. You could get paranoid.

Pretty soon we were all running as quickly as we could,   back to civilisation, and light and safety.

I think that keeping yourself in the dark as it were, alone with your shortcomings, and fears, can breed paranoia. We need outside validation. We need people who will let us bounce ideas off them. Guide us. Be there when    we need reassuring.

When we come into the light  –  when we open up –  then those shadows deep within, that have scared us, lose their power to terrify. 

I think that’s what happens when we turn to Jesus. The things that seemed so bad, and so sinister, don’t  any more. He took  care of things for us, in what he did on that cross. All we have to do is have faith in him.

The people who heard Jesus’ words,  those who saw his miracles, those who heard the things he said about his connection with the Father in Heaven, about His Sonship, couldn’t find that faith within themselves, and so could not come into the light.

They rejected him.

However, the rejection of Jesus by His own people is not the whole story.  There is more to John’s Gospel than the tale of those who rejected Jesus.  John tells us that to all who do receive him, and who believed, he gives the power to become children of God. And this is true for everyone who places faith in Him.

We  can remain in the darkness with all that entails, or we can come into the light and be one of His children.

There is a lovely story of a little boy who had been to Europe  with his father and had been in many of the great cathedrals with the massive stained glass windows and had seen the saints depicted on them.

Soon after he got back and was in school the teacher asked the children , ‘What is a saint?” This little boy shot up his hand, and replied, “A saint is someone that the light shines through.”

If the light shines through then there is nothing to hide. 

And once the light of Christ has shone through us there is nothing left to hide.

And nothing left to fear.

Is there?

Amen.