I Am and The Light

Don: In scripture, light is often equated with god, goodness, and holiness, from the very first page of the Book of Genesis and the very beginning of Creation all the way to the end of Revelation and the new Earth of endless light.

• In the Creation, light is created on Day 1, but the celestial bodies are not created until Day 4. Yet vegetation is created earlier; suggesting that the light has vegetative—life-giving—power.
• Light and fire are related, as in Moses and the burning bush.
• The inner light as “god in our soul” is mentioned.
• Jesus admonishes us not to hide our light under a bushel.
• At the end of scripture, the throne of heaven is surrounded by a rainbow. A rainbow is refracted light, and that may have some significance.

The most direct story concerning the relationship between Jesus and light is the story of the Transfiguration, which is told with great consistency in Matthew, Luke, and Mark. Here is Mark 9:1-8:

And Jesus was saying to them, “Truly I say to you, there are some of those who are standing here who will not taste death until they see the kingdom of God after it has come with power.”

Six days later, Jesus took with Him Peter and James and John [note that according to Jewish law as established in Deuteronomy, three witnesses are required to authenticate an event—DW], and brought them up on a high mountain by themselves. And He was transfigured before them; and His garments became radiant and exceedingly white, as no launderer on earth can whiten them. [Clearly, this is to be understood as a supernatural light—DW] Elijah appeared to them along with Moses; and they were talking with Jesus. Peter said to Jesus, “Rabbi, it is good for us to be here; let us make three tabernacles, one for You, and one for Moses, and one for Elijah.” For he did not know what to answer; for they became terrified. Then a cloud formed, overshadowing them, and a voice came out of the cloud, “This is My beloved Son, listen to Him!” [Note that god says this in the proximate context of the law and the prophets, as represented by Moses and Elijah—DW] All at once they looked around and saw no one with them anymore, except Jesus alone.

In this Transfiguration, Jesus underwent a change of state—from human to supernatural. Moses and Elijah did not. The point was to show the disciples Peter, James, and John in the clearest possible way that Moses and Elijah did not have the divine nature Jesus had, even though (as devout Jews) the disciples would have revered Moses and Elijah as pinnacles of law-giving and prophecy respectively. The Transfiguration demonstrated that Jesus is divine and therefore his word and his ministry are superior to those of even the greatest of human lawgivers and prophets.

The message is simple.

The scriptural equation of god with light is more than metaphor—it has a reality. In Genesis, light is the first order and the sustaining, life-giving power of Creation. God called it “good”—so goodness is visible in physical light. This is borne out further in John 1:1-9:

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being. In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men. The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.

There came a man sent from God, whose name was John. He came as a witness, to testify about the Light, so that all might believe through him. He was not the Light, but he came to testify about the Light.

There was the true Light which, coming into the world, enlightens every man.

Dave: All life needs light. Life cannot exist without light. God is our light.

Donna: The evil side of life mimics the light symbols. There is a scary devil with his pitchfork and fire; the rainbow of the gay and lesbian movement; manufactured black lights for drug parties; artificial lights to grow marijuana in basements. The devil tries to steal our spiritual light for secular purposes.

Kiran: The light from stars depends on the fuel in the stars, which will eventually be consumed and the stars will go dark. Spiritual light is eternal—is god. We have it in the form of inner light, yet we can’t comprehend it. Why not?

Don: In Genesis, light seems to be created from nothing. It is designed to dispel darkness. Light and darkness are not equivalent—light overcomes darkness, but the reverse is not possible. There is indeed something fundamental about spiritual versus physical light. Perhaps it is its infinity.

Charles: It is revealing that light was the first element of Creation, and it arose from the Word. The Word, of course, was Jesus; which takes us back to the notion of the existence, the I Am, the essence of being, of god. Thus, Jesus is the essence of light and of all Creation. The net of all the stories in John’s gospel is that Jesus is all in all—he is the light, the bread, the way, the truth, the word, and so on.

All that we see is a reflection. We do not perceive anything directly; only through the light reflected from it and registered by the cells in our retinas. Light reveals things to us. It is interesting that after revealing that Jesus was the one true light, God’s instruction to the disciples was to listen to him—to listen to the Word. We live by the Word.

The Transfiguration is a revelation that Jesus is the one true light. Again the answer to all our seeking is found Jesus, he is all in all, the Word and the Way, the bread and the light. It is also a message that the light is available to each of us through Jesus, always and everywhere, but only if we freely choose to follow it. How we do that and how light gives us hope are things I am sure we shall discuss, but I would just note that there are lots of examples where we find ourselves in trouble when there is no light. To the sailor, for example, there is nothing more terrifying than to be caught in a storm at night. The storm hides the light from the stars. It is very frightening.

The brilliant, supernatural light of the Transfiguration is incomprehensible. It is not the light of torch, bulb or sunrise; it is a different kind of light, one not subject to decay or exhaustion, one that cannot be obscured by veils or clouds. It is a light that transcends physicality and embraces spirituality. Jesus is the light of light, the essence of light, which can only be found in the I Am of Jesus. In Jesus, the physicality and the spirituality of the true light are unified.

Dave: The presence of Moses and Elijah symbolizes that Jesus embodies law and prophecy but also much more besides. The essence, the I Am, is there too. But make no mistake: While Moses and Elijah were wonderful men, everything is embodied in Jesus. It is a message that we have gone past Judaism in terms of where we need to look for guidance for our faith.

Don: It is interesting that Peter wanted to build tabernacles for Jesus, Moses, and Elijah, as though they were equivalent. But god slaps him down pretty swiftly.

Kiran: I wonder how the disciples could have recognized Moses and Elijah, who lived centuries before them?

Charles: Almost every religion, age, and culture deifies light. I think it’s because we know that without light, we often take the wrong track, we get lost. If we follow the sun—as ancient mariners did—it eventually sets or becomes obscured by clouds and the mariners would be lost. A torch lit to lead the way will eventually burn out. The sun and stars, indeed all electromagnetic radiation or physical light is impermanent. But the true light of the Transfiguration transcends time, it is inexhaustible…. It is eternal. The promise is that if we choose to follow the true light, even now it will always be there for us in the future—we will never walk in darkness.

Dave: As Donna said, there are different kinds of light, including the false light of the devil that acts on us like the flame acts on the moth—it attracts then burns.

Don: Lucifer means “light bearer”. So he was once associated with the eternal light.

Donna: Lucifer competes with god where god is strongest. He tries to destroy the family—an institution so close to god. Churches and Christians need to keep a close watch on this competition, to know it when we see it, so that we can choose and guide others toward the true light and away from the false light.

David: The physical and the metaphysical are united in the singularity—the point at which, according to my own quantized theory of process theology, god is both Being (I Am) and Becoming (I Will Be). The singularity holds both light and darkness in potential. It takes the Big Bang (the Creation) to release that potential; and in fact, science has shown that photons—light—are created long before stars and planets. Although this physical light is doomed to be extinguished when the universe has collapsed, its potential will remain in the singularity of the Big Crunch—the Omega point, which is simultaneously the Alpha, the Big Bang, Creation. Thus god is always Becoming, even as he always Is. The god we can see and to some extent understand is the god we are part of—the god of Becoming.

Charles: Fallen Man is in darkness and sin as a result of an act of free will. The free choice to disobey God’s Word, to disobey God’s will, caused the separation from the true light and Garden. In a sense, when Adam and Eve chose their will over God’s will, they rejected and separated from God, turned out the light—the true light, left the Garden and descended into darkness. Fallen man, through Adam and Eve, remains separated from God and in lost in the darkness of sin and death. God gave us Jesus as the one true light that will lead us out of darkness and back to God, but only IF we choose to follow him. But God allows us to choose whether or not we wish to follow the light.

Alice: The light of god is what reflects and reveals our sins. It is necessary to have that light, otherwise we have no guidance on how to live, no way to know which path to take. This is “the light that lighteth every man”. Sadly, many people do not seem to recognize it.

Charles: Yes, the more we study the life of Jesus, the closer we draw to his light, the more brilliant that light becomes and the more it reveals about our own shortcomings. The more we truly see in Jesus’ light, the more humble we become, and the more capable we become of recognizing his glory. We have to look deeply at his model—his example—his Way—to see how we should be. His light reveals to us not only what we must do but also how far we are from the goal and how much further we have to go in our spiritual transformation to become like him. The light simultaneously shows our human brokenness and leads us back to the truth, to God.

Alice: The more I know myself, the more I know god. If I think I am something other than who I really am, then I am being false and I will never know god.

Charles: Most sin occurs in the shadows—in darkness—in the deep recesses of the mind. But god’s light penetrates everywhere.

Donna: But there will always be people who encourage you when you choose to follow the false light. It takes constant vigilance to combat this trickery.

Dave: The path is illuminated. As you veer from it—as a matter of choice, of your free will—it grows dimmer, until eventually you might lose sight of it altogether. You lose your conscience. You stop introspecting.

Charles: When one leaves the path, one may still meet good people and be led back to the path by the light they shine. This light is a reflection of Jesus and it exists to show them the way back home. It is interesting that at the Transfiguration, the disciples experienced the true light first hand in Jesus and went on to reflect/transmit it to all future generations. As children of the light, we too reflect that light to guide others on the Way.

Dave: So there are people who can lead one astray and people who can lead one back.

Don: We seem to need a way to validate light; to assess which is true and which is false. The true light is revealed in John 3:16-21:

“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him. He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. This is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil. For everyone who does evil hates the Light, and does not come to the Light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. But he who practices the truth comes to the Light, so that his deeds may be manifested as having been wrought in God.”

Kiran: At the Transfiguration, the dramatis personae included god the father, Moses, Elijah, an untransfigured then a transfigured Jesus, and some humans (the disciples) who were pretty terrified at the whole spectacle. God had to say to them: “Listen to him!” to get the message through to them. The message was that their own transformation out of darkness and into the true light depended on their listening to the Word of Jesus; that it was not enough to heed the law of Moses and the prophecy of Elijah.

Charles: The light was not manifested—or not manifested strongly enough—through Moses and Elijah. It took the Transfiguration to convince the disciples of this.

David: Before we end, I’d like to add a Daoist perspective. A line in the Dao De Jing says that at its brightest, the Way is dark.

Don: We’ll continue this topic next week.

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