“The Light Shines in the Darkness”

Sunday, December 25, 2022

And when the Lord smelled the pleasing aroma, the Lord said in his heart, “I will never again curse the ground because of man, for the intention of man's heart is evil from his youth. Neither will I ever again strike down every living creature as I have done. While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, shall not cease.” (Genesis 8.21-22)

God made the universe in such a way that the earth goes through continual cycles—day and night, the moon’s phases, and the seasons being the three most obvious.  These cycles give us observable and relatable markers of time, but they also govern our lives.  We don’t often acknowledge this, and yet when it comes to the sun, we can scarcely imagine life without the continual alternation of day and night, or the cycle of seasons. 

It’s important to note that this is not a mere coincidence of nature.  It’s the way things are, and so of course all living creatures have learned to behave in relative harmony with it, but nevertheless, God created it, and we should not accuse him of carelessness.

Man understood, for thousands of years, just how important was the sun’s course in the sky to his continued survival, and for all our advances in science and technology, we would do well to relearn that lesson today.  Pagans all over the world looked up at the sky and found significance in what they saw there, and they often left behind structures that tell us so, even without a written explanation.  Stonehenge, the ring of astonishingly large stones erected in England some 4,500 years ago, was carefully arranged with lines pointing directly toward the sunrise and sunset at the summer and winter solstices.  The 12^th-century Khmer temple complex called Angkor Wat, in Cambodia, features structures similarly aligned for each solstice, as well as spring and fall equinoxes.  The ancient Mnajdra temple complex on the island of Malta uses a precisely aligned gateway to direct the light of the equinox morning sunrise straight through the middle of the shrine to light up the rear niche.  We could add to this list the Mayan pyramid at Chichen Itza, the Egyptian pyramid complex at Giza, and many more.  Although they often reflect a misguided reverence for the sun itself, rather than its Creator, they all illustrate the divine significance man has seen in the sun’s cycles since time immemorial. 

It wasn’t just the pagans.  God made use of a similar phenomenon, when he told Moses,

“This month shall be for you the beginning of months. It shall be the first month of the year for you. Tell all the congregation of Israel that on the tenth day of this month every man shall take a lamb according to their fathers' houses, …and you shall keep it until the fourteenth day of this month, when the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill their lambs at twilight.” (Exodus 12.2-6)

In instituting the Passover, he also instructed Israel how to arrange its calendar.  Since the months of the Hebrew calendar begin on the night when a New Moon is first sighted, pinning the Passover to the evening of the 14^th would ensure it coincided with the Full Moon following the spring equinox, which  roughly correlates with the beginning of the month Aviv—which means, spring.  The Feast of Booths and Day of Atonement roughly coincide with the fall equinox, as well.

It doesn’t end there.  Let’s consider the winter solstice in particular.  God never commanded Israel to observe a holiday around this time of year, but we saw many examples where pagans recognized its symbolism.  After six months of the night getting progressively longer than the day, it hits its most extreme point, with the sun appearing farthest south in the sky, and the shortest day of the year.  And then the tide turns, and the days get longer until the summer solstice, as if the light is beginning to gain the upper hand in a battle with darkness.  By the time “the Word became flesh and dwelt among us” (Jn 1.14), the Jews had a feast for this time of year.  It commemorated the ousting of Gentile overlords from the Temple, and its purification and rededication to the worship of the one true God; and Jesus himself made sure to go up to Jerusalem and the Temple to celebrate.

At that time the Feast of Dedication took place at Jerusalem. It was winter, and Jesus was walking in the temple, in the colonnade of Solomon. (John 10.22-23)

In Hebrew, “the dedication” is Hanukkah, but most modern Jews prefer the name applied by the 1^st-century historian Josephus: The Feast of Lights.  This comes from a purported miracle surrounding the Temple’s lampstand, but the timing of the feast suggests that, one way or another, it owed to the winter solstice and the symbolic rebirth of the sun each year. 

The same is true of Christmas.  We have no idea on what date Jesus was born.  He clearly didn’t think it was terribly important for us to know, or he would have made sure to tell us.  But within a few centuries of the church being established, a debate raged over the topic, with various suggestions considered until, December 25 won out.  Whether it truly is the birthdate of Christ, only God knows; but like the alignment of Stonehenge, or the arrangement of the Egyptian pyramids, or even the Jewish Feast of Lights, it’s not an accident that Jesus’ birth has been commemorated by so many, for so long, so near the winter solstice.  The cold, the dead, and the darkness get worse and worse, as the sun sinks lower and lower in the sky.  But then the light begins to return, and with it, hope that life may continue, and even thrive.

The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world. (John 1.9)

Jeremy Nettles

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