One of the dominate themes that comes into play in the birth narrative of Jesus is light appearing in the midst of darkness. Often times folks overlook the simple fact that Jesus is born at night. While this may seem to be a rather arbitrary feature in the story, it is crucially important (no detail of scripture is arbitrary! God doesn’t waste a word!)
What is the significance of Christ being born into a dark world? This symbol links up with John 6:44 where Jesus says (paraphrase) that anyone who comes to him is drawn by the Father. He also says that it is those who are sick who need a physician (Mark 2:17), not those who are well. What Jesus really means is that it is only people who understand and fully recognize their sin condition who can come to him as a savior. Only those who know they are in darkness also know that they need the light; only those who have humbled themselves and removed ego and self-concern from the equation. Even the simple realization of sin (i.e. conviction) is revealed by the Father through the Holy Spirit. Salvation is God’s work from start to finish!
Jesus is only born into the darkness of the life of the believe. The believer who believes him or herself to living in the light when they are actually in darkness will never fall at the feet of the King.
This is not the only dimension of the symbol of light and darkness in the birth narrative. Light appearing in the midst of darkness is powerful image that pervades the Scriptures. In the Old Testament in particular, there is a specific connection between the arrival of the reign of God through his Messiah and the dawn of the day. We read about this in 2 Samuel 23:3–4. In this text David says, “The God of Israel has spoken; the Rock of Israel has said to me: When one rules justly over men, ruling in the fear of God, he dawns on them like the morning light, like the sun shining forth on a cloudless morning, like rain that makes grass to sprout from the earth,” (emphasis added).
What does this mean? This means that the image of Christ as the light coming into the World (see John 1) represents not only the fact that God is with us (“Immanuel”) but also that he sent a KING. The old Christmas hymn The First Noel got it right when it said, “Born is the King of Israel!”. This isn’t just the birth of God, this is very manifestation of the faithfulness of God to Abraham, Israel, and David. In the birth of this Davidic King is God’s promise to his people fulfilled.
In this sense, the Christmas story is very much about the faithfulness of God. This isn’t only the story of Christmas, but the story of Jesus at large: God is faithful. God keeps his word, and he always will.
