A LIGHT IN THE DARK
Some
Christmas cards from Europe trickled in towards the end of January and one of
them was striking. It featured Rembrandt’s 1647 painting of the Holy Family’s Rest on the Flight into Egypt. The picture is almost totally dark,
black 
as night with only the final traces of daylight. But towards the bottom
left the Holy Family is resting among trees around a blazing fire: an oasis of
light “amidst the encircling gloom” (Newman).
as night with only the final traces of daylight. But towards the bottom
left the Holy Family is resting among trees around a blazing fire: an oasis of
light “amidst the encircling gloom” (Newman).
The darkness
can stand for many situations but perhaps primarily the dark deed of Herod in
slaughtering the children. Matthew’s account mirrors the grim reality of a
world caught in a struggle for power where the innocent suffer.
Generations
of Afghans, dating back to the 1970s, have known nothing but war and when yet
another atrocity is reported it briefly appears on the headlines and is then
forgotten. Last week 103 people died when a bomb was detonated in the capital,
Kabul, but the world has already moved on.
What gloom
and darkness in that suffering country! And yet there are reports of people
sending messages of hope and signs of people mobilising to resist. There are
oases of light appearing in the black despair. “Better to light a candle than
to curse the darkness!”
With a
thrill we realise that people always push back against the forces of evil.
There is something in human nature, perhaps God’s greatest gift, which enables
us to fight back against darkness. We have that power. Always!
Job, in his
desolation, asks, “Is not human life on earth no better that drudgery?” Many a
prisoner or long term patient in a hospital must feel that. But at every moment
and every place we have the power to fight back; to resist the approach of evil
in our own life and in the world. That little group around the fire in the dark
night is a sign for everyone. “The light shines in the darkness and the
darkness did not overcome it.” (John 1:5)
4 February 2018 Sunday 5 B
Job 7:1-7 1
Corinthians 9:18-23 Mark
1:29-39
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