Why is it so dark in here?

Remember when you were a teenager hanging around your friends bedroom listening to music, and their Mom would walk in and turn on the big overhead light and say “Why is it so dark in here?”. There would be a little night light on the dresser or maybe it was just after twilight with mostly shadows in the room. Your friend would answer “Mom! It’s not dark we could see fine, we were just talking anyway”. We can sometimes be oblivious to the darkness, to the state of our being. We think the fading twilight or the night light on the dresser is enough to live our lives with.

I am going to ask you a favor this week. Find a Bible in your home, if you don’t have one go out and get one. If you want me to send you one for free, send me your address in the comments and I will be sure you get one. I am going to trust that each of you will read through the first chapter of Luke.

In Luke 1:57- 80 we hear the circumstances of John the Baptist birth. There is much celebration by family and friends, and then confusion when they ask Elizabeth what will be the child’s name. “He shall be called John”. This is almost a humorous passage, I can almost hear the exclamations “John, John what kind of name is John”, “We don’t have any relatives named John”, “Do you know a relative named John”, “Maybe Elizabeth is confused”, “Let’s ask Zacharias”. Much to their surprise Zacharias writes down on a tablet the same thing: “His name is John” and immediately he is able to speak. They recognized the miracle and knew the child would be special.

Now the Holy Spirit filled Zacharias and he began to prophecy. I just want to look at these verses:

Luke1:76 “ And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Highest;
For you will go before the face of the Lord to prepare His ways,
77 To give knowledge of salvation to His people
By the remission of their sins,
78 Through the tender mercy of our God,
With which the Dayspring from on high has visited us;
79 To give light to those who sit in darkness and the shadow of death,
To guide our feet into the way of peace.”

John the Baptist will have a special mission to prepare the people for Christ coming. How was he to prepare them? By giving them knowledge of salvation. Salvation granted by God’s tender mercy, by the remission of sins. Oh, oh there is one of those weird religious words remission. I thought remission was when someone has their cancer stop, but it might come back later. Well in a sense, sin is a sickness, it confuses us, we walk in darkness because of it. The remission spoken of here has to do with getting rid of sin, specifically through forgiveness. As we are forgiven the consequences of sin is removed.

I want you to think about the last verse. What does it mean to “sit in darkness”? It means we are going about our daily lives, sometimes unaware of the growing darkness. And just like Mom walking into your bedroom and turning on the big overhead light and proclaiming “Why is it so dark in here”. We will see John walking into the lives of many, to prepare them for the coming of Jesus by calling people to repent (turn back from) and accept God’s forgiveness for the remission of sins. John will shed a great light, that will guide our feet to peace with God.