Light Commands Our Attention

I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to Myself.

–John 12:32

Light is used to describe Jesus Christ in some of the best-known passages of Scripture. For example, John 1:7, 9 says, “[John] came as a witness, to testify about the Light, so that all might believe through him. . . . There was the true Light which, coming into the world, enlightens every man.” And Jesus Himself said, “I am the Light of the world; he who follows Me will not walk in the darkness, but will have the Light of life” (8:12).

Why is Jesus the Light of the world? Light commands our attention, especially in the darkness. Several years ago, during a severe winter storm, the power grid in Texas failed, and we were without electricity for days. Our house was very cold and very dark. We were like the pioneers in Little House on the Prairie, scurrying around to get our chores done before the sun went down. At night, we stumbled around our house in the darkness, but we found a candle and put it on the kitchen table. My wife and I were drawn like moths to that flame because it provided the light and warmth we desired.

When Isaiah prophesied about the coming Messiah seven hundred years before His birth, he said, “The people who walk in darkness will see a great light; those who live in a dark land, the light will shine on them” (Isaiah 9:2). He was predicting that Jesus’s arrival would command our attention. When you think about it, it’s amazing that Jesus’s birth commanded anybody’s attention. He was born in an animal feeding trough to a couple who didn’t have two denarii to rub together, in a village so small it wasn’t even listed on the registry of Judean cities. Jesus was born 1,450 years before the printing press and 1,900 years before the radio. Yet His birth is the central event in human history.

If you’re skeptical of that claim, consider that every time you write the date, you’re acknowledging how many years it’s been since the arrival of the Messiah. Everyone who acknowledges time has to acknowledge the One who split time in half: Jesus Christ. He is the Son of God, and He still defines human history.

As Christians, our mission is not to lift up a moral code or a political philosophy; our mission is to lift up a person, Jesus Christ, who said, “I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to Myself” (John 12:32). Light commands our attention.

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Today’s devotion is adapted from “When Darkness Overcomes the Light” by Dr. Robert Jeffress, 2023.

Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. www.lockman.org.