There’s an old story about two little boys, brothers named Jimmy and Johnny, who were terrible trouble makers.

They were always breaking things, lying, and they especially loved stealing things, so people always knew to talk to their mother whenever anything went missing. Their mother tried everything to get her boys to stop stealing things, but nothing was very effective. Finally, desperate, she asked her pastor if he could help. So the pastor thought about it, and decided the best way to talk with them was to remind them that God is in heaven on His throne, and sees everything we do, and we can’t hide anything from God.

So the pastor comes to their home, and asks to talk with Johnny first. He sits down with him and his mom in the family room, and asks him, “Where is God,” wanting Johnny to answer “in heaven.” But Johnny just sat there. So the pastor asked him again, “Johnny, where is God?” But Johnny didn’t say anything. So the pastor, getting a little frustrated because it seemed like Johnny was being stubborn, said it a bit more sternly, “Where is God?” And at that point, Johnny jumped up out of the chair and ran to Jimmy’s bedroom, shutting the door behind him, and said to his brother, “Jimmy, we’re in big trouble this time! God’s missing and they think we did it!”

Christmas reminds us that God can be found everywhere, even in the most unlikely of places.

As I was considering what to preach on for the weeks leading up to Christmas, I discovered that I have never preached the Christmas story from the Gospel of Mark. I’ve preached Christmas messages from the other gospel accounts, Matthew, Luke, John, and even from Old Testament passages that foretell the birth of Jesus, such as from Isaiah and even Genesis. But in all my years as a pastor, as far as I can tell, I’ve never preached a Christmas message from the Gospel of Mark. And there’s actually a very simple reason I’ve never done this: it’s because the Christmas story isn’t in the Gospel of Mark.

Mark’s account of the life of Jesus is the most brief of the gospels, and it focuses primarily on what Jesus did and said during His ministry. While Matthew, Luke, and John read very much like papers to convince you that Jesus is the Son of God, Mark just assumes it from verse 1, and reads much more like a riveting story with no theological interruptions.

But even though Mark’s account doesn’t explicitly include the story of the birth of Jesus, it does very much tie into the Christmas story, and even help us to understand the Christmas story in a way that doesn’t just confine the story to one month or even one day of the year, but shows how Jesus came to impact all of our lives.

So that’s what we’ll be looking at in the Gospel of Mark for the next 3 weeks leading up to Christmas. We’re going to see how Jesus can be found everywhere, even in the most unlikely of places: in a manger as a child, on the cross as a servant, and even in the darkness of our broken world, in which He shines His light.

This morning, we’ll be looking at the last of these, how Christmas reminds us to reflect on the light that Jesus brings into our dark world.

Mark 4:21-22.

[Jesus] said to them, “Is a lamp brought in to be put under a basket or under a bed? Isn’t it to be put on a lampstand? For there is nothing hidden that will not be revealed, and nothing concealed that will not
be brought to light. (Mark 4:21-22)

Father, help us this Christmas season not to hide in darkness, or to conceal our light, but to celebrate the Light which has come into the world, and to spread the Light of the gospel wherever we go. In Jesus’s name, Amen.

When you think about Christmas today, what images pop into your mind?

Most people today picture the hustle and bustle of shopping, decorating, and then of course, the joyful and sometimes very loud time on Christmas morning opening presents. And even though Christmas is often commercialized because of these kinds of things, I think these things can be good because they help us to celebrate, and it’s good to celebrate.

But when you think about the first Christmas, what image pops into your head? It’s probably a little different, isn’t it?

If you’re like me, when you think about the first Christmas, you think about the dark night on which Jesus was born.

And yet, even on such a dark night, the brightest Light had invaded the darkness. And because Jesus was born, we also may now walk in the light of life.

In context, our verses in Mark today talk about how we are to live in the light as believers in God. As we believe the gospel, trusting in Jesus, we’re to shine the light of Christ to all the world.

Because of our sin and selfishness, we have the natural inclination to hide our light, fearing what others may think of us, or even fearing what we might miss out on if we were really to go all in with Jesus. But God invites us to taste and see that He’s good, and in doing so, we obtain a light in us that bursts forth from our lives, demanding to be shown to all the world around us.

And even if we attempt to hide that light, it seems that God promises in verse 22 that the light will be shown. We can’t conceal it forever. God will glorify His name through us, and He invites us now to be active, joyful participants in displaying His glory.

Additionally, if we think we can hide our sin from God and others, we’d be deceiving ourselves. There’s nothing hidden that will not be revealed, and even our secret sins will eventually be brought into the light. In fact, God already knows all of them, and we cannot hide from God.

God knows how we’ve sought out worldly pleasures, whether greed or lust or even entertainment, and how we’ve neglected to give Him praise for all the good things that He’s given us in life. God knows our sin better than we do. God knows all things, and deserves all praise, and He knows that we all deserve death and hell because of our sin.

That sounds scary. But it’s actually a very good thing. You see, God knows all of our dirt, all of our darkness, all of our sin, and He continues to love us. As Tauren Wells sang so beautifully in his song, Known:

I’m fully known
And loved by You.
-Tauren Wells, Known

Which, to me, actually sounds a lot like the words one of my favorite Christmas hymns, O Little Town of Bethlehem, when it says:

The hopes and fears of all the years
Are met in thee tonight
-O Little Town of Bethlehem

Because of our sin, we fear being known, so we hide from God, and yet we all hope to be truly known, longing for it. And in Jesus, we are fully known and loved by God.

It’s interesting to me how many people that I’ve talked with attempt to minimize their sin, or even seek to justify their sin. But God calls us to confess our sin, not making excuses for it, but taking full ownership of it, because it’s only through admitting our sin to God, and calling on Jesus to save us, that we can be forgiven and find healing from all the pains that our sin has caused us. That’s God’s desire for you: to find your hope and healing in Jesus.

That’s why Jesus came. So as we meditate a bit on our passage today in light of Christmas, I actually think that we find that it helps us to understand the birth and life of Jesus a bit more, as well as the mind of God and His desire for all of us. To make this more clear, let’s compare what the Gospel of Mark says about light and darkness with what the Gospel of John says about light and darkness.

Interestingly, the Gospel of John also doesn’t include the Christmas story, and yet usually we don’t notice it as much primarily because of just one verse in John. It says in John 1:14:

The Word became flesh and dwelt among us. We observed his glory, the glory as the one and only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. (John 1:14)

And this very clearly is talking about the birth of Jesus, because if we back up to the beginning of John, we read in verses 1-5:

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. All things were created through him, and apart from him not one thing was created that has been created. In him was life, and that life was the light of men. That light shines in the darkness, and yet the darkness did not overcome it. (John 1:1-5)

So the Word that John writes about in the beginning of his account is Jesus. Jesus, who is the Son of God, and God the Son, the second person of the Trinity, was with God the Father in the beginning, before the world or time as we know it was even made, and yet within the time that He Himself created, Jesus was born into the world He Himself made. The Word became flesh and dwelt among us.

This is what we refer to as the Incarnation: how God became a man. The Divine entered into the ordinary. The One who is not limited by time and space chose to limit Himself at a certain time, in a certain place. The Supreme Being over all of the universe, who made us and sustains us, became one of us, and lived among us.

And He was born in very obscure circumstances, not fitting for a king, with no fanfare aside from the shepherds who were directed to the place of His birth by a host of angels. So even Jesus’s birth is an illustration of how Jesus entered into the realm of our darkness, this world, and even our sin.

It’s like, according to the Gospel of John, from Jesus’s birth, His glory was hidden, concealed, unrecognized by all the world. But according to the Gospel of Mark, there is nothing hidden that will not be revealed, and nothing concealed that will not be brought to light.

Later in John, we read that Jesus said:

I am the light of the world! (John 8:12a)

So when Jesus was born, even though it was a dark night, the Light of the world had come!

So Jesus said, and Mark recorded, “Is a lamp brought in to be put under a basket or under a bed? Isn’t it to be put on a lampstand?” Psalm 119:105 says:

Your word is a lamp for my feet and a light on my path. (Psalm 119:105)

So Jesus, being the Word of God, is to be lifted up, so that all may see His light.

Now, some would probably say that I’m taking a very allegorical interpretation of what Jesus said here, and I acknowledge that. But I’d also say that not all allegorical interpretations are wrong, and in this case, it’s even a somewhat necessary thing to see that Jesus is the true Light that cannot be hidden.

Because as we’ve already seen, this verse in Mark is all about the light that Jesus instills in us by faith. After all, Jesus said to us in Matthew 5:14:

You are the light of the world. (Matthew 5:14a)

We ought to be people who push against the darkness, sharing God’s love, showing kindness, and never taking vengeance, but loving even our enemies. We are called to be the light of the world.

But even as we strive to live that out, we should always be quick to remember that we can only be the light of the world as we rest in Jesus and point to Jesus, who is the source of all light and goodness, because He Himself is the Light of the world.

So when Jesus came, God never intended for Him to be put under a basket or under a bed, hidden away for only those of us that know He’s there. God the Father fully intended to put Jesus on a lampstand, lifted up and put on display, for all to see. His glory was concealed for a time, only so that it would be revealed at the proper time. So Jesus went on to say in John 12:

Now is the judgment of this world. Now the ruler of this world will be cast out. As for me, if I am lifted up from the earth I will draw all people to myself. (John 12:31-32)

That’s the judgment. We often think about judgment as the hell that awaits us if we continue to cling to our sin, and I think that’s true. But Jesus also spoke of the cross as the judgment of the world and as the judgment of the ruler of this world, talking about Satan. And furthermore, Jesus said this in John 3:

This is the judgment: The light has come into the world, and people loved darkness rather than the light because their deeds were evil. (John 3:19)

You see, the only reason that there’s still darkness is that we tend to prefer the darkness. Which is to say, the only reason there’s sin in the world is because we still cling to our sin. But the darkness cannot overcome the light. In the end, the light of God’s glory will always shine, and the darkness will be done away with. That is God’s judgment.

I want to read to you a somewhat long passage of what William Barclay wrote about this verse, because I think it’s exactly what the Bible says about God’s judgment.

John has just said that it was because God so loved the world that he sent his Son into the world. Later he will go on to show us Jesus saying: “For judgment I came into this world” (Jn 9:39). How can both things be true?

It is quite possible to offer a man an experience in nothing but love and for that experience to turn out a judgment. It is quite possible to offer a man an experience which is meant to do nothing but bring joy and bliss and yet for that experience to turn out a judgment. Suppose we love great music and get nearer to God in the midst of the surge and thunder of a great symphony than anywhere else. Suppose we have a friend who does not know anything about such music and we wish to introduce him to this great experience, to share it with him, and give him this contact with the invisible beauty which we ourselves enjoy. We have no aim other than to give our friend the happiness of a great new experience. We take him to a symphony concert; and in a very short time he is fidgeting and gazing around the hail, extremely bored. That friend has passed judgment on himself that he has no music in his soul. The experience designed to bring him new happiness has become only a judgment.

This always happens when we confront a man with greatness. We may take him to see some great masterpiece of art; we may take him to listen to a prince of preachers; we may give him a great book to read; we may take him to gaze upon some beauty. His reaction is a judgment; if he finds no beauty and no thrill we know that he has a blind spot in his soul. A visitor was being shown round an art gallery by one of the attendants. In that gallery there were certain masterpieces beyond all price, possessions of eternal beauty and unquestioned genius. At the end of the tour the visitor said: “Well, I don’t think much of your old pictures.” The attendant answered quietly: “Sir, I would remind you that these pictures are no longer on trial, but those who look at them are.”

Now, some of you may be thinking right now, “That was kind of a long, boring quote, Pastor Chris, I can’t believe you read that whole thing and made us sit through it!” But that’s exactly what William Barclay was talking about! I found what he wrote to be so incredibly true, and uplifting, and I wanted to share it with you so that you could be uplifted by it as well, but no matter how much I want you to, I can’t make you appreciate it.

And in the same way, Jesus is the Light of the world, and His light shines in our darkness, but many still prefer to hide in darkness. But our darkness cannot overcome Him. Even though our sin is great, His grace is greater, and since Jesus was lifted up on the cross, He’s drawing all people to Himself, including you.

So don’t cling to your sin, hiding in the darkness. Step out into the light, trusting in Jesus, and find forgiveness and grace in Him.