Our Christmas Eve Service begins by declaring, “Jesus Christ is the Light of the World” to which the congregation responds, “the light no darkness can overcome.” These words come from the Gospel according to St. John, chapters 1 and 8. Christ declares Himself to be the light and John echoes that declaration and expounds on it.
Jesus is the Light because He reveals to us the truth about God. He reveals God the Father. Apart from Jesus coming into our world, we could not know God. Who can make declarations about God, except God? Apart from God’s revelation, people just guess about God. They make inferences based on creation—inferences based on what they see and what they observe. Who is to say anyone’s inference is better than anyone else’s?
We are in darkness when it comes to God. No one has seen God that they could tell us about Him, except for the one whom the Father has sent into the world. Jesus, God the Son, has come into world in human flesh. We celebrate this fact at Christmas. Jesus has been born. God has come among men to reveal Himself to us. He has come so that we would no longer be in darkness about who He is.
This is why soon after those first few lines we say “Let Your light scatter the darkness”(1 Corinthians 4:5) and the people respond, “and illumine Your Church” (2 Corinthians 4:6). The coming of Christ at Christmas does just this. He shows us who He is. He shows us what kind of God He is. He is the God who comes amidst His creation in order to share our sufferings and take our sins by taking our death on the cross.
In our services, we hand out candles for everyone who wants one. Near the end, we take and light one of those handheld candles from either the altar candles (which signify God’s presence and Jesus as the Light) or we light the candles from the Christ candle (a candle that signifies Christ’s birth and is used around this time with the Advent wreath). In either case, the symbolism is that the light of Christ comes to us and reveals who God is. The light is taken by the pastor to the people and they pass it to other people. This action points to how Christ’s light has come to us and spread throughout the world.
Jesus revealed Himself 2,000 years ago to the apostles and many others. These people took the Light of Christ and spread it to more people. That Light and revelation of Christ has reached us today. Every year we repeat this rite not only to remember the past of how Christ was revealed to us but also to realize that we need Christ to keep our candles burning. The little candles are finite. They remind us that we can’t keep our own candles burning. We don’t have the strength to do so.
This means we need Jesus not only to light our candles but to provide us with more candle. There is a parable that Jesus tells in Matthew 25:1-13 about ten virgins who are waiting from Jesus, the bridegroom to come again. They have oil lamps and some of them have extra oil and some of them did not bring any. The point of the parable is that to be ready for Christ, your faith has to be kept alive. If your faith goes out, you will not be ready for Jesus. We need Jesus to provide us with more oil. We need Him to strengthen our faith because we are finite while He is the one and only infinite God along with the Father and the Holy Spirit. We have our limits but Christ Jesus is always able to rekindle our hearts afresh with new oil.
This is why the candlelight portion of our services happen after we have heard God’s Word read and preached and after we have sung it to each other. Jesus Christ has revealed Himself, the Father, and the Spirit, in His Word and we have heard Him speak. Our faith has been rekindled and strengthened. The spiritual reality of what has happened is symbolically seen in the actions of our rite. The candlelight services remind us of what Jesus has done for us at Christmas and continues to do for us in His Word.
This article was originally published in the Davis County Clipper in Utah; it is printed here with permission of the authors, Rev. Jason Krause and Rev. Kurt Hering. Rev Hering is currently serving at Holy Baptism Lutheran Church in Ogden, UT