“This is the judgment…”

When anyone gives us a reason why people are under the judgment of God, I guess one should listen and think about it.

The above reason comes from a man about whom a great deal is known. There are four first-century contemporary biographies of him, all of which testify to his God-like power over human sickness, extreme weather, and even death itself. All of which testify to his overarching compassion towards the sick, the poor, the widows and the suffering. All of which testify to his authoritative teaching. All of which testify to his unjust condemnation, his death as a perceived dangerous criminal, and his resurrection. 

Why are the people (that means all humanity) under judgment? According to Jesus, the people are under judgment because the light has come into the world and the people loved the darkness rather than the light. 

What is the light? What is the light which has come into the world? Is it Jesus himself – the subject of those four biographies?

In Jersey today, almost all people, if at all possible, have nothing to do with the light which has come into the world. This is the judgment which hovers like a nuclear primed drone above us all. According to Jesus.

But why? Why do the people love darkness rather than the light? He gives the reason: it’s because their works – their deeds – are bad. I suppose that light reveals the badness of everything – from the flaws in a diamond to the motives behind people falling-out with one another and then to the envy and avarice and pursuit of happiness which discounts any bad done by us to others, or suffering in others which we never alleviate.

So…. Best to avoid the light of the world – especially if he is who we think he is. His light – even his Good Friday light – is awful.

 

Ukraine – the war in Europe - still dominates our news media. We know that President Putin must be avoiding the light.

We also know that our leaders – business, financial, political and even religious – fear the light. Religion isn’t the light. Often, our leaders – and many others – find religion an amazingly useful veneer. But personally to come towards the light is very different.

That light, when speaking, teaching, walking and dying on earth, was totally transparent. We’re not. There’s the rub. 

 

These words of Jesus are very hard to endorse as being correct. I wonder. Would you do something for me - after clicking on “Reply”? 

What I would like you to do is to let me know if, in fact, you are a man or a woman who is “doing true things” and who is coming “towards the light” and for whom it is now correct to state that you wish to show that “in God your works have been worked.”

After all, this is the judgment: that the light has come into the world, and the people loved the darkness rather than the light, because their works were bad.…

The light was shining on that first Good Friday and on this one also.