A Shining Light
I am writing this on Friday, November 22, 2002. Thirty-nine years ago three men died. One of an assassin's bullet, one in his home in California, the other in a far more relaxed setting—his home in England. The three I’m referring to are John Fitzgerald Kennedy, Aldous Huxley, and finally, C.S. Lewis.
Listen to what George Sayer, friend and biographer of Lewis, said at the funeral of this Oxford Don, whom according to his own words came “kicking and screaming” into the Kingdom of God. “We clustered around to see the coffin lowered into the grave. It was the sort of day Jack [Lewis’s nickname] would have appreciated, cold but sunlit. It was also very still. A lighted church candle was placed on the coffin, and its flame did not flicker. For more than one of us, that clear, bright candle flame seemed to symbolize Jack. He had been the light of our lives, ever steadfast in friendship. Yet, most of all, the candle symbolized his unflagging pursuit of illumination.” When Sayer became apprenticed as a young tutor of Lewis, he met a man whom Lewis referred to as “Tollers” sitting on the front stone steps on the college campus. “How did you get on?” the man asked. “I think rather well. I think he will be a most interesting tutor to have.” “Interesting? Yes, he’s certainly that. You’ll never get to the bottom of him.” So that was a casual but admiring estimate of Lewis by his old friend, J.R.R.Tolkien, author of Lord of The Rings.
More important than the politics of the Democratic President, John F. Kennedy or Brave New World by Huxley is the legacy of faith left by C.S. Lewis to a dark world in need of the Light of Life. This morning while contemplating the famous people who died thirty-nine years ago today, I kept coming back to the verse of Scripture found in Proverbs 4:18, “But the path of the just is as the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day.”
A small portion of the newspaper was given to mark the death of Lewis, November 22, 2002. Volumes were issued to blaze the news of President Kennedy’s assignation. Now thirty-nine years later people can’t shut up about Lewis. His memory is a shining light more and more unto that perfect day.
May all be challenged to live in such a way that our light will shine on after we are not physically present to be seen. What is so beautiful about a shining light?
I. It Breaks The Darkness About Us.
I love the meaning of the word Gospel. It means “good news.” With so much bad news, we can’t get enough good news. In Lewis’ The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe we see the lion Aslan (a type of Christ) raised from the dead after all those evil personages longed for his death. That was the good news of resurrection after a tortuous vicarious death. Lewis, like any Christian, could not get over the Gospel. “For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ” (II Corinthians 4:6).
II. It Illumines The Path Before Us.
“Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path” (Psalm 119:105). The best example of a light before us is the Word of God which is likened to a lamp that will lead us through the night of life. Thank God when we live the Word in our personal lives, we become prophetic of what Jesus desires His disciples to be in this world. The Lord Jesus said, “Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid” (Matthew 5:14).
III. It Honors the Greater Light.
We see in Genesis that God has placed a greater light to rule the day and the lesser lights to rule the night. You might say, we as His people are the night lights to lead others on to know the Greater Light. “And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: he made the stars also” (Genesis 1:16).
God has placed the sun in our sky to rule the day. He has also placed His only begotten “Son” in His sky to give us a new day.
John the Baptist left a testimony as a bright and shining light. Observe what Jesus said of John, “He was a burning and a shining light: and ye were willing for a season to rejoice in his light” (John 5:35). The key to John’s witness is revealed in Scripture. “There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. The same came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all men through him might believe. He was not that Light, but was sent to bear witness of that Light” (John 1:6-8).
In a real sense, this is what our Lord wants from us. May we all be God’s night lights pointing the way to the source of all light, Jesus Christ.
- Pastor Pope -