John 1:5, “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome / comprehended it.”
The ‘light’ that shines in the darkness is the ‘life’ that is in the Word from all eternity (v.4), and what is that life? It is the knowledge of who God is as He is known in the crucified and risen Son (Jn 17:3). And so, the light that shines into the darkness is the light of God’s self-revelation in His Son, the ‘light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ’ (2 Cor.4:6).
This light shines in the darkness as the Word is ‘spoken’ definitively in the medium of flesh and blood through the incarnation of the Son (Jn 1:14,18); and it shines with supreme brilliance and clarity precisely in the moment that this flesh and blood are given for the life of the world on the cross…..
Now, that is amazing to consider because Jesus is crucified *as a result* of the darkness not comprehending (indeed, hating) the light and so seeking to overcome the light (καταλαμβάνω can mean both ‘overcome / comprehend’)…and yet, IN the very moment that the darkness ‘overcomes’ the light because it did not ‘comprehend’ the light (ie, in the moment of the crucifixion), THAT is when the light shines out the brightest…THAT is when the world will know that Jesus is ‘I Am’ (Jn 8:28).
So, in this image I’ve tried to show that the resurrection-illumined crucifixion of Jesus (note the representation of the opened tomb at the center of the burst of light) is the place where the light of God-made known (the light which is life) shines into the world with saving perfection, such that the very ones who in their darkness failed to comprehend and so sought to crucify the light, might now be transformed into sons and daughters of that light.
When the morning light of the resurrection falls back into the night of the Crucifixion, it is then—precisely IN the broken flesh and outpoured blood of Jesus Christ—that we perceive the radiance of the glory of the unseen God.
