Celebrate Jesus Christ, The Light of Life and Love, this Diwali

As we celebrate Diwali, the festival of lights, let us remember that the most profound and irreversible darkness is death. Jesus said, “I am the light of the world (John 8:12).” Further, he declared, “I am the resurrection and life... He who believes in me will live even if he dies (John 11:25).” The light of the world came to reverse the darkness of death by his resurrection and a promise of future resurrection for all who believe in him. Resurrection is the only known cure for death. Homoeopathy, Allopathy,  or Ayurveda cannot reverse death. Only resurrection can reverse death.

Jesus cured death. He also cured hatred with his love. That is why no religion or philosophy has defeated the gospel even after two thousand years of Jesus' advent. Martin Luther King Jr compared love to light and hatred to darkness. He said, “Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.” [1] Love is light. Jesus is that loving light. Diwali declares the victory of light over darkness. Similarly, Jesus’ story proclaims the triumph of love over hatred. True and pure love is what humanity yearns for even today. Only Jesus loved people so much that he gave his life on their behalf to reverse their death (John 3:16), the ultimate darkness.

Moreover, only Jesus can restore people to that loving condition. God is love (1 John 4:8). He created humanity in his image of love to love each other and fill his creation with his love (Gen 1:28). He commanded them to steward the creation in love. People used to resemble God in everything except for position and power. Still, the crafty devil convinced them to attain knowledge that would make them feel they simulate God in authority. Nevertheless, instead of power, knowledge brought death. Knowledge puffs up, love builds up (1 Cor 8:1). If people remained in God’s love by obeying him humbly, God would not have cast them off from his presence or cursed them to return to dust (Gen 3:19). 

However, pride and lust for authority led humanity to death. Death arrived when jealousy and hatred made Cain kill Abel (Gen 4:8). Even so, God had a plan to reverse hatred and death. He chose and blessed Abraham’s family and promised to send a saviour to reverse the effects of the curse (death and decay) through Abraham’s descendant (Gen 12:1-3, Gal 3:16). Abraham's descendant, Jesus, finished death by dying upon the cross. Death came through the curse, and the curse came because of sin. Jesus readily paid the highest penalty the Torah demanded for human sin (Rom 6:23). Jesus –as the sinless representative of sinful humanity and Israel– died the death once for all (Rom 6:10).

Now, the Torah cannot condemn anybody who trusts Jesus. Instead, the same Torah acquits them because of what Jesus did, and they are now made alive by the Holy Spirit who leads them (Rom 8:1-4). Thus, Jesus finished the reign of death over humanity. He ended Israel’s exile and humanity’s separation from God. Prof N.T. Wright writes, “And the result of it all is that the covenant is renewed; that sins are forgiven; that the long night of sorrow, exile and death is over and the new day has dawned.” When Jesus said, “It is finished,” upon the cross, he, perhaps, meant that the ultimate punishment of sin –Death– is finished (John 19:30). Humanity’s debt is discharged. [2]

Thus, Jesus finished the phenomenon of death by his death. Wright writes: “The whole point about Jesus’s death, at the climax of [John’s gospel] that began explicitly with the story of the creation of the good world and of the way in which the darkness cannot overcome the light, is that here at last Jesus is confronting the ‘ruler of the world’ in the person of Pontius Pilate. The light is shining in the darkness, and the darkness cannot quench it—though it will look for a while as though it has done just that.”[3] 

However, Jesus overcame death and rose again on the third day. Jesus Christ is the holy son of God. God did not let his holy and faithful one see decay (Psalm 16:10). If Jesus had any sin –personal or imputed– God would not have raised him from death. Like the sacrificial animal whose blood remains pure and declares sinners clean, Jesus took the punishment on our behalf. Jesus took upon himself God's wrath that came upon all humanity, not humanity’s sin. He was always pure. That is why God reversed Pilate’s verdict and raised him from death to declare him the righteous king of the Jews and Lord of the world. Jesus defeated death and began the new creation project.

Wright observes that the empty tomb and Jesus’ meetings with his disciples, convincing them that he was not a hallucination or a ghost, together provide a comprehensive and coherent explanation of the disciples’ belief and writings as they exist. [4] The empty tomb (Luke 24:3), more than five hundred witnesses who encountered the risen Jesus physically at different times in separate locations (1 Cor 15:6), the failure of the religious Jews and mighty Roman Empire to produce Jesus’ dead body (Matt 28:11-13), and the works of love of his first century apostles empowered by the Holy Spirit all testify to this truth (Acts 3:15-16).

Peter says, “Jesus’ resurrection was God’s vindication of him as Messiah (4:8–12)... He is the stone the builders rejected who is now the cornerstone.” [5] The disciples adhered to Jesus’ resurrection so much that they willingly sacrificed their lives for that truth (Acts 12:2). None of them ever compromised this truth. [6] Eventually, even some of the Jewish Priests who had hated Jesus and handed him over for crucifixion trusted in Jesus’ resurrection when they saw the passion and selfless lives of the apostolic community (Acts 6:7). Wright opines, “[Let us] celebrate the revolution that happened once for all when the power of love overcame the love of power. And, in the power of that same love, join in the revolution here and now.”[7]

When Jesus returns, he will completely reverse the creation’s death and decay. He will rescue and renew the creation and the cosmos and make it deathless. [8] God offers forgiveness through Jesus’ sacrificial death to end people's separation (exile) from God's presence. He sends his Holy Spirit to indwell people's hearts to renew his covenant with people and make their callous hearts fleshly. God’s spirit recreates and transforms humanity into God's image of love so that they can love God and one another again. Now, those who trust Jesus will rise again in the coming age and reign over the world with him, serving each other and creation lovingly. Collectively, they are the world’s light–the visible town built on a hill (Matt 5:14).

[1] Martin Luther King Jr, A Testament of Hope: The Essential Writings and Speeches, ed. James Melvin Washington (HarperOne, 2003).

[2] N. T. Wright, Evil and Justice of God, Kindle (SPCK, 2006), 58.

[3] Wright, “The Story of the Rescue,” in The Day the Revolution Began: Reconsidering the Meaning of Jesus’s Crucifixion, Kindle (HarperOne, 2016), Chapter 10.

[4] Wright, Surprised by Hope, Kindle (HarperOne, 2008), 59.

[5] Wright, The Challenge of Acts, Kindle (SPCK, 2024), 46.

[6] Sean McDowell, The Fate of the Apostles: Examining the Martyrdom Accounts of the Closest Followers of Jesus (Routledge, 2015).

[7] Wright, “The Powers and the Power of Love,” in The Day the Revolution Began: Reconsidering the Meaning of Jesus’s Crucifixion, Kindle (HarperOne, 2016), Chapter 15.

[8] N. T. Wright, Simply Jesus: Who He Was, What He Did, Why It Matters, Kindle (SPCK, 2011), 262.