Jesus is Revealed in the Light

By Drew Hartman, Ph.D.

Light; it is something essential to life. It provides the energy we need, offers the ability to observe the world, and provides us with warmth. The way it fills our universe travelling from distant galaxies is ineffable, while just a tiny bit of light can provide comfort for a child as they sleep. We can see it with our eyes, feel it on our cheeks, hear the animals it stirs, and smell the flowers it opens on beautiful spring days. Its necessity is so self-evident that the Bible mentions light over 200 times to signify guidance, salvation and holiness. Light is vital, but when you ask most people what light is, they’ll probably give a simple answer. My father’s definition was “the opposite of darkness…can’t see.” My son pointed at the chandelier and said “lightbulbs”. One of my more scientifically minded friends said that it is “photons traveling through space really fast,” which is on the right track. But light is a peculiar thing. If you ask a physicist about light, we can’t give you a simple answer. This is because light is complex enough that it can’t be described in just a few words. In classical physics, light is a wave. In quantum mechanics, light is a particle. In particle physics, light carries a force. It is massless, yet it carries momentum. It is the mediator of interactions in matter. Light has no classical analogy. So when Jesus described himself as “the light of the world.” (John 8:12) could He have meant more than what meets the eye?

Many times in scripture light is used as a metaphor. Proverbs 4:18 tells us, “the path of the righteous is like the light of dawn,” discussing growth. While Psalm 119:105 says, “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path,” teaching us to trust God for guidance. But then there are other times when light is mentioned referring directly to God. The Lord’s presence and light are almost inseparable. In fact, excluding the time of Jesus’ earthly ministry, God is associated with light more often than not. God came in many forms of light during the exodus. (Exodus 3:1-17; Exodus 13:21-22; Exodus 34:29-35) At the transfiguration, Jesus’ “face shone like the sun, and his clothes became as white as the light". (Mathew 17:2). Jesus displayed Himself as a blinding light during Paul’s conversion (Acts 9:3-9). In Revelation 1:12-16 Jesus appears to John when “his face was like the sun shining in all its brilliance.” In fact 1 John 1:15 specifically says “God is light; in Him there is no darkness at all,” and Revelation 21:23 states that heaven “does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and the Lamb is its lamp.” While darkness and light are a common juxtaposition used to teach us that God and sin are incompatible, these are references of physical manifestations. What is the inherent link between light and our Lord?

Answering this question requires an appreciation for light; and to understand something you need to be familiar with its past. Its history is a long saga with plot twists and shocking reveals. It has a character arc that rivals many epics, but very few people have heard this tale. Truth is sometimes stranger than fiction, so here is a quick story about the enigma we call light.

Over the centuries, great minds debated about what light was. Due to the complex nature of light, many competing ideas were simultaneously accurate on some aspects, yet very incomplete. Most of these concepts were strictly due to observation, lacking any verification. But one observation by Francesco Maria Grimaldi in 1655 turned out to be extremely valuable: the discovery of diffraction. He found that if he took a light source and shined it through a large hole all the light would arrive on the wall directly behind that hole. However, if he made the hole smaller, so small that there is only one way to get through, that the spot on the wall grew bigger. By limiting the pathway, he hadn’t given light restrictions, but he gave it freedom to reach more possibilities. Instead of clarification, this discovery led to more confusion, and the progressive revelation of light had begun.

In 1801 Thomas Young expanded on this same experiment by, instead of having just one hole, having two. The expectation was to find two bright spots on the wall, but to his surprise there were many. This was the first scientific evidence of light being a wave. But a wave of what? Debates on that topic occurred for years, then in the 1860s James Clark Maxwell accidentally stumbled upon an explanation, incrementally improving our perception of light.

He was perplexed by how the electromagnetic laws of the time were inadequate. They worked accurately in steady conditions, but they failed to explain how energy and charge were conserved. Energy was somehow transferred from one object to another with no supposed connection between. He realized that there was an inconsistency between two laws, but this discrepancy could be fixed by adding a single term to the equations. Not only did this harmonize the laws, but it also led to the discovery of a mediator, the electromagnetic wave, light.

Although we now knew a form of light, this discovery inevitably brought up another question; what was the medium? Soundwaves travel through air. Ocean waves travel through water. What provided the ether to carry light? In 1887 an ingenious experiment was performed by Albert A. Michelson and Edward W. Morley to detect the medium by measuring the speed of light. Unlike any other form of energy propagation it appeared to require no medium and was found to have a speed independent of the frame of reference. You can never go fast enough to keep up with light; it will always be going 299,792,458 m/s faster than you. To adjust measurements and account for this strange effect, Hendrik Lorentz derived some equations adjusting space and time. The faster an object moved, the smaller space became, and the more time slowed down. Originally this was just thought to be an accounting trick. But then Einstein showed up in 1905 introducing the world to the now renowned theory of special relativity. According to Einstein space did indeed shrink, and time really did slow down. And an interesting effect happens when you encounter the speed of light; time and space no longer exist.

While Michelson and Morley were studying the propagation of light, Heinrich Hertz was performing experiments to see how it interacted with matter, eventually resulting in the discovery of a phenomenon now known as the photoelectric effect. In this experiment, he found that shining light on a material can liberate electrons. If light was a wave, then the number of electrons emitted should be related to the amount of light shone on the material. But that was found to not be true. You can shine an enormous amount of light of one wavelength on the material with no effect, while just a tiny bit of light with a shorter wavelength can cause a significant amount of current. Based on this experiment, Albert Einstein once again published a paper in 1905 called “On a Heuristic Viewpoint Concerning the Production and Transformation of Light”, flipping the understanding of light on its head and winning him the Nobel prize in 1921.

According to Einstein, although it had wavelike properties, light is a particle we now call the photon. Each photon carries a certain amount of energy based on its inherent wavelength and individually interacts with only one electron. Unlike waves carrying energy in a continuous form, photons are energy in incremental clumps. This one-to-one interaction means that if the photon doesn’t have enough energy, it doesn’t matter how many photons there are, you can’t separate an electron from its bond to the atom. But when the wavelength is short enough, it easily overcomes the bond to the atom setting the electron free.

So, light overcomes boundaries, provides mediation, liberates bonds and is beyond the bounds of space and time. It requires no medium and it never stops. Light is a remarkable thing that is too often overlooked. This is just a glimpse of light’s unforeseen traits, but let’s now explore how this parallels Christ.

Light is a guide. Proverbs 3:5-6 tells us to "Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He shall direct your paths". Similar to how the diffraction allowed light to reach places it would have been incapable on its own, Jesus provides a path to a place we could never reach. Jesus told us that “wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.” In the same way that Grimaldi found that a lot of light easily gets through the wide hole but was limited to where it could reach, no one will find their way to heaven if they take the easy road. And just like the small hole interacts with the light broadening its way. Jesus is the one true path that leads to infinite possibilities (Mathew 19:26). Although Grimaldi didn’t understand why this effect occurred, we now know that quantum mechanically there is an interaction between the light and the hole. Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle tells us that whatever state the light was in before is gone, that information cannot be brought back; “if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!”(2 Corinthians 5:17)

Light is mediator. Maxwell showed how it provides a physical connection that would be otherwise unattainable. In the same way, Jesus is our mediator connecting us to the Father across an infinite chasm. Hebrew 12:24 teaches that Jesus is “the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.” And as Michelson and Morley showed that light is unconditional, having a constant speed and requiring no medium to persist, Jesus’ love is unconditional, for “neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 8:39)

Light is ageless. Einstein proved light has an eternal quality. it “doesn’t age, it doesn’t change, it doesn’t move through time.” (Richard Feynamn). Similarly Jesus is ageless, being “the same yesterday and today and forever.” (Hebrews 13:8) Paul even described that “grace was given us in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time.” (2 Timothy 1:9). Light’s absence of space is like Jesus’ omnipresence. As Jesus described, “I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” (Mathew 28:20) The Bible tells us repeatedly that God is always with us. In Isaiah 41:10 we are told, "Fear not, for I am with you." Matthew 28:20 says, “I am with you always.” While Joshua 1:9 promises "the Lord your God is with you wherever you go." Jesus himself promised us that “where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them.” (Mathew 18:20) While a photon requires physical interaction to appear, we can have spiritual interaction with Jesus through prayer.

Light is a liberator. Einstein and Hertz showed that light provides the energy needed in order for an electron to be freed from a bond. Jesus is our liberator. Like electrons are forced to orbit in an atom “everyone who sins is a slave to sin.” (John 8:34). As sinners, we are trapped without the “potential” to free ourselves. Paul taught us; "For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast.” (Ephesians 2:8-9) Comparable to an enormous amount of lower energy light having no effect on the electrons, it doesn’t matter how many works we do; it will never be enough. Yet Jesus provided the one high-energy photon we needed by dying on the cross. When an electron is liberated, the “work function” has been overcome, and “if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.” (John 8:36)

I hope this brings you to a new respect for light. It isn’t just what allows you to see; it is a complex part of nature that God subtly uses to remind us of His presence. So maybe light isn’t just a metaphor, maybe it’s more like a proverb. Light is the most abundant particle in the universe. As an artist often hides their name in their masterpiece, the characteristics of Jesus can be found in the light. He is our connection to the Father. He is God in man. He frees us from our bondage while remaining beyond the effects of space and time. He shows us the one true path to paradise. Why did Jesus choose to reveal himself in the light? The Lord revealed Himself in a whisper to Elijah (1 Kings 19:12). Perhaps light is something like that.