The Tale of the Two Lights of Christmas - Isaiah 50:10-11, John 1:4-5

A bright light suddenly pierced the dark sky and fell on the upturned faces of the students in the mud walled courtyard of Goa in Eastern India.

Yes! It was true.

The Light had come!

The Great Light the wizened master had longed for, looked for...

The Great Light that generations of students had come to believe was just an eccentricity, a figurative story by a wise but doddery old man.

"In those days," intoned the wise old professor, " a rose appeared to me in a dream. Slender, perfect, the red of a fresh drop of blood, with a crown of thorns around the bottom where the sepals should be.

It was perfection, it was gorgeous. And as I watched, the left side curved inward, like a tired sway back of a woman carrying a heavy load, while the right side curved out and grew like the tender stomach of a virgin now pregnant with child.

Suddenly, the rose burst into bloom and radiated with a bright light that dimmed the sun and blocked the moon. That light illuminated the darkness; I had called day, and without voice said, "This is the way!"

As I stepped into the light, my understanding was opened, and I knew this was the light of the Lord."

Bathed in light, I pondered the meaning of this rose from which the instruction of the Lord poured forth, what was this symbol?

As the vision began to fade into the darkness, I asked aloud, "Of what was this a sign?"

Suddenly, in the warmth of the last of the rays, an angel stood beside me and said, "This is the rose foretold by the Prophet Isaiah. The king of whom it is said, "I will make you a light to the Gentiles everywhere." The light whose life and coming will dispel the darkness. That light who will say to the captives, "Come out!" and to those in darkness, "Be free."

"And this will be the sign of his coming.
In the night, a great light will appear from the western sky.
Walk in its light
It will lead you to the rose."

The professor would then pull from the shelf an old book of papyrus leaves, and others of parchment, must and dust. Books left, by the wanderer Baruch when he had died in this place many years before.

And the professor would read the passage quoted by what the students always had believed was only a "figurative" angel. And other words were read from other books naming Bethlehem in Judah, an obscure, even if currently extant country far to the west which had been this Baruch's home. Naming Bethlehem in Judah, as the birth place of the king. And telling marvelous myths of his miraculous and eternal reign.

But the sign of the Great Light in the Western Sky was not in the book. Only the king himself was called the Light, and the Life that lighteth every man.

That Great Light that generations of students had come to believe was just an eccentricity, a figurative story by a wise but doddery old man, now spilled out of the Western sky and over the court yard wall, betraying their amazement and unbelief.

For days the light did not move. It came straight from the west and spilled for a few moments over the courtyard wall then faded into the face of an eastern dawn.

Then one night the star shifted toward the north and this time the light fell only at the outside edge of the gate like a beacon and a request that said, "Come follow me." And the professor and two of his eccentric former students, now colleagues, emerged from their cubicles with boxes and bundles, and preparations for a long journey, placed them on three waiting camels and stepped out of the darkness of the night into the rays of that Great Light.

"Where are you going?" called a student.

"To find the rose that melts the darkness of the day." replied the old professor.

"But where is this Judea?" asked another.

"Does it exist?" mused a third.

"It does not matter," replied the professor. "The instructions say only, 'Walk in the light. It will lead you to the rose.'"

And with that, the Great Light shifted and the Professor and his companions disappeared into the night following the light into the west by puzzlingly a bit to the north by northwest.

As the darkness closed around them the students each reached for his torch and each one lighted his own fire and walked back into the courtyard to ponder the night.

Through the open gate they could see the star from which the Great Light had come, its rays shining somewhere in the direction into which the professor and his companions had disappeared.

"Can it be true?"

"It would appear so."

"Then is the light from the rose also true?"

"We have seen the Great Light!"

"But we have not seen the rose!"

"Perhaps there is a Judah!"

"Perhaps there will be a splendid king."

"Yes, but I doubt the miracles and stories of the book are all true."

And so they reasoned together until they decided that if the Great Light was true, and certainly it was true, then they did not want to miss the birth of the King, to see the miracles, and to decide for themselves what was the meaning of the light of the rose that makes the day seem darkness but lightens the understanding.

Each retrieved his money. And they had considerable money, for their parents were not poor nor was the school by any means a place of poverty, each grabbed a few clothes and packed lightly for the journey grabbed their torches, for they would need them until they could again find the light, and stepped out the gate and after the wise old professor.

"Wait." demanded one of the students after they passed only a few houses.

"Why are we following this old dreamer?
"Have we not read the books?
"Do we not know where the king is to be born?
"Has the professor himself not told us, and Baruch confirmed that Judah is straight to the West of us where the Star of Light first occurred?
"Have we not memorized all the passages and are we not wise enough to follow their instructions and innuendos?
"If the star is leading to the West, let us go West. Surely we will be able to find the light before we have gone too far. At least we have the instructions of the book. Surely, they will lead us back to the Light of the Star."

"But there is a great sea to the West," puzzled one student as they held their torches high and headed due west.

"Precisely," said the first. "That is why the light is leading the Professor north by northwest. He cannot walk on the water. So it must lead him around the sea to the other side. But we have plenty of money. We will hire a ship to carry us to the western shore where we can rest while we wait for him to come."

And so the students marched off in the light of their own torches leaning on their own understanding, While the three wise professors, obeyed the words of the servant of the Lord, and chose to walk only in the light.

Now you can well imagine we do not have time for all the details of the rest of the story. Indeed it promises to be at least a small book by the time it tells the tale of the two groups of seekers- one walking in the light of its own torches and understanding, and the other waiting upon and following the light of the Lord.

But this I can tell you.

As the wise professors, followed the light it did indeed lead them around the sea. And in so doing they escaped many a storm and the regions of thorns and robbers
.
And as they followed the light they could see in the night the great mountains of the Himalayas and the Afghans towering ahead of them like great walls of solid rock. But while the way at times was narrow, and other times, yes, even a bit steep, in the light it was usually smooth, and when it was not the light showed clearly a way around each obstacle so the men and the camels were carried with relative ease up and over the face of the wall and delivered to the valley and refreshment beyond.

And since the light shone in the night, when they came to the great desert, it always left them in the shade of the cliff of the hollow of some spring filled rock in the day, and traveled them only in the cool hours of the night so that the sun did not smite them and neither man nor beast dehydrated until the desert was left behind.

When it was cloudy or the light did not lead or shine, they did not move an inch but waited on the light. For the angel had said, "Walk in the light of it." And they were determined to obey the word of the Lord's servant.

In fact only twice did they fail to remain in the light and each time was as they neared the birth place of the baby.

First, as they neared the edge of the desert, they remembered that from the book they had calculated the days from the appearance of the light to the birth of the rose. Suddenly they were aware that this was the night of his birth. This was the day the rose was to dawn on the world. And they were not yet even to Judah.

In despair each had looked down and just let his camel carry him along. What was the use? They had missed the miracle. They could never know the meaning of the rose.

But as they drifted out of the light, the angel appeared to the old professor once more in a dream.

"It is true," said the angel with a radiance of joy, "Unto you is born this day in the City of David, a savior, which is Christ the Lord. But do not despair, ye shall yet see the babe, ye shall yet see the rose."

And just as he bumped into a rock the old professor realized that is was true, they could still see the rose in bloom, it was not necessary to have been there for the birth, and he looked up just in time to see the light of the star shining through the depths of a long dark canyon while the light paused between the two narrow walls that framed its mouth.

With a prayer of thankfulness and repentance, he urged his camel forward into the light calling for his companions to quickly follow.

The other time they failed to follow on was at the end of the canyon when the professors saw the outline of Jerusalem against the night sky and recognized it as the city of David the king from a drawing in the manuscript of Baruch. And so when the light of the star became swallowed by the day, they rushed to the palace of the current King Herod, and asked to see this new child born to be the king of the Jews.

This was a shock to Herod, and his wives, for there was no new baby, not that they knew about. But then at that point you know the story and how the professors came to see Mary's little Rose whose face was the face of the Light of God.

The students walked on in their own torch light. They boarded a ship paid the captain to sail due west. And from exhaustion dropped down to rest or sleep.

They could still see the star from which the Great Light came and though is was in the distance they were confident that they would walk in its light someday, if they kept to the course as they understood from the book.

But what they did not know was that the sea was treacherous and the Captain not a good pilot.

They were blown off course, nearly drowned, landed in every which way but west so that it took them many days and many different ships to find the western shore and they had no time left to rest.

Landing at night, they again each lit his own torch and marched off into the West, assured by the inhabitants that indeed there was a Judah and indeed it was to the West.

But having leaned on their own understanding, there was no light to show them the springs of water and lead them around the edge of the desert or into the cooling canyons with their shadowing cliffs.

They were parched, and dry, and there was no place to buy either food nor water so that after many days some of them had died and others turned back content to abandon the quest for either the rose or the light.

They were easy prey for thieves, for their torches made them plainly visible at night but left the thieves hidden in darkness at the paths edge.

They stumbled, and fell. Until at last by the trail of many sorrows and much anguish they came to know why the angel had directed them to walk in the light. For their knowledge was incomplete. History betrayed them.

In each new day their traditions became more and more useless as the territory changed.

Their best guesses were wrong. And they found that without the assistance of the light even the truths the old professor had taught them were not complete but only would have only helped them to recognize the light if they had ever been so fortunate as to find it again.

But while in the night they could see that the star was still shining, its movements fit none of man's knowledge or wisdom and never once on their journey did they again experience the light.

Having chosen to follow their own understanding they were lost, exhausted, beaten, and increasingly emaciated and impoverished, while all the time headed in the right direction but on the wrong path.

Now only one of them even made it to Bethlehem in Judea. And in fact one fact he had counted on came out right for he arrived on the night that Jesus was born. But when he asked, he learned that, though Bethlehem was indeed the town the books had called the City of David, the king did not live there and was not visiting there and he had not had a baby in recent memory and certainly never one born in the City of David.

Having learned these facts, he was so distraught, he again lit his own torch and headed home.

In fact, he even stopped in an old cave barn where a passel of shepherds were gathered around a new born baby and there borrowed a light from one of their torches.

And though he looked at the child, because it did not fit his own understanding, he never saw the light of God in the face of Jesus but turned and walked away in the light of his own fire.

"Who among you fears the Lord and obeys the word of his servant? Let him, who walks in darkness, who has no light, trust in the Lord and rely on his God. But now, all you who light fires and provide yourselves with flaming torches Walk in the light of your fires, of your torches you have set ablaze. This is what you shall receive from my hand: You will lie down in torment!"
[Isaiah 50:10-11 NIV]