Let There Be Light

Let There Be Light

 His father Zechariah was filled with the Holy Spirit and prophesied:

“Praise be to the Lord, the God of Israel,
    because he has come to his people and redeemed them.
He has raised up a horn of salvation for us
    in the house of his servant David
(as he said through his holy prophets of long ago),
salvation from our enemies
    and from the hand of all who hate us—
to show mercy to our ancestors
    and to remember his holy covenant,
    the oath he swore to our father Abraham:
to rescue us from the hand of our enemies,
    and to enable us to serve him without fear
    in holiness and righteousness before him all our days.

And you, my child, will be called a prophet of the Most High;
    for you will go on before the Lord to prepare the way for him,
to give his people the knowledge of salvation
    through the forgiveness of their sins,
because of the tender mercy of our God,
    by which the rising sun will come to us from heaven
to shine on those living in darkness
    and in the shadow of death,
to guide our feet into the path of peace.”

Luke 1:67-79

In the beginning there was darkness; a desolate and uninhabitable planet covered by chaotic waters. Genesis invites us to picture darkness as the soil from which life emerges. God’s declaration “Let there be light” (Gen 1:3) brings about his generative and generous acts of creation. Light breaks into darkness. Life begins. 

Today’s passage draws on this same image of light breaking into darkness. The picture of salvation that Zechariah proclaims sees the arrival of the Messiah as an overwhelming defeat of darkness by God’s life-giving light. 

Overawed by the faithfulness of God, Zechariah bursts into praise. Praise because God has remembered his promises, raising up “a horn of salvation” (v69) for the house of David, bringing a king who saves. God rescues, bringing his people from death to life, from darkness to light.

Israel expected a saviour who would overthrow their enemies. Yet Zechariah hints that God’s salvation comes subversively - through tender mercy, sacrifice, and forgiveness. This salvation is the path Jesus invites us to follow: resisting evil not with violence, but with grace, justice, and compassion.

Zechariah’s own son, John, will be like the holy prophets of long ago, pointing forward to the fulfilment of these promises. He will “prepare the way” (v76), by announcing a new exodus, a path for God’s people out of slavery, oppression and shadows, into life as a kingdom of priests who dwell in the light. Love is breaking in through the birth of the Messiah, Jesus, who comes to rescue and save.

For Zechariah’s first century audience, these words offered hope under occupation, oppression and religious hypocrisy. Today, we see that same darkness in our own world - injustice, violence, and suffering. But Zechariah’s song has a hint, too, that some of the darkness is within. His son’s message will liberate; it will bring people from darkness to light, but it will do so also through “the forgiveness of sins” (v77). A barrier will be removed, as God’s Spirit unites us to his Son - “the rising sun” whose light shines on those “living in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the path of peace” (v78-79).

God’s first words still echo through creation, through Jesus, through us - calling life out of darkness:

“Let there be light.”

Nathan Campbell is the pastor of City South Presbyterian Church in Brisbane. He writes words. Too many words.

This devotional is the eighteenth in a series of daily email devotionals for Advent 2025 reflecting on the realities of our broken world along with the unshakable hope that love still breaks through. It explores how God’s love disrupts, heals, and transforms - breaking through darkness, despair, and injustice to bring light, joy, and renewal.

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Common Grace is a diverse movement of individuals, churches and communities passionate about Jesus and justice. We have come together as those from different Christian traditions who stand in the continuity of the historic Christian faith, centred on the life, death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ as witnessed to in holy scripture. This series highlights the diversity of followers of Jesus across these lands. These voices may not agree with one another (or with you), but they are each an expression of longing for the God whose love we see break through in Jesus.

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