The Intrusion Of Darkness

Though we have been assured that, The kingdom of God is in your midst. Luke 17: 21, notwithstanding, troubling questions still seek, with untamed force, to occupy the mind and we wonder about this.  Would Jesus hide Himself from His disciples, in this way, so that they are now longing to see the day of the Lord, longing to see the Son of Man? Then he said to his disciples, The time is coming when you will long to see one of the days of the Son of Man, but you will not see it. Luke 17: 22.

The disciples, to whom Jesus is speaking, are disciples who are seeing Him, in the flesh, as the Son of Man. They are with Him daily and all they know are the joys, the daily wonder and utter favour of having the Son of Man with them at all times, in tangible form, in their midst.  

The beautiful, sterling, eighteen hundreds hymn, by R. Heber, entitled, Holy! Holy! Holy! is a favourite of many. In it there is a verse which says this.

Holy, holy, holy! Though the darkness hide Thee,

Though the eye of sinful man Thy glory may not see,

Only Thou art holy, There is none beside Thee,

Perfect in power, in love and purity.

It is here that we are drawn to the fact that sometimes darkness hides our Lord from even His own. The reality is that the eye of sinful men and women will not see the Lord’s glory. 

Here are two examples of what we are being shown.

Darkness hides Jesus. Take your minds back to the occasion when the Resurrected Jesus comes in the midst of His disciples. They become so afraid, thinking that it is a ghost that they are seeing, they could not recognize their Risen Lord. They were startled and frightened, thinking they saw a ghost. He said to them, Why are you troubled, and why do doubts rise in your minds? Luke 24: 37 – 38. The darkness of fear and doubt hid Jesus from their eyes. Be not deceived! Fear, anxiety, stress, worry, doubt, arrogance, self-righteousness, pride and all other forms of darkness, hide Jesus from our eyes. 

Sinful humans will not see the Lord’s glory. Let’s be led back to the occasion when Jesus and His disciples are sharing the Last Supper together with Him, as the Son of Man. Jesus tells them all about His death and resurrection and informs them all of what will take place. This very night you will all fall away on account of me, for it is written: I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock will be scattered. But after I have risen, I will go ahead of you into Galilee. Matthew 26: 31b – 32. There is great sadness, tension and surprise. Peter jumps ahead and boldly announces that he will remain true, faithful and loyal to Jesus, even if all the others fall away. Jesus quietly tells Peter that before the rooster crows, he will deny Jesus three times. Peter, meaning well, protests and goes to the ultimate, declaring this to Jesus. Even if I have to die with you, I will never disown you. And all the other disciples said the same. Matthew 26:  35b. However, sin was lurking in Peter’s heart and because no sinful human, no eye of the one who is being controlled and held by sin, can see the glory of the Lord, Peter was totally blinded to the glory of his Lord and Saviour at that time.  

What is the time? It’s the time when Jesus has been arrested and is taken away by armed soldiers, as though He were a dangerous criminal. As Jesus is led away, Peter decides to follow at a safe distance to see where they are taking his Jesus. Quietly and most discreetly, without drawing any attention to himself whatsoever, the unthinkable happens. Someone points to him as a disciple of Jesus. Fear and dread completely blind him, as this disciple of Jesus, whom the devil wanted to sift, took hold of Peter, who vehemently denied Jesus, his Lord and Master. The very glory of his Master, Jesus Christ the Lord, in His suffering and ill-treatment, was totally blank to Peter. Three times Peter was singled out by different people, in different physical spaces as one belonging to Jesus. When he was recognized in the courtyard, he denied that he was a disciple of the Man Jesus. He left and went to the gateway. There, he was singled out as well and after denying knowing Jesus a second time, he moved on a bit. After a while, those standing there went up to Peter and said, Surely you are one of them; your accent gives you away. Matthew 26: 73. At that, Peter lost it all. Then he began to call down curses, and he swore to them, I don’t know the man. Immediately a rooster crowed. Matthew 26: 74. The more Peter continued to sin, the further away he was becoming from seeing any glory at all, in the Lord. Thankfully, at the crowing of the rooster, Peter remembered Jesus’ words about him denying Jesus, before the rooster crowed. We are told that he went outside and wept bitterly. Matthew 26: 75b. This word is specifically for believers.

People will tell you, ‘There he is!’ or ‘Here he is!’ Do not go running off after them. Luke 17: 23.