All the News that Fits Our Squint

Light that Shines through Darkness

Guest blog by D. James Button

(From Dec 29, 2015)

I’m a huge fan of The Lord of The Rings, but not because of the Hobbits, Dwarves, and Elves, or the individual characters themselves; I love it because of the fantastic imagery of the battle between light and darkness, good and evil. The author J. R. R. Tolkien had a keen understanding of what darkness looked like, he had seen firsthand, fighting in the trenches of World War I. I think he tried his best to create characters that gave us a glimpse of what evil looks like, from Orcs to Goblins and various other workers of woe to a Satan-like dark lord who ruled over them. Of course he must have known a great deal about the light too, to know that it does indeed triumph over evil and darkness in the end. From what I’ve read, Tolkien was in fact a Christian, and his epic tale of light overcoming darkness bore more than accidental metaphors to the coming of Christ. While reading the Gospel of Luke at Christmas I started to think of this connection between Tolkien’s story and the first coming of Christ. In Luke 1:68-79 Zechariah is prophesying; filled with the Holy Spirit and speaking about the coming of Christ, who his son John the Baptist will go before to prepare the way. In verses 78-79 he says this about Jesus coming: because of the tender mercy of our God, whereby the sunrise shall visit us from on high to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace. This imagery of Jesus coming is so beautiful and to me, and so vivid too, partly thanks to the writing of J. R. R. Tolkien.

In the Return of the King, the Hobbits Frodo and Sam are nearing the end of their journey to destroy the one ring, which is the source of the power of evil itself, in essence. They are in the land of Mordor, which is a near representation of hell. This land is so terrifying and dangerous that their journey seems all but guaranteed of failure, even as it nears is its conclusion. The skies are literally darkened above them and they have a wide open plain to cross with the eye of the evil lord watching out. Sam’s spirit is low and hope is out of reach as evil seems nearly victorious. It’s at this moment that Tolkien describes an encounter with light that is so poignant and wonderful that it instantly takes me to these verses in Luke and reminds me of The Light. “There, peeping among the cloud-wrack above a dark tor high up in the mountains, Sam saw a white star twinkle for a while. The beauty of it smote his heart, as he looked up out of the forsaken land, and hope returned to him. For like a shaft, clear and cold, the thought pierced him that in the end the shadow was only a small and passing thing: there was light and high beauty forever beyond its reach.” There truly is light and high beauty forever beyond the reach of the shadow! Praise God! When we feel like we too have descended into hell itself and hope seems out of reach, we can turn to the word of God and read this wonderful Christmas story. The Apostle John also speaks about Christ’s coming in John 1:4-5 he writes:In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. In the Lord of the Rings, the light does finally win out, Sam and Frodo are victorious and evil is vanquished. In our life the same is true, sin has been defeated, victory has already come, we just need to look to the Light and believe. John 8:12 Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.

Dan