The Cave Dwellers

Gospel: John 3: 16-21

Audiences are shocked to hear Jesus say that people prefer darkness to light.  Surely this cannot be true.  Readers have the same reaction when they read Plato's Allegory of the Cave.  How could those people in the cave prefer their existence in darkness and chains to the world of freedom and light?  Jesus and Plato must be absolute pessimists about human beings to believe and assert that the majority of us prefer darkness and chains to light and freedom.

Yet, how do people accustomed to darkness react when they are brought outside into the light? Their entire body revolts at the experience.  The pain and length of time it takes to adjust is just too much.  We like our violence, our hatred of the foreigner and outsider.  We love those who hold us in captivity, giving them our money for sports stadiums and entertainment venues while we neglect the needs of the poor and uneducated and sick.  

We forget that the world executed both Socrates and Jesus, those who would hold up the light and lead us to freedom.  We forget how often the Israelites wanted to return to Egypt, how often they fell away from the commands of justice from God.  We create illusions on the cave wall to convince us we are good people who are heroes in the story, all while sitting in the darkness.  This Easter season, may we rise from our tombs and follow the Light of the World, the Prince of Peace.