For perhaps thousands of years, humans have struggled with the duality of light and darkness. Light has almost always been regarded more favorably then darkness and has been most closely associated with divinity. Darkness, on the other hand, has been associated with evil and even Satan (a.k.a., the "Prince of Darkness"). In many cultures, light skinned persons have been regarded more favorably than darker skinned ones. The false dichotomy of light versus dark seems to be deeply etched into the human psyche and is very difficult to uproot unless one is consciously aware of this ingrained and cultural bias.
The dichotomy between darkness and light figures very prominently in the Gospel of John. The Gospel writer uses the one (darkness) to serve as a foil for the other (light). Darkness very often symbolizes faithlessness or the "demonic" powers that are allied against Christ and his mission. However, there is at least one instance in the Gospel of John where the interplay of light and darkness and the integral relationship between the two actually serve as the foundation for a profound faith experience. The healing of the Man Born Blind (John 9:1-41) is precisely this instance of a far more nuanced, subtle, and complex interplay of light and dark. While darkness in John is usually a symbol of a lack of faith in God or, even, opposition to God's plan as it unfolds in Christ, in the story of the Man Born Blind, darkness in the literal sense provides the "horizon" or "backdrop" for the man to experience the light of Christ and to then proclaim him boldly before the harsh criticism of the religious leaders. It was no doubt the condition of darkness, ironically enough, that prepared the Man to be able to perceive the light of Christ's saving power. It would seem as though the darkness that enshrouded the man was akin to a chrysalis that formed and shaped his faith in such a way that when Jesus drew near he was able to be drawn out from his dark cocoon like a butterfly coaxed from it's shell by the warmth of spring. Far from being something menacing, darkness in this instance of John's Gospel is like a cocoon that played it's part in the Man Born Blind eventually spreading his wings and soaring in faith.
What the story of the Healing of the Man Born Blind conveys, at a deeper level I believe, is that the God of Jesus Christ is both the God of day and the God of darkness. There is no place in our lives or world, no matter how dark or dank, where God doesn't deign to encounter us, mostly unobtrusively, to bring light, life, and love. However, we must allow ourselves to encounter God precisely there: in the darkness of insecurity, inferiority, injustice, oppression, difficulty, pain, doubt, and, yes, even, despair. When we allow ourselves to "go" to those places in our lives and larger world, the darkness we find ourselves at times overwhelmed by is precisely where we will eventually encounter the Christ who came into the world that, "those who do not see might see." (John 9:41).
