Psalm 130 Isaiah 49:1-6 John 8:12-20
The Light of the World
Can you imagine what it must have been like in the beginning? At first, there was nothing but darkness…and then out of this darkness, there came a voice. “Let there be light.” And there was light…piercing, bright, blinding light…and all that had been unseen was seen…all that had been hidden was revealed…and nothing was ever the same again. The source of this light was neither the sun nor the moon nor any other planetary sphere. The light was simply the light…and with each successive day, this light progressively illuminated a new splendour as the Word of God spoke Creation into being, until, on that final day, it revealed the pinnacle of God’s masterpiece as he breathed his life into Adam.
But then, in Genesis chapter 3, a thick spiritual darkness invaded the good Creation and like a poisonous gas, it threatened to choke out the breath of life itself. It seemed as if all was lost for a while as things quickly went from bad to worse. Darkness appeared to be stealthily overcoming the light…but every time it looked as if it had conquered, the light stepped in and pushed it back. Seth, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Israel…all bearers of this light even if only in fragile earthen vessels.
The contrasting images of light and darkness throughout the Scriptures represent a cosmic battle played out on Earth with seen and unseen forces grappling for dominance. As we read the history of the people of God in the Old Testament, we encounter peaks so high and chasms so deep that by the time we arrive at the end of the book of Malachi, we feel rather seasick.
And then…for four hundred years, the prophetic word was silent. Israel remained captive to the pagan empires of the world save for a brief period of self-rule under the Hasmonean kings. The light faded until it was little more than a memory, its luminant reality recalled in psalms of lament and remembered in the Festivals of Israel and rehearsed in the stories of the past. Those who defied and rebelled against the darkness in the hope of rekindling the light were cruelly crushed and soon all courage was replaced with despondency…but out of the depths of despair, the collective groan of an oppressed people rose like a wisp of smoke from dying embers…Messiah.
And once again, the Spirit of God hovered, not over virgin waters, but over a virgin’s womb as the Word that was in the beginning, the Word that was with God, the Word that was God, manifested his glory as he came to shine in the darkness, to overcome it, and to take back what it had stolen. As before, this Light progressively illuminated a new splendour as the Word of God spoke a new Creation into being, until, on that great day of the resurrection, it revealed the pinnacle of God’s redemptive masterpiece as he breathed life back into the second Adam who, in turn, breathed the same life into the New Israel.
Like no other book in the New Testament, the Gospel of John rehearses and redevelops the images and themes of creation as well as the trials and triumphs of the bearers of the light to present us with a portrait of the one who embodies them all. John begins with the Word, the light, and the life, and ends with the Spirit being breathed once more into a renewed humanity (John 20:22). His Gospel is simply peppered with images of creation revived, redeemed, and restored.
Not only does the life of Jesus mirror the history of Israel as the seed of Abraham, but also the history of all Creation as the seed of the woman. But John also presents Jesus as greater still. As we have seen, the opening verses of John parallel the opening verses of Genesis. Jesus is portrayed as the Word that spoke all things into existence, the light that was the life of humanity, and the source of living water that irrigated and sustained the world.
So, when we read Jesus’ statement in our Gospel lesson for today, “I AM the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”…when read this statement, we should not pass by too quickly.
The statement was made in the Temple area at the end of the Feast of Tabernacles, in fact, the day after the final day of the festival. It also followed on the heels of a confrontation between Jesus and the crowd and the law-breaking teachers of the law. There’s a lot going on here…not only is Jesus the light that exposes the abuse of the law (in the flawed judgement of the leaders with both Jesus and, if you will, the woman caught in adultery), but Jesus is also the light that illuminates the truth of the law (its correct interpretation and application).
And, Jesus added, life is to be had in following him as that light…to follow Jesus not like Adam who followed the devil…to follow Jesus and not rebel like the Israelites in the wilderness…and, unfortunately, even in the Promised land.
Now, we need to keep in mind that during the Festival of Tabernacles, huge candelabras were set up in the Temple area and lit every night. The idea was to recall the fiery cloud pillar that led the Israelites out of Egypt and through the wilderness to the Promised Land. Whether Jesus was standing close to these structures or not doesn’t really matter because of the subject matter of the festival itself, but they would have served as handy visual aids.
Again, we are dealing with one of the several “I AM” statements of Jesus and, once again, in this one he no doubt meant for his hearers to recall Moses’ encounter with God, the Great I AM, at the burning bush. But, I believe, Jesus added a broader dimension to this call narrative. As God was in the burning bush and in the fiery cloud pillar, calling and leading his people to freedom from bondage, so Jesus was calling and leading his people from darkness and death to light and life. And as that fiery cloud pillar was darkness to the enemies of Israel and light to the people of God, so Jesus was light to those who had eyes to see…and as their enemies were overcome while they were liberated and, indeed to go back even further, as the light dispelled the primaeval darkness on that 1st day of Creation, Jesus too would soon wrestle with the forces of darkness and conquer them.
However, it is important to note that Jesus was not standing in the court of Pharaoh, nor was he standing in the wilderness, but in the Temple of Israel…and the object of his deliverance is not one nation but all nations. Jesus declared himself to be the Light of the World…that which Israel had been designed to be (even from the time when God first called Abraham to follow him, the goal was the blessing of all nations) …Jesus was and is what Israel was meant to be and yet had failed to be. If Israel had been faithful to the Lord, the Gentiles would have seen the greatness of their God and would have been drawn to him (Deuteronomy 4:6). But because Israel insisted on following other gods and other laws that did not happen. Like the modern revisionist Church, they sought to be like the world and therefore lost their attractive unique witness. So, Isaiah spoke about a new light…a Servant who would be identified with Israel but who would also transcend Israel.
But Jesus did not just reveal his own identity in his weighty and loaded statement…he also revealed the identity of his own people. They can be identified as those who follow him. It is those who walk in the light who will have life. “Following” in this sense presupposes a relationship of faith, trust, and dependency, as well as an identification with the cause and the will of Jesus. John expanded on this thought in his first letter where he wrote: “If we say we have fellowship with Him yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin.”
There is an inseparable connection between the Light and those who walk in the light…in other words, those who follow him are now the new light bearers. Like Israel was meant to be, so we are now witnesses to the world. We are meant to walk as he walked…to walk in the light as he is the light.
Of course, the Pharisees immediately challenged him by claiming that Jesus invalidated his own witness because it had no further references. Rabbinic tradition rejected any witness without other corroboration. This was based on their exposition of a law found in Deuteronomy 19:15.
“A single witness shall not suffice against a person for any crime or for any wrong in connection with any offence that he has committed. Only on the evidence of two witnesses or of three witnesses shall a charge be established.”
Jesus did not dispute this as he had already said in John 5:31, “If I bear witness of myself, my witness is not true”, and then he proceeded to refer to other witnesses such as John the Baptist, the Father, his words, and his works. But here, Jesus boldly claimed that his witness did not need corroboration because his identity surpasses human judgment.
In verse 18 he claimed unity and equality with the Father while maintaining their distinction one from the other. Consequently, as God, he could bear witness to himself since no man can bear witness for him – they didn’t know anything about him…where he was from nor where he was going…and worse…they didn’t even know his Father. You see, by questioning Jesus’ origin in verse 19 they unwittingly revealed their own.
Jesus had already made it clear that if they knew the Scriptures, they would know him. Nicodemus realised this partially when he came to Jesus under cover of darkness. “Rabbi,” he said, “we know that you are a teacher come from God; for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him.” However, by not recognising the Father’s witness to the Son in his words and works, these teachers of the law revealed that they neither knew the Father nor the Son…in other words, they did not know the God they professed to follow. They were walking in darkness, not in the light.
But we need to exercise caution before we pass judgement on the Pharisees. In his homily on this passage, John Chrysostom said: “Beware lest we also who make boast of the rightness of our faith dishonour God by not manifesting a life agreeable to the faith, causing Him to be blasphemed. For He would have the Christian to be the teacher of the world, its leaven, its salt, its light. And what is that light? It is a life which shines and has in it no dark thing. Light is not useful to itself, nor leaven, nor salt, but shows its usefulness towards others, and so we are required to do good, not to ourselves only, but to others.”
(John Chrysostom, Homily 52 on the Gospel of John, John 8:18 (4).)
Dearest beloved brethren, we have the light of life shining in us. We know both the Father and the Son, and we have the Holy Spirit residing within us, leading us in the truth of His Word. So, let us for a moment, lay bare our lives before the one to whom all hearts are open, all desires known, and from whom no secrets are hidden, and let us ask him to examine us and expose any residual trace of darkness in us.
As the light of the world, Jesus shines in the darkness through us, his children. If the light you think you have in you is actually darkness, how deep that darkness is!
Shall we pray?
© Johannes W H van der Bijl 2023
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