Jesus, The Light
Today I wanted to discuss with you another way that Jesus reveals His identity. We are going to read from John today. John is one of the four gospels. It is the last of the 4 gospels to be written. The apostle John is credited with writing the fourth gospel. The author is said to have been an eyewitness of the ministry of Jesus. The apostle John was in Jesus’ closest group of friends. The Bible Project lets us know that John's Gospel emphasizes Jesus' identity as the Messiah and Son of God, one who performs miracles and gives eternal life to all who believe in him. The Gospel of John is also set apart from other gospels because of his structure and his writing style.
Let’s read together about what Jesus reveals.
John 8:12-20
I am light to the world and those who embrace me will experience life-giving light and they will never walk in darkness. The Pharisees were immediately offended and said, “You’re just boasting about yourself! Since we only have your word on this, it makes your testimony invalid!”
I want to take a moment to pause here. How many times have we been immediately offended at something? Like, how dare you do or say such a thing? Have you ever seen The Office? There’s a particular scene that comes to mind at the moment.
Ryan comes in as this macho boss and the people have questions about some of his new changes. Then Kelly (his on and off girlfriend) has a question and she says “first of all, how dare you?” I see this picture when I read this scene with Jesus and the Pharisees.
First of all, how dare you, Jesus? How dare you come in here and claim something so invalid? There is no way you can claim to be the Light of the world.
And Jesus properly responds with the best answer. For I absolutely know who I am, where I’ve come from and where I’m going. Just because I’m the one making these claims doesn’t mean they are invalid. But you Pharisees have no idea what I’m saying. For you’ve set yourselves up as judges of others based on outward appearances but I certainly never judge others in that way.
Jesus has class. He’s basically slapping them in the face with his response, but he does it in such a gentle way. And what we see is Jesus sharing his true identity. We notice 3 basic topics or themes here. Light, Jesus’ witness of himself, and Jesus’ judgment of others. Before we talk about this Light, let’s talk about the darkness and what this means.
DARKNESS
Darkness can be a scary place to be in. Have you ever walked somewhere at night? Or have you ever been in a dark room before and you don’t know what’s around you? In the physical world darkness keeps us from seeing where we are going. Darkness contrasts with the light of the world.
The best way for us to unpack this revelation is to reflect on Genesis 1. The Bible says that in the beginning the world looked like this: void and formless. It is dark. It is empty–unoccupied. And God saw this and He says, “Let there be light.” From that moment, formation replaced formlessness. Chaos was brought into order. What was empty began to be filled with life. This process was the way God began to interact with his creation.
“God saw the light was good and he separated the light from the darkness.”
This imagery of light was important. It pushes back the darkness. Have you ever seen a sunrise appear into the dark sky? It is so mesmerizing. Even the prophet Isaiah spoke of the light. "The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them has light shone."
Darkness is something that is physical and present in our world. I don’t really need to go into detail about this darkness. We all know it too well. Actually, it is around us. We turn on the news, we see it. There have been 13 shootings in schools since the beginning of the year. There are bombings. There are evil and disturbed men assaulting and raping women (and men). There is violence on almost every street corner.
When we are in this darkness, it makes us want something that produces light. We desire for something we cannot produce on our own. We come to the end of ourselves in hopelessness. Living in darkness is just that–stuck in hopelessness. But when we have light, we have life.
MEANING OF LIGHT
But what is light? What is it that Jesus gives us?
When Jesus says, "I am the Light of the World," Jesus is making some claims that are unacceptable for those who are religious elites, those who feel that because of their behavior they are better than others in their society. This is a massive threat to their existence, because Jesus just said, "I am God."
Jesus declares He is the light of the world. He is sharing something about His true identity. He reveals the light He is bringing into the darkness. There’s a biblical background for light. Light is a frequent image in the Old Testament. Light was God’s first creation. In the book of Exodus, God went before Israel in the wilderness as a pillar of fire at night to give them light. Light shines and light guides. Light is physical and it is metaphorical. Light and life are signs of Jesus’ relationship to the world. The presence of Jesus as the light of the world presents the world with 2 choices. to follow Jesus and have “the light of life” or to walk in darkness. This is a point that the apostle John wants to make throughout the entire gospel. People have a choice to live in darkness which ultimately leads to death or to choose to walk in the Light which is everlasting life.
We read in John’s introduction to the Gospel, “In him was life and that life was the light of all mankind” (John 1:4). The first few verses of John chapter 1 point us to Genesis 1 and we read, “And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light.”
JESUS’ WITNESS
Light bears witness to itself. It tells you it is there, and Jesus told the Pharisees this in John 8:14. Jesus didn’t need another witness. He gave witness and God the Father gave witness to them through His word (see John 5:37-38).
“I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness but will have the light of life.”
The Pharisees questioned him. They became suspicious of Jesus and his self-witness. He was threatening the kingdom they built. John also tells us that the Light came into the world–but the world didn’t recognize him. This was shown through the response of the pharisees. They were once again getting in the way of kingdom work.
The Pharisees’ question reveals a more profound ignorance about the identity of God and the relationship of God and Jesus. Jesus is consistently linking himself to God. His identity cannot be detached from God. Light is part of who He is. Remember, Jesus is doing what His father is also doing. He is teaching and making known only what His Father wants to be made known (John 5). He is seeing what the heart of the Father might also be doing and He does that thing. But He does this with intention in every situation that He is in.
Each morning, the sun rises to light the sky and warm the earth.The moon and stars light the night sky. When we walk into a dark room, we reach out for the light switch. Light permeates into every crack of our lives, whether visible or metaphorically. The origin of the word, light, describes how light makes evident. Light clears everything up, it exposes. It brings focus and clarity to everything.
Have you ever played Hide and Seek before? Have you ever played this in the dark? It’s something that we did when I was growing up. We would play hide and seek in the dark basement which is just extremely dangerous when you don't have any light to see. But we were church kids who were always waiting on their parents to go home. We would play this in the dark basement where there would be so many obstacles. There was always something that we can run into but we would run around and people would go and they would be quiet and they would find the perfect hiding spot. As soon as you turn the lights on, everything is revealed–everything is exposed. You see the chairs and the sharp corners. In the dark, everything feels mysterious. It feels hidden. You just feel like you can't see what's in front of you. You see everything from a different perspective until you turn the light on and everything is clear. Everything's exposed and you have complete focus. You can see everything around you and you know what's next. When we have Jesus, we see better.
Jesus is the Light of the world. He is the reflection of His father’s creation and presence. Jesus is the Light of the world, our world. Christ is the image of the invisible God. One sun illuminates the entire world, so does one Christ. Christ lights up our world, He exposes, reveals and brings us clarity.
When Jesus says, “I am the light of the world,” he’s talking about illumination. The Bible tells us that when the Holy Spirit awakens our hearts to the reality of Jesus Christ. The Scriptures open to us, and we can understand them in a way we couldn't understand before we knew Jesus. We read them now with our minds informed by truth. Our hearts begin to be shaped, and then that fuels some of our emotions so we're free now to worship, but really feel stirred in our affections for God. This is the work of light. Secrets are the darkness in which death and destruction grow. Maybe you are hiding and retreating in secret. Darkness becomes the place that those clasps of death and destruction set deeper.
The truth is we all need saving. We are all broken. I have an answer for you. Jesus. Jesus is shining the light in the darkness. Darkness does not overcome light. Not the light that Jesus gives.
Whenever we are feeling insecure about our identity or our place in life, we need to take a lesson from Jesus. Just remember to declare: I absolutely know who I am, where I’ve come from and where I’m going. Even if you don’t, just walk in that confidently. Be fully assured of the One who is holding you in the midst of your insecurities and your unknowns. You know who you belong to and that is most important.
JESUS’ JUDGMENT
Jesus makes us feel secure when we are in His Light. We saw this in his interaction with Zacchaeus. Jesus does not judge in the same way as others. Right before this passage, He made someone else feel secure. A woman. We will talk about this scene later in the second part of our season. But there’s this woman. She has been caught in the act of adultery. They wanted Jesus, so they dragged this woman to Jesus. There are laws in place for this woman to be stoned until she dies. They bring her caught in her shame. She was busted and outed in her sin. Jesus says, “Let the one of you who is without sin throw the first stone.” The rocks fall to the ground. We see Jesus’ heartFor Christ has come into the world not to condemn the world but to save the world from condemnation (Jn. 3:17).
He is the light of the world. He pushes back darkness. He outs the darkness. He brings us out of it.
He sees differently and He judges differently. The way that Jesus responds to this woman shows his character. But the first thing He does after this scene is declare this I Am Statement. This points to His true identity. He wants them to know who He is and how He cares and how He can lead in this compassionate way because He is the Light. We don’t walk alone. Jesus broke through the darkness, lighting the way for us. As the Light,
“I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness but will have the light of life.”
Have you been hiding in darkness? Have you tried to get out of it, only to continually trip over things with lots of defeat? I want you to know that Jesus is the Light of the World and He desires to be the Light of your world. I hope that the grace of God will illuminate deep within and help to make sense of that feeling of hopelessness or being unformed. If you feel stuck in the darkness, there is another way.
Jesus is the light of the world and those who follow him will not walk in darkness but will walk in light.
