Light of the World

Then Jesus again spoke to them, saying, “I am the Light of the world; he who follows Me will not walk in the darkness, but will have the Light of life.” (John 8:12)

What we looked at in yesterday’s post was not likely part of the original contents of John, but because it highlights the actions and attitudes of the Pharisees, I think it fits nicely with the rest of Chapter 8, but I don’t want to dwell on it any further.

Light and darkness. Truth and lies. Life and death. Believers and unbelievers. The Kingdom of Heaven and the kingdoms of this world. These are stark contrasts we see throughout the Word of God.

To get a better flavor for this chapter, we would need to see it in its whole context in the Gospel of John. Jesus’ dealings with the Pharisees are seen over and over again. “The Pharisees were an influential religious sect within Judaism in the time of Christ and the early church. They were known for their emphasis on personal piety, their acceptance of oral tradition in addition to the written Law, and their teaching that all Jews should observe all 600-plus laws in the Torah, including the rituals concerning ceremonial purification.” https://www.gotquestions.org/Pharisees.html

They were the religious elite of the day; and, as such, they were proud, condescending, overbearing, legalistic, self-righteous, blind and spiritually dead. I think the thing we most often miss when we look at them, however, is that they are just like so many who sit in churches and believe that because of their ties to religion, they are better than others. As part of our sinful human nature, we all have the tendency to lean toward Phariseeism when we attempt to exalt ourselves in the realm of religion.

The Pharisees accepted the written Word as God’s inspired Word. However, they also held their oral tradition to the same standard, giving it equal authority with Scripture. Over time, they added to God’s Word, which they should have known was forbidden in Scripture (Deuteronomy 4:2). The Sadducees were often found in the company of the Pharisees, which is interesting because their differing beliefs on certain issues put them at odds with one another. Their hatred of Jesus, however, bound them together in one common purpose of killing Him.

What we, whose passion it is to study the Scriptures, often miss is how easy it is to aspire to become more like a Pharisee instead of to become more like Christ. Many believers, in what they believe to be their superior knowledge of the Scriptures, set themselves up as modern-day Pharisees, perhaps without realizing the dangerous territory in which others see them. Those who do so, if they are true believers, will be given a time in the “valley of humiliation” because God is opposed to the proud but will exalt the humble. I will add that once God brings a believer out of the valley of humiliation, that believer will be able to spot a self-made Pharisee a mile away! And, it will make them cringe to see what they once looked like to others.

Jesus announcement in verse 12 is a continuation of events from Chapter 7:53. Jesus is among the worshippers at the celebration of the Feast of Tabernacles or Booths. He had just used a ritual that took place during that celebration to point the people to Himself as “Living Water”. The Feast of Tabernacles or Booths was a time when the people of Israel remembered the Lord bringing them out of Egypt. God, Himself, had given Israel each of the Feasts to remind them of His actions on their behalf in the past and to point them to their coming Messiah who would be the ultimate future fulfillment of all blessings represented by each of the feasts.

When Jesus made an “I am” statement, “the Jews”, (always a reference to the Pharisees, not the general Jewish population) knew that He was making a proclamation of His deity. This always put the Pharisees into attack mode, just as it does when believers make a dogmatic statement of truth to those who believe it is religion (in any form) that saves. In verse 12, He says, “I am the Light of the world.” Notice He doesn’t say, “I am a light of the world.” He is the only Light of the world. Everyone must do something with that statement. Either one with a proud, sinful heart will rebel against it and reject it as truth, or he will believe, and in humble submission, bow to His Lordship. There are no other responses.

When Jesus says He is the Light of the World, it causes our minds to go back in the book of John to earlier chapters. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being. In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men. The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it. (John 1:1-4) John tells us further that he came to testify about the Light so that all might believe through him. John tells us that the Light came to His own (the Jewish people), and those who were His own did not receive Him. But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God. And, we know that as a whole, His own people did not receive Him at His first coming. Jesus is the Light of the world, and the Word incarnate. John 1:14 says: And the Word became flesh, and dwelt (tabernacled) among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth. 1 John 1:5 says: This is the message we have heard from Him and announce to you, that God is Light, and in Him there is no darkness at all.

So, imagine Jesus walking through the Temple for the Feast of Tabernacles or Booths (Sukkoth). As these rituals are taking place, He uses them to point to the spiritual realities they portray, all intended to point to Him. For the most part, the people He is talking to do not know that they are blind and cannot see the truth. Then Jesus again spoke to them, saying, “I am the Light of the world; he who follows Me will not walk in the darkness, but will have the Light of Life.” The very next words are…So the Pharisees said to Him. They immediately give push back to this statement. Because they were well-versed in their Scriptures, their minds should have gone first to Exodus 13:20-22—Then they set out from Succoth and camped in Etham on the edge of the wilderness. The LORD was going before them in a pillar of fire by night to give them light, that they might travel by day and by night. He did not take away the pillar of cloud by day, nor the pillar of fire by night, from before the people. The picture is rich. The children of Israel are wandering in the wilderness. The Lord leads them with a pillar of fire by night illuminating the way for them to see where they are to travel. This pillar of fire was called the Shekinah glory representing God’s presence with them, leading, and guiding them. Exodus 14 shows us how the pillar of fire went from leading them in front to guarding them from behind in order to protect them from the pursuit of the Egyptians before the Lord parted the Red Sea. The pillar of cloud and the fire brought confusion on the enemy of God’s children. We see this same thought many times in the Psalms where God promises to confuse our enemies in the midst of their pursuit of us. It’s interesting to see that in this confusion, the enemy recognizes it is from the hand of the Lord who is fighting for His own.

Psalm 27:1 says: The LORD is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The LORD is the defense of my life; whom shall I dread? Psalm 119:105—Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path. In Isaiah 42 God, speaking of Jesus says: I will appoint You as a covenant to the people, as a light to the nations (Gentiles), to open blind eyes, to bring out prisoners from the dungeon and those who dwell in darkness from the prison.

Jesus was telling the Jews that even though the Shekinah glory led the children of Israel in the wilderness, they were not walking in the Light, but still in darkness. God had given them the Law. In living according to God’s Law, they would reveal the righteousness of God to the Gentiles. The problem is that they were a law unto themselves taking God’s law and adding to it and twisting it until it was not recognizable as God’s Law. They had failed in their calling, so God sent Jesus to be the perfect Light of the world who would perfectly reveal God to men and reveal man’s need for a Savior. The self-righteous Scribes and the Pharisees: (1) Didn’t want “their God” to also be God to the Gentiles; and (2) They didn’t want to be seen as sinners but as saints. So, their fixed intent was to put out the Light!