Light always Conquers Darkness, from Jesus as Seen by John

Think of the darkest place you know; perhaps it is the closet in your bedroom after all the lights are turned out. You may have another place in mind. From my experience I picture the bridge on a ship at sea; there is no moon, cloud cover has darkened the stars -- just blackness. I picture us approaching land (we "see" it on radar) but we can't really see anything. Then, there it is on the horizon a faint blinking light. It is the expected lighthouse! Now we know where we are; what places to avoid and can enter harbor safely. Once we see light -- it is no longer dark. Light always conquers darkness.

Jesus starts our scripture passage (John 8:12-30) with, “I am the light of the world.”

When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” 

The Pharisees challenged him, “Here you are, appearing as your own witness; your testimony is not valid.”

Jesus answered, “Even if I testify on my own behalf, my testimony is valid, for I know where I came from and where I am going. But you have no idea where I come from or where I am going. You judge by human standards; I pass judgment on no one. But if I do judge, my decisions are true, because I am not alone. I stand with the Father, who sent me. In your own Law it is written that the testimony of two witnesses is true. I am one who testifies for myself; my other witness is the Father, who sent me.”

 Then they asked him, “Where is your father?”

 “You do not know me or my Father,” Jesus replied. “If you knew me, you would know my Father also.” He spoke these words while teaching in the temple courts near the place where the offerings were put. Yet no one seized him, because his hour had not yet come.

Once more Jesus said to them, “I am going away, and you will look for me, and you will die in your sin. Where I go, you cannot come.”

 This made the Jews ask, “Will he kill himself? Is that why he says, ‘Where I go, you cannot come’?”

 But he continued, “You are from below; I am from above. You are of this world; I am not of this world. I told you that you would die in your sins; if you do not believe that I am he, you will indeed die in your sins.”

 “Who are you?” they asked.

“Just what I have been telling you from the beginning,” Jesus replied. “I have much to say in judgment of you. But he who sent me is trustworthy, and what I have heard from him I tell the world.”

 They did not understand that he was telling them about his Father. So Jesus said, “When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am he and that I do nothing on my own but speak just what the Father has taught me. The one who sent me is with me; he has not left me alone, for I always do what pleases him.” Even as he spoke, many believed in him.

Jesus finishes his statement by saying, “Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” This is really an astounding statement. In the first place there is a hint of what have come to be the “I AM” statements. This is an allusion to his divinity since “Yahweh” is a form of I am. Secondly, when Jesus states that he is the light, it implies that everyone else is in darkness and that only Jesus has the truth. What follows is a lengthy, complicated discussion between the Establishment and Jesus about this claim. What follows in this posting is not meant to be a complete exegesis of this passage; I only hope to give an outline and some of the implications of the statement of Jesus.

Of course, the establishment doesn’t believe the claim of Jesus, nor do they like the fact that he made that claim. To them, the Lord is the light; Psalm 27:1, 119:105, therefore they understood that Jesus was making the “preposterous” claim of his Lordship. This was both unbelievable and blasphemous. But, how were they to attack him? Since any truth or claim must be given by two witnesses, they attacked Jesus by saying that he was only saying this about himself with nothing to back it up.

Jesus answered by stating that he was qualified to judge since he knew where he came from and where he was going; in fact he knew the Father and only did as the Father wanted him to do. Jesus told them that they only saw things from a human perspective. Here again was a claim to divinity since God also states that he sees the hearts of men; e.g. the selection of David as King by Samuel.

Jesus gave a second defense by telling them that he wasn’t just bragging; there was another witness, the Father himself. He then tells them that they don’t know the Father since anyone that really knows Jesus knows the Father. Earlier, Jesus had said that anyone knowing the Father would know him (Jesus). Here he reverses that. Later in the Gospel Jesus will say that he and he alone is the way to the Father. Again what must have seemed like preposterous claims to those Pharisees. There is much more to saw about the passage, but I like how it ends, “Even as he spoke, many believed in him. “

Light was a good analogy for the world was indeed dark when Jesus came. There was much to admire about the Roman Empire, but there was a dark underside. Suicide was rampant. Most of the world was under Rome’s thumb. A huge part of the population was enslaved. This was also a time of immorality and pagan idolatry. This is darkness. What does light do to darkness? It dispels the darkness. When there is light, there can be no darkness. When we see light, we are alerted to danger and we can see the way to go. When we see the light, we see the truth. When our sins are brought to light, they can be forgiven.

What does this say to us? Since Jesus is the light, when we come to him, we are transformed and become light. To be sure, just as the Sun is light and the moon reflected light, Jesus is the light – but we reflect that light. So what is our task? Since we have come to the light – let us walk in the light so that others can see and be saved.