The main point: Jesus makes another statement that declares his identification with his Father, and expands upon it by claiming to be the light of the world. His listeners cannot understand why Jesus applies this well-used biblical metaphor to himself, however, because they, according to Jesus, do not truly know the Father. They continue to misunderstand Jesus. But do we understand him any better?
John 7-8 takes place in Jerusalem, as Jesus teaches at the Temple during the Feast of Tabernacles. The entire discourse, as indeed much of the book of John, centres around Jesus revealing who he is and who his Father is, giving glory to the Father, and being rejected by most of those around him. Chapter 7 begins with Jesus secretly attending the festival, and chapter 8 ends with Jesus slipping away in secret, which tells us that that when he is teaching he is revealing something that is otherwise hidden, and also shows us just how dangerous this teaching and revelation truly is.
In John 8:12-30 Jesus is speaking to “the people”. This is not a homogenous group. We know in this group there are Pharisees who challenge him, Judeans who want to seize and kill him, and others who put their faith in him, at least for a short while. But they were all in Jerusalem at the time of the religious feast, so we can assume that the crowd was primarily, possibly even exclusively, Jewish, or at least connected to the Jewish faith.
When Jesus makes his “I Am” statement (which he repeats more than once in this passage), we have already seen that he intentionally identifies himself with the God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses and the Prophets (when Moses asked God for his name, his response essentially was “I AM who I AM” – Exodus 3:14). This is scandalous enough, but becomes even more so when Jesus adds that he is the Light of the World. Only God, (or possibly the Torah) could ever truly make that claim.
There are many images that might come to us through the phrase “light of the world”. Without light we would have no heat, no ability to see, no energy, no direction, no comfort. Light has also come to mean knowledge and discovery, being illuminated by ideas. One of the primal fears of humanity is to be left without light, plunged into utter darkness. We would be left in a cold, dark, comfortless place with no hope, no future, no thought.
These are some of the things we think about when we hear “light” and darkness”. But there are many uses of light and darkness throughout Scripture that would probably have been echoing through the minds of the Jewish audience as well. Light is the first thing that God calls into being with his Word at the beginning of all things. Isaiah 9:2 talks about “the people walking in darkness” who have “seen a great light.” Isaiah 42:6 and 49:6 both describe how the Servant of the Lord will be a “light to the Gentiles”. John himself in his first chapter spoke of the light coming into the darkness of the world, and the darkness failing to understand it.
It should also be noted that Jesus made this claim at the Temple. Jesus was teaching near the treasury, next to the Court of Women, which is where a special ceremony would take place during the Feast of Tabernacles. This ceremony was designed to remember how God led his people out of Egypt as a pillar of flame by night. The golden lamp stands would be lit, and all the pilgrims would bring torch lights to the ceremony. The court would therefore be powerfully illuminated, referencing a messianic prophecy from Zechariah 14:7: “It will be a unique day, without daytime or nighttime – a day known to the LORD. When evening comes, there will be light.” Jesus announces that he is, in fact, the light of the world, the presence of the divine / pillar of fire that has come to lead his people out of the captivity of darkness, death and sin. And here, in Jerusalem, at the Temple, during the Feast of Tabernacles, the light of the world is rejected by the darkness of the world.
Why was he rejected? It seems that the audience did not really understand what he was claiming about himself. It was surely too much for him to claim to be “I Am”, to claim to be the light of the world. What did he mean? Where was he going, and where was he from? Who was his Father that he keeps talking about? Jesus continues to clarify, but throughout the gospel of John the more he clarifies, the angrier the audience becomes. Jesus explains that they cannot understand who he is, even though he is the Word that has been telling them these things “from the beginning”, because they truly do not know his Father above, from whom he has come.
To know the Father was not just to have information about Him, but to be in spiritual fellowship with Him. Jesus was revealing who His Father really was, and opening up the possibility of intimate and everlasting fellowship with the Father, but the people could not understand this light. It will become even clearer in the next section how they thought they knew the Father of Jesus, but they truly did not. Only the Father could draw people to Jesus, and their hearts would not be drawn. Because their hearts would not be drawn, they could not come to know the Father through Jesus, his Son. This should cause us to ask of ourselves: are our hearts being drawn to Jesus by the Father? Will we be drawn, will we respond? Will we know the Father through the Son? Will we be in right spiritual fellowship with God?
Because if we are not in right spiritual fellowship with God, if we do not know the Father through the Son, then we will die in our sins. This is destruction, the final, everlasting death, the eternal absence of the light of life, the forever darkness. The Father has made the light of life available to us through his Son, who is the light of the world. Will we receive this light, or will we be the darkness that does not understand, that does not know, that rejects?
Jesus prophecies that he will be lifted up – by which he means on a cross – and that this is when his full glory, and the true revelation of his Father’s glory, will be shown. This is when people will “know” him, will “know” why and from whom he has been sent, when he has completed his life of obedience to his Father’s will. Jesus knows that his Father is always with him, because he obeys him completely and lives only to please him. Some of us may come from family backgrounds that were harmful, in which we desperately tried to please our parents but never could. Jesus does please his Father, and his Father abides with him always. He also makes it possible for us to know that God always abides with us, as we follow the commands of Jesus.
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