The Light of the World (John 8)

‘Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life”’ (John 8:12).

There are two options for understanding the background to this illustration. One is connected to a ritual connected to the feast of tabernacles. It involved lighting four great lamps, and they shed great light during the dark hours. John does not say Jesus was present during that ritual, and the allusion would require some explanatory details (which John does not give). Therefore, it is more likely that Jesus, in using this description of himself, expected his listeners to deduce that he was using the sun as an illustration. Verse 2 says he came to the temple early in the morning, so perhaps the sun had just risen when this discussion takes place between Jesus and the Pharisees.

Such language had been used before regarding the promised Messiah. Isaiah speaks of him as one who would be a light to the Gentiles (Isa. 9:1-2). Simeon, who met Mary and Joseph when they came to the temple with the infant Jesus, declared that he now had seen the One who would be ‘a light for revelation to the Gentiles’ (Luke 2:32). So it was not surprising that Jesus would use it when speaking about himself.

The first suggestion that comes out of this illustration is that Jesus belongs to the heights. He is from above. His native home is heaven. He is the light because he is the eternal God. In the beginning, he who dwells in light created the natural light. It is straightforward to deduce that because his eternal home was heaven, Jesus is superior to us.

The second detail to note about the sun is that it is separate from the earth. Because of the distance it is from the earth, the sun is not contaminated by the pollution of earth. Jesus is like the sun in this regard in that he is unaffected by the sin of the human race. Instead, he is always holy, without sin. Yet although the sun is detached from the earth, its influences affect the earth. The same is true of Jesus.

When the sun shines, it shows what kind of lifestyles are lived by us. This does not happen during the night hours. The perfect life of Jesus reveals to us our own imperfections. In order to understand our sinfulness, we need something or someone to function as the standard by which to assess ourselves. One way by which we can do so is by comparing ourselves to God’s law. Another way is to contrast ourselves with Jesus. We can combine them and look at the ways in which Jesus kept the law perfectly, and whenever we do so, we will see our own many imperfections in a very clear manner.

Thirdly, the sun is a picture of strength. In Psalm 19, the sun is likened to a strong man about to run a race. It needs strength, we can say, because of the several activities it has to perform. For example, it has to dispel the darkness of the previous evening; in some places, it has to melt the frozen waters and ground; in other places, it is needed in order for crops to grow. We can see how each of these activities of the sun depicts the work of Jesus, both with regard to conversion and to progress in the Christian life.

A person who is unconverted is in spiritual darkness. Those of us who are converted can remember the time when the gospel did not make sense to us. We may have understood aspects of it in a notional sense, but we could not see its importance. Even when a preacher was describing the beauty of Jesus, we wondered what was his significance. Our problem was that our blinded minds are darkened by our sins. But then we began to see ourselves in a different way as Jesus the Light began to teach us who we actually were. To one degree or another, he showed as our sins and eventually we realised that we needed his mercy and forgiveness. Then the cross of Jesus became very important for us, and as we looked at it light flowed into our minds as we grasped that there he dealt with sin and bore its punishment, and that it was possible for us to be pardoned. As we think about Jesus the Light in this sermon, have we realised that Jesus is the only person who can deliver us from spiritual darkness? The best way to see the Light is to start thinking about him and simultaneously to ask him to shine into your mind.

A person who is unconverted has a frozen heart. Again we can see a connection to our spiritual state before conversion. Our hearts were cold towards God and we had no interest in the possibility of divine warmth. Perhaps we sat through sermons and observed that others were moved to tears. Their hearts were being melted by Jesus as the gospel story was told. Wherever the preacher took them, whether to Bethlehem or to Gethsemane or to Calvary or to Olivet, they followed his words with broken hearts. They realised that the reason for the painful journey of Jesus was their sins, that he had to travel to the cross in order to pay the penalty for their sin. It was not only tears of regret that came from their melted hearts; there was also tears of joy as they realised that forgiveness for them was free. Is your heart a melted heart? If not, ask Jesus, even now, to shine in your heart and begin a never-ending thaw within you.

In addition, the sun is continually active. This is the message of Psalm 19 which refers to the journey of the sun round the world. The point is that the sun never stops shining. Its effects are known here and then there, without a ceasing. That is also the case with Jesus. He is continually active in attracting those who are strangers to him and in helping those who trust in him. All over the world today, Jesus is at work, drawing sinners to him. He has been doing so for centuries, and who can count the number that has been blessed by him? Billions have discovered that he is indeed the light of the world.

The amazing feature of the sun is that each one of us can have all its strength to oneself without depriving anyone else of it. As the sun shines in Inverness at this moment, it is also shining everywhere else in the country. Each person has a full sun for himself or herself. In a far higher sense, it is the same with Jesus. Each one of us can have all of him. This is the case whether we are outside his family (such are invited to come to him) or inside his family (they too can backslide and have darkened minds and hard hearts). All of us can bask in his beams of grace as he shines upon us.

Fourthly, the sun gives us the ability to see where we are going. Without the sun, there would be permanent darkness and life would be nothing but confusion. Jesus gives to us the ability to see the path ahead, although it is normally grasped in two particular ways. This ability can concern our next footstep or it may concern the end of our journey. We can see our next footstep through the light of his commandments and we can see the end of the journey through the light of his promises. Without Jesus, we have neither; with Jesus, we have both.

Fifthly, this statement by Jesus, that he is the light of the world, highlights three crucial features of Jesus. One is stated in his use of the definite article ‘the light’ – he is the exclusive Light. He is not a light, one of many possible deliverers. He alone can do what is needed for salvation.

The statement also states that Jesus is the universal light, not just for Israel, but for all the peoples of the world. Perhaps this was the point that Jesus was stressing to the Pharisees because they imagined that Israel alone had divine privileges. Israel had been called to be a light to the nations on behalf of God, but had failed to do so. In contrast, Jesus would be the light for all the world. This reality should fill us with great expectations of what he can do as he shines throughout the world. And we know that at the end of the age, when Jesus returns and the great crowd that no-one can count gathers in his presence, there will be people from every tribe, nation and language (Rev. 7).

In the statement, we can see from the use of the present tense in ‘I am’ that Jesus is also the permanent light. He will never be replaced as Saviour. Even in heaven, amidst all its glories, Jesus will be the light. He will be the permanent source of grace in this world and of glory in the next. John reminds us that when we shall see him, we shall be like him, that is, glorified. And glorification involves transformation by the permanent Light of the world.

Sixthly, the verse we have been thinking about reminds us that Jesus must be the personal light of each one of us. We have already thought of several ways by which this can be done. But as we close, each of us should resolve to look to Jesus as our own personal light.