next morning, the greatest and the wisest and the holiest men in Israel danced before the Lord and sang psalms of joy and praise while the people watched. Jesus is saying: ‘You have seen the blaze of the Temple illuminations piercing the darkness of the night. I am the light of the world, and for anyone who follows me there will be light, not only for one exciting night, but for all the pathway of life. The light in the Temple is a brilliant light, but in the end it flickers and dies. I am the light which lasts forever.’
THE LIGHT THAT PEOPLE FAILED TO RECOGNIZE
John 8:12–20 (contd)
JESUS said: ‘He who follows me will not walk in darkness, but he will have the light of life.’ The light of life means two things. The Greek can mean either the light which issues from the source of life or the light which gives life. In this passage, it means both. Jesus is the very light of God come among men and women; and he is the light which gives them life. Just as the flower can never blossom when it never sees the sunlight, so our lives can never flower with the grace and beauty they ought to have until they are irradiated with the light of the presence of Jesus.
In this passage, Jesus talks of following himself. We often speak of following Jesus; we often urge others to do so. What do we mean? The Greek for to follow is akolouthein; and its meanings combine to shed a flood of light on what it means to follow Jesus. Akolouthein has five different but closely connected meanings.
(1) It is often used of a soldier following his captain. On the long route marches, into battle, in campaigns in strange lands, the soldier follows wherever the captain may lead. Christians are the soldiers whose commander is Christ.
(2) It is often used of a slave accompanying his master. Wherever the master goes, the slave is in attendance upon him, always ready to spring to his service and to carry out the tasks he gives him to do. He is literally at his master’s beck and call. Christians are the slaves whose joy it is always to serve Christ.
(3) It is often used of accepting a wise counsellor’s opinion. When people are in doubt they go to the expert, and if they are wise they accept the judgment they receive. Christians are people who guide their lives and conduct by the counsel of Christ.
(4) It is often used of giving obedience to the laws of a city or a state. To be useful members of any society or citizens of any community, we must agree to abide by its laws. Christians, being citizens of the kingdom of heaven, accept the law of the kingdom and of Christ as the law which governs their lives.
(5) It is often used of following a teacher’s line of argument, or of following the gist of someone’s speech. Christians are people who have understood the meaning of the teaching of Christ. They have not listened in dull incomprehension or with slack inattention. They take the message into their minds and understand, receive the words into their memories and remember, and hide them in their hearts and obey.
To be followers of Christ is to give body, soul and spirit into the obedience of the Master; and to follow him is to walk in the light. When we walk alone, we are bound to stumble and grope, for so many of life’s problems are beyond our solution. When we walk alone, we are bound to take the wrong way, because we have no secure map of life. We need the heavenly wisdom to walk the earthly way. Those who have a sure guide and an accurate map are the ones who are bound to come in safety to their journey’s end. Jesus Christ is that guide; he alone possesses the map to life. To follow him is to walk in safety through life and afterwards to enter into glory.
THE LIGHT THAT PEOPLE FAILED TO RECOGNIZE
John 8:12–20 (contd)
WHEN Jesus made his claim to be the light of the world, the scribes and Pharisees reacted with hostility. That claim would sound even more astonishing to them than to us. To them it would sound like a claim – as indeed it was – to be the Messiah, and, even more, to do the work that only God could do. The word light was specially associated in Jewish thought and language with God. ‘The Lord is my light’ (Psalm 27:1). ‘The Lord will be your everlasting light’ (Isaiah 60:19). ‘By his light I walked through darkness’ (Job 29:3). ‘When I sit in darkness, the Lord will be a light to me’ (Micah 7:8). The Rabbis declared that the name of the Messiah was Light. When Jesus claimed to be the light of the world, he was making a claim than which none could possibly be higher.
The argument of this passage is difficult and complicated, but it involves three strands.
(1) The Jews first insisted that a statement such as Jesus made could not be regarded as accurate because it was backed by insufficient witness. It was, as they saw it, backed by his word alone; and it was Jewish law that any statement must be founded on the evidence of two witnesses before it could be regarded as true. ‘A single witness shall not suffice to convict a person of any crime or wrongdoing in connection with any offence that may be committed. Only on the evidence of two or three witnesses shall a charge be sustained’ (Deuteronomy 19:15). ‘On the evidence of two or three witnesses the death sentence shall be executed; a person must not be put to death on the evidence of only one witness’ (Deuteronomy 17:6). ‘No one shall be put to death on the testimony of a single witness’ (Numbers 35:30). Jesus’ answer was twofold.
First, he answered that his own witness was enough. He was so conscious of his own authority that no other witness was necessary. This was not pride or self-confidence. It was simply the supreme instance of the kind of thing which happens every day. Great surgeons are confident in their own verdicts. They do not need anyone to support them; their witness is their own skill. Great lawyers or judges are sure of their own interpretation and application of the law. It is not that they are proud of their own knowledge; it is simply that they know that they know. Jesus was so aware of his closeness to God that he needed no other authority for his claims than his own relationship to God.
Second, Jesus said that in point of fact he had a second witness, and that second witness was God. How does God bear witness to the supreme authority of Jesus? (a) The witness of God is in Jesus’ words. No man could speak with such wisdom unless God had given him knowledge. (b) The witness of God is in Jesus’ deeds. No man could do such things unless God was acting through him. (c) The witness of God is in the effect of Jesus upon men and women. He works changes in people which are obviously beyond human power to work. The very fact that Jesus can make bad people good is proof that his power is not simply a man’s power, but God’s. (d) The witness of God is in the reaction of men and women to Jesus. Wherever and whenever Jesus has been fully displayed, wherever and whenever the cross has been preached in all its grandeur and its splendour, there has been an immediate and overwhelming response in people’s hearts. That response is the Holy Spirit of God working and witnessing in the hearts of men and women. It is God in our hearts who enables us to see God in Jesus.
Jesus dealt in this way with the argument of the scribes and Pharisees that his words could not be accepted because of inadequate witness. His words were in fact backed by a double witness, that of his own consciousness of authority and that of God.
(2) Second, Jesus dealt with his right to judge. His coming into the world was not primarily for judgment; it was for love. At the same time, people’s reaction to Jesus is in itself a judgment; if they see no beauty in him, they condemn themselves. Here Jesus draws a contrast between two kinds of judgment.
(a) There is the judgment that is based on human knowledge and human standards and which never sees below the surface. That was the judgment of the scribes and Pharisees; and, in the last analysis, that is any human judgment, for in the nature of things we can never see below the surface.
(b)
