1- I am the Light of the World

2. I AM the light of the world--8:12–13

“I AM”

The phrase, “I am” points to the personal and distinctive name of God found in the Old Testament. “I am” speaks of the presence of God.

“Moses said to God, ‘Suppose I go to the Israelites and say to them, “The God of your fathers has sent me to you,” and they ask me, “What is his name?” Then what shall I tell them?’ God said to Moses, ‘I AM WHO I AM. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: “I AM has sent me to you.” ’ ” Ex 3:13–14

When Jesus used the phrase “I am,” he was underlining his claim to be:

• pre-existent

• eternally God

THE CLAIMS OF THE “I AMS”

The “I am” sayings of Jesus spell out his claims.

• Each one says something distinctive about who Jesus is.

• Each one is linked to a promise about what Jesus is offering to someone who believes in him.

8:12. If we assume that when John wrote his Gospel he did not include (and may not have known the material of) 7:53–8:11, then 8:12 attaches itself to 7:52. Further, if the uncertainty that finds expression in 7:40–44 and the sharp exchanges in the Sanhedrin in 7:45–52 are removed from Jesus’ public utterances, then 8:12 follows on nicely from 7:37–39. That is what is indicated by the word again (palin, which is the first word in the Gk. text of 8:12): again he spoke to the people, still in the context of the Feast of Tabernacles.

‘He who has not seen the joy of the place of water-drawing has never in his life seen joy’: this extravagant claim stands just before the description of the lighting of the four huge lamps in the temple’s court of women and of the exuberant celebration that took place under their light (Mishnah Sukkah 5:1–4). ‘Men of piety and good works’ danced through the night, holding burning torches in their hands and singing songs and praises. The Levitical orchestras cut loose, and some sources attest that this went on every night of the Feast of Tabernacles, with the light from the temple area shedding its glow all over Jerusalem. In this context Jesus declares to the people, I am the light of the world.

This is the second of the ‘I am’ statements that are followed by a predicate (cf. notes on 6:35). Of the incarnate Word we have already learned that the life ‘was the light of men’ (cf. notes on 1:4). The light metaphor is steeped in Old Testament allusions. The glory of the very presence of God in the cloud led the people to the promised land (Ex. 13:21–22) and protected them from those who would destroy them (Ex. 14:19–25). The Israelites were trained to sing, ‘The Lord is my light and my salvation’ (Ps. 27:1). The word of God, the law of God, is a light to guide the path of those who cherish instruction (Ps. 119:105; Pr. 6:23); God’s light is shed abroad in revelation (Ezk. 1:4, 13, 26–28) and salvation (Hab. 3:3–4). ‘Light is Yahweh in action, Ps. 44:3’ (H. Conzelmann, TDNT 9, 320). Isaiah tells us that the servant of the Lord was appointed as a light to the Gentiles, that he might bring God’s salvation to the ends of the earth (Is. 49:6). The coming eschatological age would be a time when the Lord himself would be the light for his people (Is. 60:19–22; cf. Rev. 21:23–24). Perhaps Zechariah 14:5b–7 is especially significant, with its promise of continual light on the last day, followed by the promise of living waters flowing from Jerusalem—this passage probably forming part of the liturgical readings of this Feast (cf. notes on 7:37–39). The great, burning lights of the Feast of Tabernacles resonate with such strains. Already in the Fourth Gospel the dawning of the light in the coming of Jesus has been a significant theme. In this age of an inaugurated but not yet consummated kingdom, however, the light is still in mortal combat with darkness (1:4, 9; 3:19–21).

In fact, light is so common a religious symbol that commentators can find roughly parallel passages in a wide diversity of religious backgrounds that John may well have been exposed to (cf. Barrett, pp. 335–337; Dodd, IFG, pp. 201–298; Odeberg, pp. 286–292; Bultmann, pp. 40–44, 342–343). Insofar as some of his readers have been reared in one or more of these religious contexts, John would not be adverse to pointing out the ways in which Jesus is the true light. But the Gospel is strongly Jewish, and the struggle over claims to authority are with Jews who wish to maintain as paramount their received tradition. That must be the primary locus of the debate that interests the Evangelist, as well as the locus of debate during Jesus’ life and ministry.

In the context of such powerful ritual, Jesus’ declaration must have come with stunning force. He does not let it hang in the air as an abstract dictum. There is an immediate consequence: Whoever follows me (an appropriate thing to do with light if it is the glorious pillar of cloud setting out the way in the wilderness) will never walk in darkness (cf. 1:5, 9; 3:19–21; 12:35, 46) but will have the light of life—i.e. the light that produces life (cf. notes on ‘bread of life’, 6:35; cf. Ps. 36:9, ‘For with you is the fountain of life; in your light we see light.’).

That is as far as the theme is explicitly taken in this chapter. The interest now turns to the authority of Jesus in making such a claim. Nevertheless the verse is strategically placed, for it not only rounds out Jesus’ claims in connection with the Feast of Tabernacles, but prepares the way for ch. 9, where the outworking of Jesus’ claim to be the light (cf. 9:5) is depicted in a miracle by which a blind man is made to see, while others who think they see remain blind to the light. More important to the immediate context, the theme of light is not unrelated to the question of truthfulness and witness in the following verses, for light cannot but attest to its own presence; otherwise put, it bears witness to itself, and its source is entirely supportive of that witness.

8:13. When the Pharisees (cf. notes on 1:19, 24) challenge him, they bring up Jesus’ own words. ‘If I testify about myself, my testimony is not valid’ (5:31). Certainly the law of Moses required multiple attestation in capital cases (Dt. 17:6), and in other criminal proceedings as well (Dt. 19:15). In the Mishnah (Ketuboth 2:9) the principle is adopted and applied to other legal situations.

“Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world; he that followeth Me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of light.”—John 8:12.

I. Jesus is the light of the world.

That Jesus is the light—the light of the world—is to be seen in all parts of his blessed history.

Look at him in his cradle. Shines there a star above the house wherein the young child sleeps? Brighter far than yonder star is he who lies cradled in the manger. As a babe, devout men hail him, “A light to lighten the Gentiles, and the glory of his people Israel. There God is veiled in human flesh. Behold the mystery of the incarnation. God is manifest in our nature; he dwells among us. The light is clear and dazzling.

As a preacher, he was luminous. He expounded the spirituality of the law.

He shed light, too, upon the covenant of grace. He promulgated the gospel of peace among the sons of men. He told of God the Father, willing to receive his prodigal children back again into his bosom.

His parables threw wondrous light upon the dispensation of the kingdom of heaven. His counsels and his cautions brought the final destinies of the righteous and the wicked into full view.

Oh! beloved, the light of Christ comes out brightest upon the cross.

So it is. This is the lighthouse that throws its beams across the dark waters of human guilt and misery, warns men of the rocks, and guides them to the haven.

A Saviour! God in human flesh! He whom the seers predicted: “A king shall reign in righteousness,” appears as the divine symbol represented him—“a Lamb slain.” Behold him shedding his precious blood to atone for the sins of men.

Never did such light shine on the law and the prophets.

Never did such light gleam on the faith and hope of pure hearts.

Never did such light irradiate the repentance and conversion by which sinners are retrieved.

II. Jesus is the true light.

There are other lights. Before his coming there had been some light typical. Do you not remember that a golden lamp stood in the holy place, with its seven branches? It was an admirable piece of sacred furniture, and highly instructive; but Jesus seems to put it away. In fact, it had been already put away. He had come to put an end to its meaning by fulfilling its intent. “This was not the light; it was only the type of the light. I am the true light,” he says. Even that light which flamed across the desert way when Moses led the host of God through the wilderness was but a typical light. The veritable pillar of cloud and fire is Jesus, who leads the whole host of God’s elect through this weary wilderness to the Canaan of the blessed.

Jesus Christ was the true light in opposition to the smoking flax of tradition.

. But we have the trustworthy and the true when we hear him exclaim, “I am the light.” Where else shall light be found? Where shall the bewildered sons of men find a reliable guide? In the teaching of the person, the life, the death, the sacrifice of the Christ of Nazareth, we have light self-evidential, palpable by its own brilliance. Guiding light is here alike clearly visible. This to follow is not fallacious. “I am the light of the world; he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness.” Thus, then, is he a light that is to be followed. Do any of you want to enjoy the light that streams from Christ, be assured you cannot realise it by reading about it—you must follow it. If a man could travel so fast as always to follow the sun, of course he would always be in the light. If the day should ever come when the speed of the railway shall be equal to the speed of the world’s motion, then a man may so live as to never lose the light. Now he that follows Christ shall never walk in darkness. To follow him means to commit yourselves to him, to believe him, and yield yourselves up, obediently doing what he bids, and implicitly accepting what he says. You must have no other Master. Say not, “I will be taught by Calvin,” or “by Luther,” or “by Wesley,” or “by anybody else.” Jesus Christ only must be your light. His Word, by the testimony of his Spirit, must be your sole authority.

III. Jesus is the guiding light for the soul.

For the soul that panteth after God. Dost thou say, with Philip, “Show us the Father, and it sufficeth us”?

Jesus saith, “I am the way, the truth, and the life; no man cometh unto the Father but by me.” Christ is the guiding light through the multitude of authors. If you want to thread your way among them, let the early Fathers, the sturdy Reformers, the rigid Puritans, and the modern evangelists be your companions, if so it please you; but let him be your guide, and his counsel your stay, till you reach the gates of glory. Amidst the conflict of opinions, his sure Word will prove your safe chart. He is the guiding light through sickness and suffering; trust him, and he will make your bed in your sickness; he will bring lasting benefits out of your most lamentable afflictions. He is the guiding light through death’s dark vale. In those gloomy shades you need fear no ill if you keep close to him.

“Sun of my soul, thou Saviour dear,

It is not night if thou be near.”

Christ has said, “He that followeth me shall not walk in darkness”; so the terror by night flies at his presence. The atoning blood shall speak peace to you. Ignorance shall vanish before the brightness he manifests. Christ shall teach you. Despair shall dissolve before the sweet beams of hope. Even doubt, with all the indecision that comes of it, melts at the sound of his animating voice, “This is the way; walk ye in it.” Thrice happy man who commits himself to Jesus! He shall always have light, and shall never walk in darkness.

IV. Jesus is the universal light.

He says, “I am the light of the world.” He does not merely say, “I am the light of the Jews,” or “I am the light of the Gentiles.”

He is both. He is the light of all mankind. There is no clear light in which any man can discern God, or rightly understand himself, perceive the bitterness of sin, or apprehend the destiny and the doom of heaven and hell, but what flows through Jesus Christ. I do not doubt that among the various religious professions spread over the world—in many of which Christianity is much debased—there are devout persons who enjoy a share of communion with God and a sense of pardoned sin, though the tone of their thoughts, like the tongue of their utterance, widely differs from our own; but it is all through one common Lord, our Saviour Jesus Christ, they find acceptance. When I get hold of a book that teaches erroneous things, yet if there is a savour of Jesus Christ in it, I censure the faults without condemning the author. Never let my animadversions be mistaken for anathemas. I sometimes perceive that the man who wrote it has evidently found salvation, because he has laid hold of our Lord Jesus Christ. He that follows him is on the right tack.

Christ is the light of the world, destined to shed his beams over the whole earth. The day comes when all mankind will see this light.

WHAT CHRIST CLAIMS FOR HIMSELF (v. 12)

Notice what Christ announced concerning himself: “I am the light of the world.” Those great torches symbolized the Shekinah glory. Christ was saying in effect, “Do you remember the pillar that came between you and the Egyptians near the Red Sea, the pillar that protected you and led you on your wanderings in the wilderness? I am the Light of the world. I am identified with that Shekinah glory.” What a statement! At the very least Jesus was claiming to be God. His conscious identification with the pillar of fire reveals something about his incarnation. Within the cloud that led Israel through the wilderness, there was always a heart of fire that shone forth at night but was sheathed by day. When our Lord came, he sheathed his glory in flesh so we could look upon him. Time and again God is called light in the Old Testament. Almost the last verse in the Old Testament (Malachi 4:2) says in regard to Jesus:

But for you who revere my name, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings.

When Simeon took the baby Jesus in his arms in the temple he sang:

“… because of the tender mercy of our God, by which the rising sun will come to us from heaven to shine on those living in darkness and in the shadow of death.” (Luke 1:78–79)

And John said, “We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son” (1:14). I believe John was referring, at least in part, to the Transfiguration, when he was taken along with Peter and James to a high mountain and Christ was transfigured before them. Our Lord’s face shone forth as the sun.

Jesus, in John 8, was not only saying he is the light of the world, but that the benefits and comforts that came with the cloud in the wilderness came from him. What a precious, wonderful truth! He is saying, “I was the One who protected you. I guided you through the wilderness. It was I who enveloped the tabernacle. It was I who came into the temple of Solomon and filled it with such glory that the priests could not serve. I am the Shekinah glory.” Such was the claim he made for himself.

Living in this dark world, we need to keep this supreme claim before us. Jesus is the light of life in every way. He is the answer. Some of us may be stumbling along, wondering what life is all about. We may feel barely able to take another step. We are confused. Christ says to us, “I am the light of life.”

WHAT CHRIST CLAIMS FOR HIS FOLLOWERS (v. 12)

Christ also makes a claim for those who follow him. “Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness” (v. 12).

The Israelites in the desert kept their attention on the cloud. They watched its configuration to see when and where it would move. At night they walked in its light. No matter how dark the night, when they were under the luminous cloud there was no stumbling, no confusion, no fear. Jesus provides similar benefits for those of us who know him, for we have the light of life. Therefore we can have courage though dwelling in a dark world.

Have you ever tried going through an obstacle course blindfolded? The smallest obstacles become difficult obstructions. If we are not walking in the light of Christ, the obstacles that should not be a problem are great stumbling blocks to us. But when we have that light, we understand how to make our way through this dark world.

The whole phrase from verse 12 gives us even more hope: “Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” “Have” in the last phrase is a beautiful word. Christ was saying that not only do we have light coming into us, but there is a sense in which we become shafts of the Lord’s light. How beautiful and wondrous!

In one of the churches I served in past years there was a woman whom everyone called a “sunbeam.” Her name was Susie Smith. She had a great, contagious laugh and smile and a willingness to do just about anything she could despite her precarious health. She was an uncluttered shaft of light! But how did that come about? She was my daughter Holly’s first grade teacher in public school. Day after day my daughter said, “Mrs. Smith, will you come to church with me?” And finally, after several months, she came, then came again. And soon she gave her life to Christ. First a little six-year-old and then Susie Smith had the light!

The light shining in our lives is Christ’s light. What a privilege! Ephesians 5:8 says, “For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord.” We share the very light that Jesus Christ displayed. We are “the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden” (Matthew 5:14). Paul told the Philippian Christians that the world is dark, “in which you shine like stars in the universe” (Philippians 2:15). We “have the light of life.”

Scripture suggests another wonder in this regard as well. Jesus, at the end of the Mystery Parables, states in Matthew 13:43, “The righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father.” C. S. Lewis once noted that the heavens only reflect or suggest the glory of God, but we share the glory of God with Christ. We will be more glorious than the heavens! In The Weight of Glory Lewis says:

Nature is mortal. We shall outlive her. When all the suns and nebulae have passed away, each one of you will still be alive. Nature is only the image, the symbol, but it is a symbol Scripture invites me to use. We are summoned to pass through nature beyond her to the splendor which she fitfully reflects.

I believe that with all my heart. I do not understand it, but I believe there is a glory awaiting every Christian that involves, in some way, shining forth. I do not know if we will be 100 watts or 200, 300, or 1,000! We might be like fireflies. But somehow we are going to enter into the fame and approval of God, and we will be glorious beings far beyond all imagination. “We know that when he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is” (1 John 3:2). John, speaking in the final chapter of the book of Revelation, wrote:

There will be no more night. They will not need the light of a lamp or the light of the sun, for the Lord God will give them light. And they will reign for ever and ever. (22:5)

Not only is the light upon us, but we have the light. What a blessing! We are given light to illumine our steps as we walk through this life. And the light comes into us so it can go out to others, making us to be light and life to them. What wonderful truths!