The Light of the World
John 8:12
Mammoth Cave, in south-central Kentucky, is the longest natural cave system in the world. As early as the mid-1800s it was already a tourist destination, with people traveling from all over the world to experience its beauty and magnificent caverns. By 1941, spelunkers had mapped just 44 miles of the cave system. Now, the mapped tunnels and caverns of Mammoth stretch for 405 miles and there is no end in sight. Every year, groups of surveyors map more and more of the cave. Experts believe that it could stretch for more than a thousand miles. Guided hikes through the cave can last as long as four hours and take you well over 250 feet below the surface.
One person wrote this about her time at Mammoth Cave National Park:
The beauty of Mammoth is shadowy and damp, but it is stunning nonetheless. The caverns are massive, allowing room for dozens of people to walk unencumbered without feeling any sense of claustrophobia. The improvements the Park has made, from a small kitchen in Snowball Cave to restrooms in two different sections feel out of place, but don’t intrude greatly into your sense of wonder.
The most amazing moment, however, occurred when they turned all the lights out. I opened my eyes and saw nothing. Absolutely nothing. Total darkness enveloped me. As our group sat in silence, we began to hear the gentle drips and murmurings of the cave. The darkness and silence felt incredibly heavy, pressing in on all sides. Now close your eyes and imagine 405 miles of darkness, fanning out underneath central Kentucky… Now, you have some idea of Mammoth.
Another person who experienced the darkness of Mammoth Cave said, “For the first time I understood what Moses meant when he described the tenth plague in Egypt as “darkness that can be felt” (Ex. 10:21-23).
Truth be told, without light, we can’t function. Light not only illumines, it produces health and growth. We are made to live in the light. In my office I have a special light designed to help those who struggle with depression through the dark winter months. It emits the spectrum of light that gives us energy and makes us feel better, and helps our bodies manufacture Vitamin D.
I’d like to read for you the words of Jesus recorded in John’s gospel, chapter 8, verse 12. “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.” In Jesus, we have the light to see God clearly, as God is, as much as our finite minds can comprehend. In Jesus, we have the light to see ourselves and our brokenness and fallenness and sin clearly. And in Jesus, we have the light to see the purpose of life clearly.
After the emphatic “I am,” Jesus follows with an exclusive word. It’s the word “THE.” I am THE light of the world. Not A light. THE light. He intentionally and explicitly excludes anyone but himself from making this claim. ONLY in Jesus can we see God, ourselves, and this life clearly.
When Jesus said this, he and those with him were celebrating the week-long Feast of Tabernacles, or Sukkot. This year Jews around the world celebrated Sukkot from October 6-13. It’s a celebration of God’s presence with his people, providing for them, protecting them, and guiding them from Egypt to the Promised Land, through the 40 years of wandering in the wilderness. God’s provision of manna, bread from heaven, and the water spouting from the rock to allow the thirsty people to drink feature prominently in the celebration. So do the pillar of cloud that guided them by day and the pillar of fire that guided and guarded them by night.
As a part of the celebration, four large lamp stands, large enough that priests had to climb a ladder to light them, were erected in the temple. And each lamp stand had four massive golden bowls on it, each one filled with oil. They actually used the priests worn undergarments as wicks, and they were lit each night. One scholar describes the scene:
On certain nights of the ceremony, they would light the four huge lamps in the temple’s court of women and there would be an exuberant celebration that took place under the light. 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.
It was under those gigantic lamps, large enough to cast their light all over Jerusalem, that Jesus said, “I am the light of the world.” And it is in placing our faith in Jesus, in FOLLOWING HIM, that we live within the his light. The word John used for “follow” is a present participle. That means it indicates an ongoing action, not a one-time thing. Following Jesus is something we do continually. It isn’t a casual following of some set of religious rules and regulations, or a casual observance of some religious ceremonies and traditions. Following Jesus is whole-hearted devotion.
Dave Gibson tells a story about a time when he and a friend were on his friend’s new boat on the Snake River:
My friend bought a 19-foot jet boat and invited me along for her maiden voyage. The boat is made of steel and fitted with a V-8 engine. We put the boat in the North Fork of the Snake River. The water was quite low because of a drought and heavy irrigation. We eased the throttle up until we were going 35 miles per hour. We grinned at each other as we raced across the water’s surface. Suddenly we hit a hidden sandbar, and the boat came to an abrupt stop. We stepped onto the sandbar, barely covered with one inch of water. Another boater came along, and after three hours of digging and pushing, we once again had my friend’s boat floating in the open channel. The boater who rescued us offered to lead us back to the landing since he knew the river well. He instructed us to follow exactly behind him so we would avoid hidden sand and gravel bars.
Our leader pushed his boat up to 35 miles per hour, we fell in behind him, and once again we enjoyed the power of the machine as it skimmed over the water. After a couple of minutes, my friend steered our boat just a few feet to the right of where the lead boat had gone. Within seconds, we hit a gravel bar, and I was thrown into the windshield, injuring me and busting the windshield. When the lead boat came back, the driver reminded us, “I told you to follow me.”
Later in the New Testament, in the Letter of First John, the same John who recorded these words of Jesus wrote, “By this we may know that we are in him: whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked” (1 Jn 2:5-6).
Being a Christian isn’t a specific political platform or a list of rules you agree to abide by. Being a Christian is supposed to be synonymous with following Jesus. I trust Jesus to forgive my sin and cleanse me, and then, filled with the Holy Spirit, I align my life with his life and “walk in the same way in which he walked.” We follow Jesus whole-heartedly. If I want to live in the light, I have to follow Jesus. I go where he goes. If I want to see God clearly, I have to follow Jesus. If I want to understand my purpose, I have to follow Jesus. There is no other light that can illuminate those things.
Sometimes, people will tell me, “I could never be a Christian. Jesus doesn’t like people like me.” My answer is always the same. “No, that isn’t true. Jesus loves you very much. He loves you enough to give up heaven, come to this earth, put on skin, and allow himself to be tortured and killed so that you can know him the way he knows you.” Trust him, and just start following him. Study the Bible and do what Jesus would do. Just start following, and he’ll deal with what he wants to deal with along the way. But don’t worry about having to be a certain kind of person first. That isn’t the way Jesus works. He meets us where we are. Fortunately, he doesn’t leave us there. He leads us to life and joy and peace!
The hard thing for most of us is understanding that we want to sort of and sometimes follow Jesus. But with Jesus, there is no middle ground. We are either for him or against him. We are either in the light or in the darkness. We are either following Jesus or following the path of this world and our fallen, sinful natures.
Jesus is by his very nature and existence divisive, and he ignites passion either way. Those who follow him follow with passion and dedication. Those who oppose him oppose him with passion. The one thing we cannot do with Jesus is come to him in moderation. We’re either in or we’re out. Living in darkness or living in light.
I find it interesting that the night before the day Jesus was crucified, when Judas left the upper room, having just shared the Passover meal with his friends and with Jesus, John tells us that Judas “immediately went out. And it was night” (Jn. 13:30). John’s words there are true in both the physical and spiritual realms. It was night time. The sky was dark. But that isn’t the only darkness John is referring to. Light and darkness are among the most common metaphors in Scripture, and with a sense of foreboding, John wants us to know that Judas had made a conscious decision to step out of the light and back into the darkness.
Ultimately, the light of Christ was too much for him. Jesus just wouldn’t climb into the box Judas had in his mind for Messiah to fit into, just wouldn’t overthrow the Romans, had probably disqualified himself from being used by God to do that by associating with unsavory types – prostitutes, lepers, the demon possessed, and traitorous tax collectors. Judas found that when we come to Jesus, we come on HIS terms, not ours, and he couldn’t stomach that anymore. The great Greek philosopher Plato hit the nail on the head when he said, “We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark: the real tragedy of life is when men are afraid of the light.”
After he made the earth-shattering proclamation, “I am the light of the world,” Jesus left the temple and went and healed a blind man. A man who had, quite literally, been living in darkness received sight. We each have a decision to make: are we going to live in the darkness or are we going to step into the light?
Light plays a role in our celebration of Christmas for a reason. The lights on our trees, the lights on the decorations in our yards, and the light of the candles we will each hold in a few moments tell a story. We are celebrating the coming of the one who said, “I am the light of the world.” It isn’t easy to step from darkness into the light. It takes courage, and it can hurt, because everything changes. It took Peter, James, John, and the other disciples three years to wrap their minds around what Jesus was doing, how he was redefining and reworking everything they thought they knew and understood about God, about themselves, and about this world. Judas was never able to come to terms with it and fled back to the darkness.
Too many of us try to stand in the middle – not really in the light but not in the darkness either. But with Jesus there is no middle ground. He’s either our Savior and our Lord, or he’s neither. We are either living in the darkness, or in his light. Let’s pray.
