I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life

 Then Jesus spoke to them again, saying, "I am the light of the world.  He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life."

The Pharisees therefore said to Him, "You bear witness of Yourself; Your witness is not true."  Jesus answered and said to them, "Even if I bear witness of Myself, My witness is true, for I know where I came from and where I am going; but you do not know where I come from and where I am going.  You judge according to the flesh; I judge no one.  And yet if I do judge, My judgment is true; for I am not alone, but I am with the Father who sent Me.  It is also written in your law that the testimony of two men is true.  I am One who bears witness of Myself, and the Father who sent Me bears witness of Me."  Then they said to Him, "Where is Your Father?"  Jesus answered, "You know neither Me nor My Father.  If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also."  These words Jesus spoke in the treasury, as He taught in the temple; and no one laid hands on Him, for His hour had not yet come.

- John 8:12-20

Yesterday we read that, on the last day, that great day of the Feast of Tabernacles, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, "If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink.  He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water."  But this He spoke concerning the Spirit, whom those believing in Him would receive; for the Holy Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.  Therefore many from the crowd, when they heard this saying, said, "Truly this is the Prophet."  Others said, "This is the Christ."  But some said, "Will the Christ come out of Galilee?  Has not the Scripture said that the Christ comes from the seed of David and from the town of Bethlehem, where David was?"  So there was a division among the people because of Him.  Now some of them wanted to take Him, but no one laid hands on Him.  Then the officers came to the chief priests and Pharisees, who said to them, "Why have you not brought Him?"  The officers answered, "No man ever spoke like this Man!"  Then the Pharisees answered them, "Are you also deceived?  Have any of the rulers or the Pharisees believed in Him?  But this crowd that does not know the law is accursed."  Nicodemus (he who came to Jesus by night, being one of them) said to them, "Does our law judge a man before it hears him and knows what he is doing?"  They answered and said to him, "Are you also from Galilee?  Search and look for no prophet has arisen out of Galilee."

Then Jesus spoke to them again, saying, "I am the light of the world.  He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life."   On the last day of the Feast of Tabernacles, the great lamps of the outer court of the temple were lit.  These were lamps so high and so brilliant with fire that they lit up whole areas of the city of Jerusalem.  They were four menorah-style lamps 75 feet high, and meant to commemorate the pillar of fire that illuminated the way for Israel through the desert of Sinai.  In this context, my study bible says, Christ is declaring Himself the fulfillment and the divine object of all celebrations of light.  In the Scriptures, God the Father is light (1:4-9; 1 John 1:5), an attribute which the Father bestows on His followers (Matthew 5:14; Philippians 2:15).  In the following chapter, Christ will confirm this claim by performing the great sign of opening the eyes of a man born blind (9:1-7; esp verse 5), thus "illuminating" his sight.  Also of note here is that the lectionary skips over 7:53-8:11, the story of the woman caught in adultery.  This passage is missing from several ancient manuscripts; it is also absent from the commentaries of St. Chrysostom and other patristic writers.  Nevertheless, it has been understood historically by the Church to be inspired, authentic, canonical Scripture, bearing authority of all other Scripture, as my study bible notes.  In the context of that story, it perhaps should be understood that these great lamps of the last day of the Feast were lit in the Court of Women.

The Pharisees therefore said to Him, "You bear witness of Yourself; Your witness is not true."  Jesus answered and said to them, "Even if I bear witness of Myself, My witness is true, for I know where I came from and where I am going; but you do not know where I come from and where I am going.  You judge according to the flesh; I judge no one.  And yet if I do judge, My judgment is true; for I am not alone, but I am with the Father who sent Me.  It is also written in your law that the testimony of two men is true.  I am One who bears witness of Myself, and the Father who sent Me bears witness of Me."   In the law, two witnesses were necessary to testify to the truth of something.  Earlier (after He healed a paralytic at the Feast of Weeks), Jesus gave the leaders four witnesses which testify to His identity:  John the Baptist, the works of His ministry, God the Father, and the Scriptures (see this reading).   Here once again, the question of witnessing and testimony to Jesus' identity as the Christ is brought up by the Pharisees.  There is always the question of authority to answer; how does He have the right to speak and act with authority, and who has conferred this authority?  This time He answers by giving two witnesses:  Himself, and God the Father.  As He states here, they know nothing of Him; but He knows where He comes from and where He is going.  It is a statement about the mystery of His divinity, which they cannot understand.

Then they said to Him, "Where is Your Father?"  Jesus answered, "You know neither Me nor My Father.  If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also."  These words Jesus spoke in the treasury, as He taught in the temple; and no one laid hands on Him, for His hour had not yet come.  My study bible comments that because the Son and the Father share the same divine nature, one cannot be known apart from the other (14:7-11).  The text makes it clear that the leadership has decided that He must die, but His hour had not yet come.

Jesus answers the question of mystery with a mysterious answer.  He refers, ultimately, to God the Father.  In the passage cited by my study bible above, Christ gave the same answer, but more explicitly, to His disciple Philip:  "He who has seen Me has seen the Father; so how can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?  Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me? The words that I speak to you I do not speak on My own authority; but the Father who dwells in Me does the works. Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father in Me, or else believe Me for the sake of the works themselves."  The mysterious figure of God the Father is one shrouded in a kind of darkness, and who is illuminated to us by the Incarnate Christ.   Christ is declaring to Philip that God the Father is revealed in both His teaching and in the works He does in His ministry.  In these mysteries of the Persons of the Trinity, we delve into the subject of what is called Apophatic Theology.  That is, the divine nature of God involves so much that is hidden from us that it cannot be spoken of entirely in positive terms; rather we may say more correctly what God is not.  God the Father is revealed to us through Christ, His teachings and His works.  But the completeness of a revelation to us of the divine Persons is impossible, for we are incapable of grasping the fullness of God.  Therefore, one reason for the Incarnation itself is for a revelation of God to us.  However, Christ makes it clear even as He invokes the Father as witness to His own authority as Son, that knowledge of God the Father is possible only through faith, and in particular through faith in the Son.   The mysterious reality of God the Father is also at work in human beings through faith.  When Peter declares in his confession that Jesus is the Christ (Matthew 16:16-17), Jesus tells him, "Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven."   Even the relationship between Father and Son is mysterious to us.  We may grasp Jesus' words and what He is asking us to understand as revelation in His earthly ministry; and yet the fullness of the Persons of the Trinity remains something in darkness to us, a mystery into which we also may grow through the illumination of faith, and bear within us as light.  In the revelations of the Trinity of the Gospels, God the Father is revealed only through a voice that is heard  by very few, such as at Christ's Baptism, and in the Transfiguration.   That the Father is revealed to us only through a voice heard by John the Baptist and Christ's few closest disciples alone is another hint to us about the mystery of God, and God's hiddenness.  God is the One whom Jesus tells us is in the secret place, and who sees in secret, to whom we pray in secret (Matthew 6:6).    As Christ makes clear, it is through the Incarnation that we are given a revelation of the Father; God the Father is working within His ministry to the world.  But neither must we neglect our own understanding of mystery, and our participation via faith and prayer in this secret place, to the immensity of the hidden God, who sees in secret, and hears and answers our prayer in ways which are mysterious.  Jesus speaks in the same way to Nicodemus, when He reveals the mystery of Christian baptism and the work of the Holy Spirit in chapter 3.  Jesus tells him, "The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit."  Therefore we must be aware that our illumination, the revelation of God that is given to us, will always be partial.  It is a hidden reality into which we may enter and in which we may participate only through faith.  Jesus tells the disciples, "To you it has been given to know the mystery of the kingdom of God; but to those who are outside, all things come in parables" (see Mark 4:11-12; Matthew 13:11-12; Luke 8:10).   As we think of this brilliant ceremony at the Feast of Tabernacles, commemorating the light that shined in the darkness for Israel, let us consider the mystery of illumination, and the far deeper hidden reality of God which calls to us and into which we are invited to enter, participate, and grow through faith:  "For whoever has, to him more will be given" (Matthew 13:12).   It is through the Son that the Father is revealed to us, and thus light is shed on all things.  His is the light that shines in the darkness and shows us our way.