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 

 

In our current readings, Jesus is at the Feast of Tabernacles in Jerusalem.  We will continue reading about events at this Feast through the middle of chapter 10 of St. John's Gospel.  It is an eight-day festival, during which there are many commemorations and rites.  Jesus' teachings come against this backdrop, and highlight and fulfill many of the celebrations.  Yesterday we read that on the last day, that great day of the feast, 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."   For contextual purposes, it's important to know that the lectionary has skipped over a story normally found at John 7:53-8:11.  This is the story of the woman taken in adultery and accused before Christ.  She was presented to Him as a test for His judgment by the scribes and Pharisees, who seek to entrap Him.  Following the reading from yesterday, it continues the theme of judgment, and what constitutes righteous judgment (see yesterday's commentary).  The story of the woman taken in adultery, and Christ's response to the accusers, is not found in several ancient manuscripts.  It's not commented upon by St. John Chrysostom and other patristic sources.  We must assume this is why it is not included at this point in the lectionary.  Jesus' words, "I am the light of the world.  He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life," further highlight the source of righteous judgment, and how we need His light to know where we are going.  These words were spoken, according to my study Bible, in the context of the great lamps which were lit at the conclusion of the Feast of Tabernacles (on this last, great day of the Feast).  These great lamps were four huge golden menorah reaching approximately 75 feet high.  When they were lit at night, they illumined the whole of Jerusalem around the temple.  Jesus extends our understanding of God as light, and, as my study Bible notes, He is declaring Himself to be the fulfillment and the divine object of all celebrations of light.  In the Scriptures, God is light (John 1:4-9; 1 John 1:5), which is an attribute God bestows on His followers (Matthew 5:14; Philippians 2:15).  In the chapter that follows (John 9), this claim will be made manifest in the sign of opening the eyes of a man born blind.  

 

 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."  Continuing the themes of righteous judgment and the law, Jesus once again offers witnesses to His identity.  Previously in dispute with these same men, Jesus offered four witnesses, double the two required in the law (see John 5:31-47).  At that time, He named St. John the Baptist (whom He called "the burning and shining lamp"), the works that the Father gave Him to do, the Father who sent Him, and Moses who testified in the Scriptures to Him.  Here He offers Himself (as He knows where He came from and they do not), and the Father who sent Him.

 

 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.  As the Son and the Father share the same divine nature, one cannot be known apart from the other, my study Bible notes.  Jesus will later say to St. Philip, "He who has seen Me has seen the Father" (John 14:9).  

 

Midst themes of justice and good judgment, Jesus speaks of the light that is common to Himself and to the Father:  "I am the light of the world.  He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life."  As the light of the world, and the light of life, it is the illumination for all that is necessary.  For without God's light, what do we understand of true justice, and, indeed, of righteous judgment?  In this sense, when Christ speaks of Himself as the light of the world, we are to understand that His illumination is for the righteousness (or "right-relatedness") of all things.  His words imply that if we are to know what we are doing, we need this light to understand ourselves, our world, and where we are headed.  To walk in darkness is also a metaphor for ignorance.  Ignorance is also a root of evil and of heresy, for partial or half-truths are also misleading, a darkness that leads us to stumble and to move in the wrong directions.  For our ancient pagan ancestors, and the earliest Christians among the Greco-Roman world, truth was not something they were strangers to.  In the Hellenistic culture of the period there already existed philosophy, mathematics, study of history, literature, drama, poetry, and many of the classical subjects that remain the pillars of what is considered a good education.  And it also should be noted that the earliest Fathers and great theologians of the Church, the best-educated men of their time (such as St. John Chrysostom, St. Basil, St. Gregory Nazianzus, St. Gregory of Nyssa), none of this education was discarded, but was put to use for the Church.  In the sight, therefore, of those who valued the truths of what was already known in their culture (such as, for example, the philosophy of Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle), Christ was seen as a more full expression of truth, as the hope of illumination for things not known and understood, the light that would shine in the darkness so that God was illumined for all.  We can observe from the ancient plays such as those of Sophocles or Euripides that the notion of what constituted justice was already a highly debated and seriously considered ideal.  But Christ's righteousness indeed did become the light of the world for this educated class of those earliest centuries of the Church and the greatest minds of the time, and Christian theology was born from this understanding.  Christ's light is also the foundation of the mystical orientation of our faith, in which we join with St. Paul who writes of the greatest illumination as love.  He says, "When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things.  For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I also am known.  And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love" (1 Corinthians 13:11-13).  So we look to the light of the world today, the One who shows us the way, who is love Himself, and illumines our own path to His greater understanding of the righteousness we so need.