Or, It Takes Two to Bring a Thing to Light
Scripture: John 8:12-20
Date: September 23, 2012
Speaker: Sean Higgins
Being behind someone or something usually impairs your vision. At a baseball game, some seats have “obstructed views” due to a pole. At a movie, the big haired head in front of you can make it almost impossible to see the screen. Driving behind a tall truck keeps certain signs from being visible, let alone the road or traffic up ahead. Being behind the pole, the head, or the truck block your line of sight.
However, when it comes to seeing your soul, when it comes to seeing God, when it comes to seeing how the world really works, you cannot see truly unless you are behind Jesus. The light of sight goes right through Jesus and following Him is the only option for vision.
The last time we were in John’s Gospel we considered that John 7:53-8:11 is probably not original to John and is better understood as not belonging here. That means that in verse 12, “Again, Jesus spoke to them” should be connected with chapter seven and the Feast of Booths. We hit the last day of the Feast in 7:37-52 and it appears that we’re not long after that now. The crowds are gone in chapter eight, but we still see the Pharisees (7:47, 8:13) and we know that Jesus is still teaching in the Temple stepping on self-righteous toes (8:20).
People were questioning if Jesus might be the Prophet (7:40), or maybe even the Christ (7:41). The Pharisees wouldn’t hear it. They gave grief to the officers for failing to arrest Jesus and then they attacked Nicodemus who called the them to follow their own procedures. This is the context for the conflict in 8:12-59.
In John 8:12-20 Jesus makes an assertion about Himself (v.12), He answers His accusers (vv.13-18), and assesses their problem (vv.19-20).
Here is the second “I am” statement in John (the first was in 6:35, “I am the bread of life”).
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.” (John 8:12, ESV)
There is good reason to think that this discussion occurred around the Feast of Booths. One of the ceremonies of the Feast involved the lighting of large torches, either on the first and last nights or perhaps all eight days.
‘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. (Carson, 337)
The Feast of Booths (or Tabernacles) sparked remembrance of God’s leading the people through the wilderness, providing for them even in their tents. The symbolism of the lamp lighting displayed how God led His people in the wilderness by fire at night. When Jesus said, I am the light , He connected the festal ceremony to Himself. He was the light and He was the light of the world , not just for the Jews.
Light is a significant religious symbol. God promised light to His people, light that would break the darkness of ignorance and unrighteousness.
The LORD is my light and my salvation;
whom shall I fear?
The LORD is the stronghold of my life;
of whom shall I be afraid?
(Psalm 27:1, ESV)
with you is the fountain of life;
in your light do we see light.
(Psalm 36:9, ESV)
Jesus is that light which John already stated in John 1:4-5.
Jesus added, Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life . To follow Him is to believe Him, to attach to Him, to stick with Him. Just as the Israelites followed God in the pillar of fire by night, men must follow Jesus. Rather than obstructing sight, the closer we are to Him the better we can see. When we are united to Him, the source of life, the more life we have.
Many men are walking in the world but they can’t see how things really are. They walk in darkness because they are not looking to Jesus and then through Jesus at the world. Maybe we could say, Jesus is the lens of the world. A camera lens opens to let light in. Most men are looking through lenses that are painted black. No light gets in and they can’t see. After a while, they assume that something is wrong with the lens—and there is—but they just pick up a different blackened lens. Jesus is the light and following Him, looking through Him as the lens makes truth visible.
For Jesus to say that He is the light of the world, there are at least two implications. First, Jesus is the only line of sight. It does not mean that everyone in the world has the light. Even back in chapter three John told us that men loved darkness (John 3:19). It means that apart from Him there is no light, no life, anywhere in all the world.
Second, whatever is in all the world looks different through Jesus. His light sheds light on everything. Pain and people, death and taxes, butterflies and building projects, iPhones and IOUS all look different through Jesus. Marriages and mortgages, laws and love. He is the only working lens and we must follow Him in order to see.
The world is not just God’s prop. The Word created the world and He shows us what it means and what to do with it.
If light and life belong together, then darkness and death do too. Spiritual deadness includes spiritual ignorance about reality. Jesus is the exclusive light in the world and that light is comprehensive over the world.
After such a fantastic assertion, we’re done talking about the light. The Pharisees can’t see it, and we know why, because they weren’t in the light.
So the Pharisees said to him, “You are bearing witness about yourself; your testimony is not true.”
Jesus holds out the light and they criticize Him for not having a verse. He offers them life and they’re stuck on His credentials. Perhaps it would be similar to rejecting the million dollar check because the banker was wearing a brown belt with black shoes. Or criticizing the doctor who was about to cure you because his stethoscope was wrapped left to right around his head rather than right to left.
The Pharisees throw Jesus’ comment from a year earlier (in 5:31) back at Him. He had gone out of His way to step on their self-righteous toes by healing a paralyzed man on the Sabbath. When they came after Him, Jesus said that if He bore witness about Himself, that would be no good. They say, “See, no good!” “Your testimony is not true.” “You’re a liar.”
Jesus answers with two arguments.
I see two distinct arguments in the repetition of “if…then…because.”
Jesus answered, “Even if I do bear witness about myself, my testimony is true, for I know where I came from and where I am going, but you do not know where I come from or where I am going. You judge according to the flesh; I judge no one. (John 8:14-15, ESV)
If He were to bear witness , then His testimony is true because I know where I came from and where I am going . He’s not simply playing the heavenly trump card—He’s from heaven and going back to heaven—He’s the one who knows how things really are. He knows His lines. He can’t help but be true, He is truth. The light authenticates itself.
On the other hand, they do not know where I come from or where I am going . They thought that they knew. They thought He was from Galilee (7:42, 52). They didn’t know reality because they judged according to the flesh . That’s the best they could do. They were limited, actually blinded, from the truth. They gave Jesus grief for His testimony when they weren’t qualified to give testimony, let alone judge other witnesses. Jesus judged their judging and found it wanting.
When Jesus says, I judge no one , He means that, not only did He not judge the way that they did—according to the flesh, but also that judgment wasn’t the purpose of His coming. He came to save. He came to bring light. But not all followed Him so they were still in darkness.
Here’s another “if…then…because” with follow-up.
Yet even if I do judge, my judgment is true, for it is not I alone who judge, but I and the Father who sent me. In your Law it is written that the testimony of two people is true. I am the one who bears witness about myself, and the Father who sent me bears witness about me.”
They weren’t qualified to judge witnesses and Jesus couldn’t help but be a true witness and an accurate judge.
Jesus’ judgment was not limited (by flesh) nor was it isolated (to Himself). He did everything in connection with His Father. He already said so (throughout chapters 3, 5, 7).
In verse 17, Jesus hits the law back across the net from Deuteronomy 17:6 and 19:15. “Jesus thus points these legalists to their own supreme legal authority” (Lenski, 605). The Jews required two witnesses and Jesus has that many (and more, including Scripture, John the Baptist, and His works). The first witness is Himself, which He already established that He’s truthful. The second witness is His Father, the one who sent me . It’s truthful and Trinitarian, though we don’t read about the third Person here.
It takes two to bring a thing to light. The Trinity is at work doing just that. A man (in darkness) might object that it’s self-serving, if not circular, for God to witness on His own behalf. But do we really think the Potter’s potter-ness depends on the pots?
The Pharisees hear the Father point and miss the point.
They said to him therefore, “Where is your Father?” (John 8:19a)
They smugly figured that Jesus couldn’t produce His witness so therefore, He would be discredited. Jesus turns their question into their condemnation.
Jesus answered, “You know neither me nor my Father. If you knew me, you would know my Father also.” (John 8:19b, ESV)
Producing His Father, for sake of argument, wouldn’t do them any good because they wouldn’t have recognized or believed Him anyway. They couldn’t see because they had no line of sight. They couldn’t see the Father because they weren’t following the Son. Jesus is the one who makes the Father knowable. Without Jesus, men are without knowledge of God.
In 8:31-59, the battle will be over paternity (“father” occurs 19 times from 8:16-56), Jesus’ and theirs. Jesus reiterates that the Jews do not know the Father, in fact, their father is Satan. They flattered themselves in their knowledge when they had none because they didn’t follow Jesus.
John finishes in verse 20 with the context that Jesus was making such assertions and arguments in the temple.
These words he spoke in the treasury, as he taught in the temple; but no one arrested him, because his hour had not yet come. (John 8:20 ESV)
This treasury was near the court of women, which was probably near the lighting ceremonies for the Feast.
Following Jesus (or not) has both theological and cosmological implications. In other words, no man can see God truly or see the world truly unless they see God and see the world through Jesus.
There is no other way to the Father than through Jesus. Prayers to “God” won’t do. The Pharisees knew the Book and the name and had the place but their worship was blind because they did not follow the true witness, the true light.
The exciting thing is that Jesus loves to introduce men to His Father. He loves to give the light of life. That’s why He came, not to rub our noses in the darkness. But men must follow Him. We don’t need to be surprised that the world can’t see when they’re not behind Jesus. Also, we shouldn’t give up our sight so that we can help them see from our angle.
Also, there is no other way to interpret the world than through Jesus. He is The Lord of it all, the Maker of it all, the One who holds it all together. We will be forever blinded to the reality and the goodness around us if we will not follow Jesus.
The exciting thing is that Jesus loves showing us all the stuff He made. He loves teaching us how it works and transforming us so that we can live well in the world.
We need Jesus for life—then and now, eternal and abundant. We need Jesus for light—He is the only lens through which we can have any sight.
Put down the blackened, shattered lenses you’ve been looking through. Get behind Jesus, you won’t believe what you’ll see.