Skip to main content

Light of the World

             When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” (John 8:12)

I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen: not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else. (C.S. Lewis, “Is Theology Poetry?”)

 

Today’s passage is well known as one of Jesus’ “I am” statements in John. As I look at it this morning, I return to my theme of Scripture not being magical. What did He mean when He said He is the light of the world? What do we mean when we say He is? Not vaguely, kind-of, sort-of, well… What do we mean?

He told us that we’ll never walk in darkness if we follow Him. That is what He meant. What does it mean to follow Him? In summary, it means what Professor Lewis said: we need to see everything by that Light.

The problem is that when we’re in pain, angry, unsure, insecure, lonely, frustrated, tempted, etc., our world shrinks to the size and shape of the emotion or its cause. We also tend to step into the light so that our shadow falls across the thing or – worse yet, we pull out our own flashlight to illumine it. Then, to make things as bad as they can get, we start teaching others according to what we’ve seen.

This is particularly difficult because we may see something that is there or something that isn’t. It’s far safer to work with the whole of Scripture, seeing what God has told us from start to finish, than picking a few passages and pretending that our view of them is enough. In other words, if He is the light of the world, then we must follow where He shows us to go and not go our own way, which leads to stumbling in the dark (no matter how good we think our own flashlights are.) And we must follow at every point, not just the ones we like.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Saved?

  I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand. I and the Father are one.” (John 10:28-30) “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, “I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’ ” (Matthew 7:21-23) Not at all! Let God be true, and every human being a liar. As it is written: “So that you may be proved right when you speak and prevail when you judge.” (Romans 3:4)   What conclusion do you draw when someone who was raised in a Christian family and church, perhaps even playing a significant role in a chur...
Post a Comment
Read more

Meditations of the Heart

  May these words of my mouth and this meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer. (Psalm19:14)           As I started writing this post, I noted that the meditations of my heart are all over the mental landscape, from a hub where eight superhighways come together to a lunar or nuclear landscape. Do you see my error? The moment I read the word meditation , I think about thoughts. But what’s described here is the meditations of our hearts ; our wills.           While the meditations of our minds may be all over the place, the meditations of our wills tend to be a little more stable by the time we are adults. We no longer tend to want to pursue the ten separate careers we did in any given day as children. Part of this is humble acceptance of reality. We come to understand that we can’t do it all. I think another part of it is disappointmen...
Post a Comment
Read more

Listen To Him

              The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your fellow Israelites. You must listen to him . (Deuteronomy 18:15)           Today, we switch from Jesus’ claims of “I am” to prophecies made about Him. My Bible platform is starting in Deuteronomy. I’d start in Genesis, where we would learn that the one who would save us would be a descendant of Eve (Genesis 3:15), of Noah (by default), Abram and Sara(Genesis 12:1-3). Isaac (Genesis 17:19), Jacob (Genesis 25:23), Judah (Genesis 29:8), and David (II Samuel 7:12-16). There were also references to a new covenant (Jer. 31:31-34; Ezek. 36:22-32). In addition, there were prophecies about when and where the prophet/Messiah would be born and what would happen to him.           Of course, naysayers will claim that Jesus’ life was retrofitted or reverse enginee...
Post a Comment
Read more