“12 Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, ‘I am the light of the world. Whoever follows Me will never walk in darkness but will have the light of life.’ 13 Then the Pharisees said to him, ‘You are testifying on your own behalf; your testimony is not valid.’ 14 Jesus answered, ‘Even if I testify on My own behalf, My testimony is valid because I know where I have come from and where I am going, but you do not know where I come from or where I am going. 15 You judge by human standards; I judge no one. 16 Yet even if I do judge, My judgment is valid; for it is not I alone who judge, but I and the Father who sent Me. 17 In your law it is written that the testimony of two witnesses is valid. 18 I testify on My own behalf, and the Father who sent Me testifies on my behalf.’ 19 Then they said to Him, ‘Where is Your Father?’ Jesus answered, ‘You know neither Me nor my Father. If you knew Me, you would know my Father also.’ 20 He spoke these words while He was teaching in the treasury of the temple, but no one arrested Him, because His hour had not yet come.
21 Again He said to them, ‘I am going away, and you will search for Me, but you will die in your sin. Where I am going, you cannot come.’ 22 Then the Jews said, ‘Is He going to kill Himself? Is that what He means by saying, ‘Where I am going, you cannot come’?’ 23 He said to them, ‘You are from below, I am from above; you are of this world, I am not of this world.
24 I told you that you would die in your sins, for you will die in your sins unless you believe that I Am (YHWH).” 25 They said to him, ‘Who are you?’ Jesus said to them, ‘Why do I speak to you at all? 26 I have much to say about you and much to condemn; but the One who sent Me is true, and I declare to the world what I have heard from Him.’ 27 They did not understand that He was speaking to them about the Father. 28 So Jesus said, 'When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will realize that I Am (YHWH), and that I do nothing on My own, but I speak these things as the Father instructed Me. 29 And the One who sent Me is with Me; He has not left me alone, for I always do what is pleasing to Him’”
John 8:12-29.
WOW! WOW! What a teaching of Jesus! WOW! If you want to know who Jesus truly is, then read this again carefully! Now it seems that Jesus is back in Jerusalem during the Feast of Tabernacles — or Booths — and to the Jews it is called Sukkot. This festival included torches at night. When the Temple was still standing, great pillars like candelabra were erected and illumined in the Court of Women. Levite youths poured oil into the basins for the different branches of the candelabra, and wicks were lighted to celebrate this Festival of Joy. Because the Temple stood atop a hill, the blazing candles illuminated the city below, so that all of Israel could see from far distances. This glorious blaze of fire recalled to Israelites God’s Shekinah, the pillar of smoke by day and fire by night that accompanied them throughout their wanderings in the wilderness. Jewish men danced bearing torches while the Levite orchestra played on. The Talmud says of the Temple torches that accompanied the water-drawing ceremony, “He who has not beheld this celebration has never seen joy in his life.”
This seems to be the context for Jesus’ teaching in today’s text. Jesus claims that He, and not the festal torches, is the real and true light of the world. He calls us to follow Him and no one else, promising that His followers will “never walk in darkness but will have the light of life (Verse 12).” Notice too the recurring themes of witness and judgement which we see Jesus teaching throughout John’s Gospel. “22 The Father judges no one but has given all judgment to the Son, 23 so that all may honor the Son just as they honor the Father. Anyone who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him” John 5:22-23. “31 If I testify about myself, my testimony is not true. 32 There is another who testifies on my behalf, and I know that his testimony to me is true. 33 You sent messengers to John, and he testified to the truth. 34 Not that I accept such human testimony, but I say these things so that you may be saved. 35 He was a burning and shining lamp, and you were willing to rejoice for a while in his light. 36 But I have a testimony greater than John’s. The works that the Father has given me to complete, the very works that I am doing, testify on my behalf that the Father has sent me. 37 And the Father who sent me has himself testified on my behalf. You have never heard his voice or seen his form, 38 and you do not have his word abiding in you, because you do not believe him whom he has sent” John 5:31-38.
Of particular comfort is Jesus’ startling promise that whoever knows Jesus knows God the Father. “If you knew Me, you would know my Father also” John 5:19. We have already seen this unity between Father and Son as a theme repeated throughout John’s Gospel. “45 And whoever sees Me sees Him who sent me” John 12:45, and “9 Jesus said to him, ‘Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and you still do not know me? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’” John 14:9? The Pharisees are always asking Jesus about the Father, and yet they never realize that the only real and true image of the Father they will ever see on earth is standing in front of them, nose to nose! Ah, there is much irony in John’s Gospel, as there is in our own life, unrecognizable irony!
Notice the confusion and irony again when Jesus speaks about His “going away” in Verse 21: “21 Again He said to them, ‘I am going away, and you will search for Me, but you will die in your sin. Where I am going, you cannot come.’” These very learned Pharisees wonder if Jesus means that His “going away” refers to Jesus killing Himself! “Will He kill Himself” John 8:22? In tragic irony Jesus will shortly lay down His life for all of us, including the Pharisees, and that is what He means by “going away.”
In the previous chapter 7 of John’s Gospel we read: “33 Jesus then said,
‘I will be with you a little while longer, and then I am going to him who sent me. 34 You will search for me, but you will not find me; and where I am, you cannot come.’ 35 The Jews said to one another, ‘Where does this man intend to go that we will not find him? Does he intend to go to the Dispersion among the Greeks and teach the Greeks? 36 What does He mean by saying, ‘You will search for me and you will not find me’ and ‘Where I am, you cannot come’” John 7:31-36? Later in John 10 Jesus speaks clearly about what He means by going away: “18 No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it up again. I have received this command from my Father” John 10:18.
Did you notice Jesus’ reference that He is not from this world, rather He is from above. Jesus said the same thing when a dispute arose about the great numbers who were following John the Baptist back in chapter 3:
“31 The one who comes from above is above all; the one who is of the earth belongs to the earth and speaks about earthly things. The one who comes from heaven is above all”
John 3:31. But notice too Jesus’ repeated reference to Himself by the Divine name that only God Himself could utter:
“You will die in your sins unless you believe that I Am (YHWH)”, and again
“When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will realize that I Am (YHWH)”
John 8:24 & 28. It is this latter reference to the Son of Man being lifted up that seems to me to be the climax of this teaching of Jesus.
We will never truly know Jesus until He is crucified upon the cross!
So dear friends, this enormous teaching of Jesus is yours to read again and to meditate on. Write down all the things you learn about who Jesus is, and then pray in gratitude for what He has taught you about Himself.
Oh dear Lord, Jesus Christ, Son of the Living God, have mercy on me a sinner. I regret beyond words that to know You, to love You, to have an eternal relationship with You — it was necessary that You die upon the cross. I regret beyond words that I helped drive the nails into your hands and Your feet. Forgive me. But I give You my most profound thanks for Your sacrificial love for me. In Jesus name I pray, amen.
From the Bible:
“But He was wounded for our transgressions; He was crushed for our iniquities; upon Him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with His stripes we are healed”
Isaiah 53:5.
“He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed” 1 Peter 2:24.
“For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” Romans 6:23.
““For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life” John 3:16.
“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me, from the words of my groaning? O my God, I cry by day, but you do not answer, and by night, but I find no rest. Yet you are holy, enthroned on the praises of Israel. In you our fathers trusted; they trusted, and you delivered them. To you they cried and were rescued; in you they trusted and were not put to shame” Psalm 22.
“And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross” Philippians 2:8.
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