THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD COMING FROM ABOVE
John chapter 8, v. 12 to 26
The Lord Jesus was in the temple, perhaps on the following day, and spoke to the Pharisees and crowds. He was speaking in the treasury, the part of the temple where the offerings were put (verse 20), where candles burned in brilliant candelabra to symbolise the pillar of fire that led the people of Israel through the desert at night (Exodus 13:21, 22).
In this context, the Lord called himself the light of the world. As the pillar of fire represented God's presence, protection, and guidance to His people, so Christ brings God's presence, protection, and guidance to His followers in the world.
The LORD is called the Light in the Old Testament (Psalm 27:1, Isaiah 60:19), and the supreme and exclusive claim of Christ (repeated in chapter 9:5) to being the Light of the whole world (of Gentiles as well as of Jews) startled the Pharisees and challenged their opposition.
As the Word, He is identified as the true Light of men earlier in this Gospel (chapters 1:9 and 3:19), and He also called his followers the light of the world (Matthew 5:14), but that was light reflected from him: they would have the light that springs from and issues in eternal life (chapter 6:33, 51).
We cannot praise Jesus without accepting His deity, for only as the Son of God is this language justified and acceptable. He is to be followed: as Commander, like a soldier obeys his captain; as Lord, like a slave serves his master; as Counsellor, like a trusted adviser; as King, His commandments are to be learnt and obeyed like the laws of the land.
The Pharisees pondered that He was bearing witness of Himself, and according to the rules of evidence among the rabbis "no man can give witness for himself" (Mishnah). It was therefore "not true" or not pertinent. Jesus acknowledged this technical need of further witness outside of his own claims (John 5:19-30) and proceeded to give it (John 5:32-47) in the testimony of the Baptist, of the Father, of his works, of the Scriptures, particularly of Moses.
The Lord, however, now declared that His witness was true even if it contravened their technical rules of evidence (one might as well say to the sun, if claiming to be the sun, that it was night, because it bore witness of itself: the answer is the shining of the sun). He could and did tell the truth all by himself concerning himself, for He knew what they did not: where he came from, and where he would be going. He alluded, of course, to His pre-existence with the Father before his Incarnation (chapter 17:5) and to the return to the Father after death and resurrection (chapter 13:3 and 14:2).
John the Baptist had said: "There stands one among you whom you do not know" (chapter 1:26). The Light of the World had come, but they loved darkness rather than light (chapter 3:19), because the god of this age had blinded their thoughts so that they could not see the illumination of the gospel of the glory of Christ who is the image of God (2 Corinthians 4:4).
The Pharisees thought Jesus was either a lunatic or a liar. Jesus provided them with a third alternative: he was telling the truth. Because most of the Pharisees refused to consider the third alternative, they never recognised him as Messiah and Lord. Only with an open mind can we know the truth that He is Messiah and Lord.
He told them they judged according to the standards of the flesh (2 Corinthians 5:16). Any judgement that we make is after the flesh: it is limited because we simply do not have all the facts, and it is often no more than speculation. The Lord Jesus said that He did not judge according to the flesh. His judgement was God's viewpoint, the Father who sent Him.
After justifying His right to speak concerning Himself, the Lord took up their technical criticism and said that their law required two witnesses: He was the first, and the Father who sent Him gave His confirmation, making up the second (Deuteronomy 19:15). They claimed possession of the law (chapter 7:49) and so He calls it their law [He used similar language (your law) later on (chapter 10:34, and 15:24)]. He wasn't separating himself from the law given to Moses, but He knew the spirit of the law (Matthew 5) whereas the Pharisees only kept to the letter. (The combined witness of two was not true just because they agreed, but it had to be true in fact separately).
So the Pharisees asked "Where is your Father?" (The Lord Jesus had called God "my Father" in a different relationship from what we have with Him through faith in Christ. We become children of God through faith in Jesus Christ, but Jesus is His Son because He is God the Son, and He addresses God the Father). The testimony of an unseen and unheard witness would not satisfy these religious lawyers.
Perhaps the Pharisees used the question with double entendre: they did not ask who is your Father, but where. Legally, his father would be Joseph, His foster-father (Matthew 1:16; Luke 3:23). He lived at Nazareth in Galilee (Luke 2:4), called a "just man" was a carpenter by trade (Matthew 13:55). He is last mentioned in connection with the journey to Jerusalem, when Jesus was twelve years old. It is probable that he died before He entered on his public ministry, as only Mary was present at the marriage in Cana. As the Lord implied His Father was alive, they wanted to know where? Maybe Joseph was not his real father?
He was, of course, referring to God the Father, but the Pharisees would not even admit that the thought had crossed their minds. He therefore told them that if they really had known Him, Jesus, they would have known who His Father was. They knew neither one nor the other because of their ignorance of the Father (chapter 5:37-38). Earlier He had said that they knew his home in Nazareth, but he denied then that they knew the Father who sent him (chapter 7:28). The Pharisees were silenced for the moment.
The treasury was in the women's court, where they had brought the woman taken in adultery. It was probably the most public part of the temple, not confined to women like the inner part was to men. In this area there were seven collection boxes for the temple tax and six for freewill offerings.
Probably on the following day, He spoke again to the Jews, warning them that He was going to a place beyond their reach. They would despairingly seek for the Messiah when it was too late (the tragedy of Judaism today - John 1: 11), and would surely die in their sin (Ezekiel 3:18; 18:18; Proverbs 24:9). That is the natural consequence of sin. This time they mockingly suggested He might commit suicide (see chapter 7:35).
He told these proud rabbis they had their origin in this world of darkness (chapter 1:9) with all its limitations, whereas He was from above, as John the Baptist had said (chapter 3:31); a complete contrast in origin and character. They would die in their sins unless they came to believe: "that I am from above" (verse 23), "that I am the one sent from the Father or the Messiah" (chapter 7:18, 28). "that I am the Light of the World" (verse 12), "that I am the Deliverer from the Bondage of sin" (verses 28, 31, 36), "THAT I AM" in the absolute sense, the Name of God (Exodus 3:14, Deuteronomy 32:39). The phrase I AM occurs three times in this Chapter (verses 24, 28, 58).
"Who are You?" they demanded: He had virtually claimed to be the Messiah and on a par with God (as in John 5: 19-27), and they wished to pin him down and to charge him with blasphemy. In His reply the Lord avoided the term Messiah with its political connotations, but stood by His high claims already made.
Instead of further talk about His own claims (already plain enough) He turned to speak and to judge concerning them and their attitude towards him (verse 16). The Father who sent Him is true and they could not evade responsibility for the message He brought from Him. Christ always maintained that what He was doing and saying was what the Father wanted Him to do and say. He never appealed to His own mind or His own intellect.
R David Jones
12 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."
13 The Pharisees therefore said to Him, "You bear witness of Yourself; Your witness is not true."
14 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.
15 "You judge according to the flesh; I judge no one.
16 "And yet if I do judge, My judgement is true; for I am not alone, but I am with the Father who sent Me.
17 "It is also written in your law that the testimony of two men is true.
18 "I am One who bears witness of Myself, and the Father who sent Me bears witness of Me."
19 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."
20 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.
21 Then Jesus said to them again, "I am going away, and you will seek Me, and will die in your sin. Where I go you cannot come."
22 So the Jews said, "Will He kill Himself, because He says, 'Where I go you cannot come'?"
23 And He said to them, "You are from beneath; I am from above. You are of this world; I am not of this world.
24 "Therefore I said to you that you will die in your sins; for if you do not believe that I am He, you will die in your sins."
25 Then they said to Him, "Who are You?" And Jesus said to them, "Just what I have been saying to you from the beginning.
26 "I have many things to say and to judge concerning you, but He who sent Me is true; and I speak to the world those things which I heard from Him."