Jesus: The Light of the World
“Then Jesus again spoke to them, saying, ‘I am the Light of the world; he who follows Me will never walk in the darkness, but will have the Light of life.’”
John 8:12 LSB
Jesus is the Light of the world because in Him is the glory of God. “God is Light, and in Him there is no darkness at all” (1 John 1:5). Jesus as the Light of the world is a divine claim with incredible symbolic significance. What’s fascinating is that Jesus made this claim around the time of the Feast of Tabernacles, which was celebrated by Israelites to remember when their ancestors were wandering in the wilderness for forty years and living in tents. Part of this celebration included the lighting of massive lamps in the Temple that would light up the entire city at night. The lighted lamps served as memorials of the pillar of cloud by day and fire by night that God used to lead and guide the Israelites as they wandered in the wilderness (Exod 13:21-22). The pillar of fire served as light in the darkness and testified of God’s presence, provision, and protection towards His people. When Jesus says that He is the Light of the world, He is alluding to this pillar of fire in the very place of the Temple court where the lighted lamps were visible to His audience.
Just as the pillar symbolized God’s faithfulness to His people, Jesus is faithful as the Light of the world to His people. For those who are in Christ, we have received the Holy Spirit, which serves as a permanent pillar that guides us day and night and will never leave us. We have the light of Christ within us with the purpose of going out into the world to be the light of Christ (Matt 5:14-16) to those captured in darkness. We walk by the Spirit and not according to the flesh (Gal 5:16-18), living in the light of Christ and not according to the sinful desires of our hearts which would keep us in darkness. To go our own way is to walk in darkness.
Is Jesus the light of your life, or are you walking in darkness?
Apart from Jesus Christ, we are blind people being led by blind people, and a blind world cannot come to have any light but in Christ alone.
