In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. (John 1:4-5 NIV)
[John the Baptist] came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through him all might believe. He himself was not the light; he came only as a witness to the light. (John 1:7-8 NIV)
The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world. (John 1:9 NIV)
In our little series of Advent blogs we’re looking at some of the titles or descriptions of Jesus in the introduction or prologue to John’s gospel (John 1:1-18), which we often hear read in church at this time of year. We have already thought Jesus as “the Word” (part 1, part 2). This time, we’re going to be thinking about Jesus as the light.
Light and darkness is a big theme in John’s gospel and it is quite clear that Jesus is the light and that the world we live in, spiritually speaking, is a world of darkness. But what does the symbolism mean?
1. God in the World
Calling Jesus the light is another way of referring to his divinity – that he is God. In John’s gospel, Jesus gives the seven “I am” sayings, including “I am the light of the world” (John 8:12; John 9:5). These are usually seen as referring back to Exodus 3:14, where God reveals himself to Moses as the great “I am.” This is particularly powerfully seen when Jesus is debating with the Jewish leaders in John 8:
“Very truly I tell you,” Jesus answered, “before Abraham was born, I am!” At this, they picked up stones to stone him, but Jesus hid himself, slipping away from the temple grounds. (John 8:58-59 NIV)
The Jewish leaders know that Jesus is claiming is claiming to be God, which is why they try to kill him! This has an Old Testament background where the presence of God was symbolized by light in the tabernacle (e.g. Exodus 25:37 and Leviticus 24:2), and light was also used as a description of the God coming to save his people from all the nations (e.g. Isaiah 9:2 and Isaiah 49:6).
So when John starts his gospel referring to Jesus as the light, we are again being faced with hugely exciting claims about the baby born in Bethlehem. He is God himself, come to earth to bring salvation to all the nations. It should at least make us stand up and listen!
2. Purity vs. Sin
Another aspect of the imagery of light and darkness is the contrast between purity and sin. We understand the idea of darkness as a metaphor for evil. John makes it explicit in chapter 3:
This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed. But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God. (John 3:19-21 NIV)
This is startling to us. Most of us don’t want to think of ourselves as loving darkness, but John’s gospel shows us that it’s true, as by and large, Jesus is rejected and then crucified. This is similar to what we read in John 1:9-11 where neither world nor his people receive Jesus. As we read John, part of what will make us uncomfortable is that we realize that John is showing us that we, naturally, would reject Jesus. As we reject Jesus and thus reject God, what we’re saying is we don’t want goodness and purity, we want our sin. If we did want the light, then we would welcome Jesus.
I wonder if people like to keep the baby in the manger at Christmas, because the light of the world is a challenge – a challenge that exposes us for who we really are.
3. Knowledge vs. Ignorance
The final aspect of Jesus as the light is the idea that he brings knowledge of God. He brings us the truth that we need to know. In those verses we just quoted above, John says:
whoever lives by the truth comes into the light (John 3:21)
We have seen that, by calling Jesus “the Word” part of what John is emphasizing is that Jesus reveals the truth about God to us (John 1:14-18). Jesus is going to call himself “the truth” later in John (John 14:6).
The answer to walking in darkness is not to hide in darkness, but to come into the life by receiving Jesus and believing what he reveals to us (John 1:11). We can then walk in the light, not because we’ve made ourselves morally pure, but because we have trusted in the one who by his death on the cross deals with our sin or darkness and enables us to walk in his light.
This Christmas, will you believe the truth revealed in Jesus? Truth about your darkness, his light and your only hope of walking in the light not the darkness – believing in him and his death on the cross for your sin.