3: I am the Light of the world (John 8:12-30)

In the dark

Most of us value our eyesight more than anything else. To lose it is to be plunged into a world of darkness, robbing us of life’s choicest pleasures. Just imagine being denied the joy of appreciating your garden (or window box!) in full bloom, a glorious sunset, or your children’s faces. And imagine having to trust someone else to make the choice of the clothing you are wearing today.

A greater darkness

But there is another, far more serious, kind of darkness. Millions may have 20/20 eyesight, yet live their lives in total darkness in their heart and mind. Last summer I took a book on holiday written by one of the 12 most brilliant men in the world today (or so the blurb claimed). I discovered that his ignorance in certain areas was amazing, and that the author is in total darkness where it really matters!

Darkness on display

It was one of the most deadly incidents in Jesus’ earthly life. His enemies had concocted a trap that even he would find impossible to avoid. Whatever Jesus said would put him into conflict either with God’s law given through Moses, or Roman law, which denied the right to Jews to put law-breakers to death.

Jesus was teaching in the temple when religious leaders arrived, dragging with them a woman, barely dressed. They pushed her forward for all to see her shame, and explained that she had been caught in the act of adultery. ‘In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such a woman. Now what do you say?’ (4).

John, writing his Gospel, saw clearly that this question was a cunning trap. Certainly Moses commanded that adulterers were to be stoned (Leviticus 20:10) but how could Jesus answer the question without offending either system?

He seemed to be stumped and had nothing to say. He bent down and began writing in the sand on the floor. Meanwhile, the woman’s accusers continued to demand, ‘What do you say we should do with her?’ Eventually, Jesus sat up and said, ‘If any one of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her’, (7), and continued writing in the sand.

John doesn’t record what Jesus wrote – but it had a devastating effect on the woman’s accusers. It might have been a list of sins of which the religious leaders were guilty; or was it a list of women’s names – with whom they had had a less than a pure relationship? We are not told – but it evidently worked.

One by one, from the oldest to the youngest, the woman’s accusers left the scene, until only the woman was left. Why should her accusers leave embarrassed and ashamed? The law was clear. Adultery was a capital offence in God’s eyes. Two or three witnesses were required to make a citizens arrest, and bring the guilty pair before the nation’s leaders. If guilt was proven, it was the witnesses who got to throw the first stones!

So why should the woman’s accusers leave the scene in shame? Eyewitnesses were not required to be innocent of all sin, just the sin in question. It seems their own lives were not beyond reproach! And where was the man involved in the guilty act? The law required both to be put to death. Was this a stitch-up? A put-up job? It certainly looks like it!

Jesus now spoke to the woman, ‘Where are your accusers? Has no one condemned you?’ ‘No one, sir,’ she replied. ‘Then neither do I condemn you’, he said, ‘Go and leave your life of sin’. Jesus wasn’t condoning the woman’s sin but acting legally: no accusers, no charge to answer. Go free!

It was then that Jesus made an amazing claim – ‘I am the Light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness but have the light of life,’ 12.

The Light shines

Jesus’ Light had shone very brightly that morning in the temple, so brightly that it had revealed deep darkness in the hearts of those men who claimed to be doing God’s work. The evil of their deceit, hypocrisy, and unkindness was put on public display for all to see. The Light of the all-seeing, all-knowing Jesus still shines to reveal the hidden shame of our lives, in order to bring us his forgiveness, and to hear his ‘Go free’ - no charge to answer!

Michael Toogood