JESUS OUR LORD MEETS OUR NEED FOR DIRECTION
“I am the light of the world.” (John 8:12)
What on earth would we do without light? In the beginning God . . . created the sun to give light by day and the moon to give light by night. The Creator considered light to be essential for the well-being of His Creation.
We need light - to see where we are going . . . read a book . . . drive a car . . . work, or whatever. Light for most of us has become a luxury without which we could not go about daily life very well. Unlike folks who are born blind, the rest of us simply cannot function without light.
We’ve come a long way from the first attempts by man to lighten up his life – from torches fueled by fossils, to wicker lamps, to candle light, to the light bulb. Nowadays the demand for brighter light is all around us – spot lights, neon lights, fireworks that light up the night sky on the fourth of July. Each day we echo God’s command, “Let there be light.”
In the days when Jesus walked this earth, light was just as precious as it is now – not exactly on the same scale as we know it today. Nonetheless, anytime the people of his day got together for a Jewish festival, inevitably there would be some kind of celebration highlighted by a display of light.
One of those special events was the annual Festival of Tabernacles - when folks came together to commemorate the dwelling of God’s people in tents during their journeys in the wilderness; the focus of their celebration was God’s deliverance from the darkness of wilderness experiences into the brighter days in the promised land.
On the evening of the first day of that particular Festival there was a ceremony called The Illumination of the Temple. It took place in one of the courtyards within the temple complex. The Court was surrounded with galleries sort of like “bleachers” to accommodate spectators.
In the center of the court, four great candelabra were set up; when darkness came, the candelabra were lit; according to one historian, the gigantic candelabra sent a blaze of light throughout Jerusalem so that the entire city surrounding the temple was lit up. In our day, we get together for a 30-minute show of fireworks on a holiday, but the festival of lights in Jesus’ day lasted all night long; religious leaders of Judaism danced before the Lord and sang psalms of joy and praise to God, while spectators watched from galleries and clapped their hands in rhythm with tambourines.
Against that backdrop of tradition, Jesus declared Himself to be the One who not only is an inexhaustible source of spiritual nourishment as with the bread analogy, but also an inextinguishable source of light revealing truth and providing direction to those who walk with Him – John 8:12-19 . . .
It is as if Jesus said, “You have seen the blaze of the Temple illumination piercing the darkness of the night. I am the Light of the world; for those who follow me there will be light not only for one exciting night, but for the entire journey of life. The light in the Temple is a brilliant light, but in the end it flickers and dies. I am the Light which lasts forever.”
Then Jesus said: “Anyone who follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” Thus, figuratively speaking, Jesus came as the Light of Truth that would pierce the darkness of worldly thinking . . . evil doing . . . with the Word of God - “sharper than a double-edged sword”.
Jesus told His followers, and He tells all who profess faith in Him, that He is in essence the Light of God which shone in God’s world. Therefore, to come to Jesus is to come to God. To come to the Son is to come to the Father. To know the Son is to know the Father. To be with the Son is to be with the Father. Thus, as Paul said, “to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord”.
Researchers who have explored “near death” experiences of people all over the world report that all such experiences have one thing in common - the seeing of a bright light!
Jesus was telling those who believe in and follow Him, that He is the Light that gives everlasting life to those who trust Him.
The thought occurred to me that, just as a flower can never blossom if it never sees the sunlight, our lives can never radiate the grace and beauty of the love of Christ if we do not live in the light of His presence. Surely each and every one of us wants to reflect the glory of His presence.
A verse of scripture that many of us learned in Sunday School sticks in our minds to this day: “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father which is in heaven.”
Which reminds of a little chorus: “This little light of mine, I’m gonna let it shine.”
And yet another favorite verse, given by the beloved apostle John: “If we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another.”
Folks, those of us who know Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior love to come together for Christian fellowship . . . be together in times of joy and in times of sorrow . . . pray together . . . enjoy one another’s company – and we love to do these things in the light of His glory and grace.
There are folks in our world today as there were in the days of our Lord who love darkness rather than light because their deeds are evil; our world desperately needs to hear and heed the wisdom of John:
“This is the verdict: Light (spelled with a capital L) has come into the world, but men 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 their deeds will be exposed.
But whoever lives by truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what he has done has been done in accordance with God’s will.”
Folks, living on the basis of God’s purpose and plan for our lives is nothing to be ashamed of. The Christian life we ought to be proud of. God wants you to give yourself credit for living a life that has been and continues to be pleasing unto Him.
My prayer for you as well as for myself is that we may be able to say with the psalmist, “The Lord is my Light, and my salvation, whom shall I fear?” (Psalm 27:1)
Oftentimes we go through the valleys of life – even the shadows of death – yet the assurance we have in our hearts is that we need not be afraid because Christ is the Light at the end of the tunnel!
When John received his vision of heaven, he tells us in his Book of the Revelation that he did not see a temple in the city of God because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are there. “The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light.”
The life of Philip Bliss, one of our most cherished gospel song writers, was tragically interrupted one night when he lost his wife in a train wreck in the middle of the night; a train trestle over a river in Ohio collapsed, and the passenger train plummeted to the river below.
Somehow Mr. Bliss managed to escape through a window, but his wife was trapped beneath the debris; he made his way back into the train car and tried in vain to save her; there was no light to help him find her before the train submerged into the depths of the river.
This famous gospel song writer dealt with the sorrow of this great tragedy by composing the words and the music to one of our most loved gospel songs, “The Light of the World is Jesus.” (Read or sing.)
In the darkness of your night, may this thought comfort you, strengthen you, and give you hope to carry on: “My Lord and Savior Jesus Christ is the Light at the end of life’s tunnel”. Amen.
