{"id":6259,"date":"2023-08-07T17:30:00","date_gmt":"2023-08-07T23:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/drbobewell.com\/?p=6259"},"modified":"2023-07-31T09:16:31","modified_gmt":"2023-07-31T15:16:31","slug":"he-really-is-the-light-of-the-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/drbobewell.com\/?p=6259","title":{"rendered":"He really is the light of the world!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

As I wrote earlier, we can just hit a few highlights of John’s gospel – there’s so much there. I really love John 8 and 9, stories that fit together as we’ll see shortly. The chapter opens with the woman taken in adultery, something I’ve written about before. Check it out<\/a>. After that event, Jesus speaks again to the Pharisees, the conservative religious elite of his day:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then Jesus again spoke to them, saying, \u201cI am the Light of the world; he who follows Me will never walk in the darkness, but will have the Light of life.\u201d So the Pharisees said to Him, \u201cYou are bearing witness about Yourself; Your witness is not true.\u201d (John 8.12, 13, LSB)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Pharisees\u2019 response makes no logical sense. They could say, \u201cWe don\u2019t know if what you say is true. We need another witness.\u201d Just because they perceived there wasn\u2019t another witness doesn\u2019t make Jesus\u2019 witness untrue. The conversation goes on and some actually believe:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As He was speaking these things, many believed in Him. So Jesus was saying to those Jews who had believed Him, \u201cIf you abide in My word, then you are truly My disciples; and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.\u201d (John 8.30 – 32, LSB)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

There it is again. \u201cAbide in My word.\u201d I did a two-part series on \u201ceat my flesh, drink my blood<\/a>,\u201d which I believe is less about how we do the Eucharist and more about \u201cabiding\u201d — obedience to the word.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There follows a long argument on Jesus\u2019 relationship with the Father contrasted with their relationship with their father, the devil. (See John 8.34 – 59<\/a>.) When he says, \u201cI AM,\u201d they pick up stones to throw at him, and Jesus goes out of the temple\u2026where he passes a blind man. The conversation on \u201cI am the light of the world\u201d is illustrated beautifully.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As He passed by, He saw a man blind from birth. And His disciples asked Him, saying, \u201cRabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he would be born blind?\u201d Jesus answered, \u201cNeither this man nor his parents sinned, but this was so that the works of God might be manifested in him. We must work the works of Him who sent Me as long as it is day; night is coming when no one can work. While I am in the world, I am the light of the world.\u201d (John 9.1 – 5 LSB)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI am the light of the world.\u201d Watch. (You can read the whole story here.<\/a>) And Jesus heals the man’s blindness. The Pharisees are furious because it happened to be a Sabbath. The seeing man doesn’t know any theology. He’s not “smart” like the religious leaders. But he does know one thing:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Therefore, a second time they called the man who had been blind, and said to him, \u201cGive glory to God; we know that this man is a sinner.\u201d He then answered, \u201cWhether He is a sinner, I do not know; one thing I do know, that though I was blind, now I see.\u201d (John 9.24, 25, LSB)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

And, as usual, the humble and uneducated are in while the educated proud<\/a> are out:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jesus heard that they had cast him out, and having found him he said, \u201cDo you believe in the Son of Man?\u201d He answered, \u201cAnd who is he, sir, that I may believe in him?\u201d Jesus said to him, \u201cYou have seen him, and it is he who is speaking to you.\u201d He said, \u201cLord, I believe,\u201d and he worshiped him. Jesus said, \u201cFor judgment I came into this world, that those who do not see may see, and those who see may become blind.\u201d Some of the Pharisees near him heard these things, and said to him, \u201cAre we also blind?\u201d Jesus said to them, \u201cIf you were blind, you would have no guilt; but now that you say, \u2018We see,\u2019 your guilt remains. (John 9.35 – 41, ESV)<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As I wrote earlier, we can just hit a few highlights of John’s gospel – there’s so much there. I really love John 8 and 9, stories that fit together as we’ll see shortly. The chapter opens with the woman taken in adultery, something I’ve written about before. Check it out. After that event, Jesus … Continue reading He really is the light of the world!<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6259","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8X9bo-1CX","jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/drbobewell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6259","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/drbobewell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/drbobewell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drbobewell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drbobewell.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6259"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/drbobewell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6259\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6261,"href":"https:\/\/drbobewell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6259\/revisions\/6261"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/drbobewell.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6259"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drbobewell.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6259"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drbobewell.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6259"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}