John 8:12

¹²When Jesus spoke again to the people, He said, "I am the light of the world. Whoever follows Me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life."

John picks up here either the day after the Feast of the Tabernacles confrontation or immediately after this intrusion by the Pharisees into Jesus’ teaching ministry. And Jerusalem would still be teeming with families – four times the normal number of people in Jerusalem – due to the Feast. And so the context of what Jesus says here is critical. Allow me to elaborate:

We read in v20 that Jesus was speaking near the Temple treasury, where the offerings were contributed. It was in the court of women on the Temple campus that the treasury was found. Now the court of women was open to the elements, for there was no roof in the courtyard, and at the Feast of Tabernacles, candles would be lit on the floor. Perhaps hundreds or even thousands of candles would be lit to remain aglow for the whole week, until the Feast of Tabernacles was over. Then all of the candles would go out. If you were walking around at night within a couple miles of the Temple during the Feast, you’d see the glow of light, because it was open to the elements. It must have been quite a sight. Perhaps some of the families went for a little walk each night just outside the city in order to see the glow of light emerging from the Temple. And here’s the point. When the Feast of Tabernacles is finished, the lights are put out. And the excitement is gone. And there’s a return to darkness. But that’s the moment when Jesus declares, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows Me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” It’s perfect timing; it’s God’s timing. The words are nice, but when they – for the Jewish people – are combined with the cultural / traditional events (the signs pointing forward to the reality), it’s amazing. Once again, Jesus is declaring, “Your Feast points to Me. I am the reality which your Feast symbolizes.” Part of what the Feast of Tabernacles was about was the Exodus period when a pillar of light led the people through the wilderness, and Jesus is saying, “I am that light. I’m the One who leads the people of God into the ways of salvation and into the ways of truth and into the ways of fullness.”

So when Jesus asserts with fervency and authority, that He is “the light of the world,” He is saying two things. First, He is saying, by implication, that apart from Himself, men and women are in darkness; their minds are darkened; they’re blind and cannot see. And in the following chapter, He will illustrate His claim, by the sign-miracle of giving sight to the man born blind. John plants the theme that Jesus is coming into the world as the light of the world to dispel the darkness right in the prologue of the Gospel. There is first the darkness that describes the old covenant – it was merely a shadow of what was to come. Remember, “Out with the old and in with the new.” John alluded to this in the prologue of His Gospel as well – “The Law came by Moses but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ,” and, “of His fullness we have all received one blessing after another” – “grace upon grace.” There is also a darkness that lies in the human heart; there is the darkness of the natural man’s mind. This is the darkness of John 3 and 1 Corinthians 2:14 and Romans 8 – the mind of sinful man is sin and death and hostile to God and cannot please God, and the natural man cannot understand spiritual things, and man loves darkness and hates the light and will not come into the light, for fear that his deeds will be exposed.

Second, Jesus is declaring to be the fulfillment of prophecy. “Light” is a critical word for John; it’s meant to make us think hard about it. Isaiah 9:2 (see also v1-3,6-7) says, “The people walking in darkness have seen a great light. Upon them a light has dawned.” Jesus is saying, “I am that light; I am the One of whom the Old Testament speaks; I am the fulfillment of every promise of the Messiah in the Old Testament; I am He.” The author of Hebrews declares Jesus to be the radiance, the light, of the glory of God. John writes in his first epistle that God is light. He writes in the Book of Revelation that the city of God has no need of the sun or moon or stars, because Jesus is the light. It is a beautiful picture. When Jesus says, “I am the light of the world,” He is making a claim to absolute Deity.