Jesus the Light of the World
1 ¶ But Jesus went to the Mount of Olives.
2 ¶ Now early in the morning He came again into the temple, and all the people came to Him; and He sat down and taught them.
3 Then the scribes and Pharisees brought to Him a woman caught in adultery. And when they had set her in the midst,
4 they said to Him, “Teacher, this woman was caught in adultery, in the very act.
5 “Now Moses, in the law, commanded us that such should be stoned. But what do You say?”
6 This they said, testing Him, that they might have something of which to accuse Him. But Jesus stooped down and wrote on the ground with His finger, as though He did not hear.
7 ¶ So when they continued asking Him, He raised Himself up and said to them, “He who is without sin among you, let him throw a stone at her first.”
8 And again He stooped down and wrote on the ground.
9 Then those who heard it, being convicted by their conscience, went out one by one, beginning with the oldest even to the last. And Jesus was left alone, and the woman standing in the midst.
10 When Jesus had raised Himself up and saw no one but the woman, He said to her, “Woman, where are those accusers of yours? Has no one condemned you?”
11 ¶ She said, “No one, Lord.” And Jesus said to her, “Neither do I condemn you anymore.”
12 ¶ Then Jesus spoke to them again, saying, “I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life.”
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There is much debate as to whether this passage from John 7:3-8:11 is part of John’s original text and as the argument continues, I choose to look at it as always, “What is it telling us about Jesus, about His revealing the heart of God”?
It is a very revealing story about not only the heart of Jesus, but the Pharisees and Jewish rulers as well.
Jesus goes to the Mt. Of Olives to sleep and then next goes to the temple to teach and he drew a crowd of people hungry for the Truth. While they are looking to learn from Jesus, the Jewish rulers are looking for how to trip Him up, so in the temple, a holy place, where Jesus is preaching about holy Truths, the Pharisees and rulers bring a naked, shamed and horrified woman into where He is teaching and throw her before Him and share she was caught in the very act of adultery.
No matter that it takes two to tango and the man who was also caught is conveniently missing from the shameful scene, here sits this woman, more terrified, as the penalty for this is stoning to death. Shamed, naked, humiliated and broken, this woman sat there in front of all those people waiting to feel the stones hit. They remind Jesus what the law said, but Jesus bent down and began drawing in the dirt,
David Guzik comments on Jesus’ stooping down:
Stooped down is a low posture, identifying with the humiliation of the woman. Jesus did what He could to identify with, care for, and ease the embarrassment of this woman. One may say this story illustrates the great problem: how can God show love and grace to the sinner without being unjust, without breaking His own law? He does it by first identifying with the sinner in their low condition.
The rulers repeated the question about what should be done with the lady and finally Jesus said, “Let he who is without sin cast the first stone”.
He then continued writing on the ground. As the people thought of their sin, one by one they dropped the stones and left until it was only Jesus and the woman left in the temple area.
Jesus looks up from where He is writing and sees that everyone has left, aware of their own sins and said to the woman, “Woman, where are those accusers of yours? Has no one condemned you?”
She told them no one was left and Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you anymore.” Interesting to note that Jesus didn’t say, “I do not condemn you.", but said, “I don’t condemn you anymore”. Anymore denotes that He did judge her, but He didn’t pick up stones to kill her, but forgave her.
The last verse here had to be said another time because it was said to “them” and there was just the two of them but it is one of my favorite verses, “I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life.”
What a great promise for me to cling to in these dark and dreary days when it feels like darkness is winning, but Truth is, He wins. His children win and days that are dark and dreary are passing and are sometimes just a trap to trip us up and lead us to feel as if we have no hope, but looking to the True Light of the world will bring freedom.
It is why He tells us to seek Him daily, reading in the Word, prayer, etc. because He knows and tells us many times that in this world there will be troubles, but to have faith, He has overcome them all for us.
It is a war my brother and sister, a war for souls and the more we can put the world aside and just focus on Him, the more the Light will chase away the darkness.
