L—Light of the World

Journey through the Gospel of John from A to Z with rookie bloggers who are seeking to honor their good friend, Tina.

Throughout this gospel, John emphasizes themes of light and darkness, and portrays Jesus as the source of spiritual light from whence flows life. These strains are introduced in the Prologue, of course:

In him was life, and the life was the light of men.  The light shines

in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it —John 1:4-5

Then, in the Temple at the Feast of Tabernacles, perhaps before the grand candelabras that were used at that festival, Jesus proclaims:

"I am the light of the world.  Whoever follows me

will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life."—John 8:12

The power of this imagery is illustrated in the drama that unfolds in the healing of a man that had been blind from birth.  

The story, told in John Chapter 9, traces the development of faith in the man born blind in parallel with the hardening rejection of the religious leaders.  

From the moment Jesus declares that He is "the Light of the world," the leaders reject His testimony, knowing that His popularity and claims threaten their position.  But their resistance grows as they challenge the authenticity of this healing, and scornfully intimidate and persecute those who support Jesus as they insist that Jesus was "not from God," and "a sinner."

In contrast, the man has nothing to lose by trying out Jesus' strange prescription of washing mud off his blind eyes in the pool of Siloam.  He responds to Jesus first with the obedience that leads to his eyes being opened.  More significant is the gradual opening of his eyes to the One who healed him.  The man's descriptions of Jesus evolve throughout the story.  First, he says his healer is "a man" then "a prophet", then he defends Jesus as "a godly man" that does God's will, before boldly confronting the Pharisees with the fact that Jesus could not have healed him if he weren't from God.

As with others, we see Jesus taking this formerly blind man further into faith. You can sense the man's eagerness to believe everything of Jesus.

Jesus heard that they had cast him out, and having found him he said, "Do you believe in the Son of Man?"  
He answered, "And who is he, sir, that I may believe in him?"  
Jesus said to him, "You have seen him, it is he who is speaking to you."
He said, "Lord, I believe," and he worshiped him.  
Jesus said, "For judgment I came into this world, that those who do not see may see, and those who see may become blind."  —John 8:35-39

Jesus also addresses the increasing hardness of the Pharisees.
Again, you sense the inclination of their hearts:

Some of the Pharisees near him heard these things, and said to him, "Are we also blind?"  
Jesus said to them, "If you were blind, you would have no guilt; but now that you say, 'We see,' your guilt remains. —John 8:40-41

Have you come into the light of Jesus?

H—Healing

Journey through John from A to Z with rookie bloggers who are seeking to honor their good friend, Tina.

After recording Jesus' encounters with Nicodemus and with the woman at the well, John relates two healings with very different results.

First, Jesus meets an official who is concerned about his dying son.  Desperate, the father begs Jesus to come and heal his son.  Jesus challenges the father to believe, and then tells him his son has been healed.  When the father returns home, he learns that his son had been healed, from a distance, just when Jesus had pronounced him well.  His faith is reinforced by this grace, and he and his whole household believe. John clarifies that this was Jesus' second sign, a miracle intended to point to Jesus as Messiah.

Next, Jesus heals a lame man who had been sitting beside the pool of Bethesda in Jerusalem, hoping for a cure. Surprisingly, not even the invalid that is healed expresses faith in Jesus; instead he seems resentful toward Jesus, who cautions him to stop sinning. This is the third sign in the gospel, but the cure occurs on the Sabbath and leads to persecution from the Jewish rulers rather than to faith.  

Here Jesus explains that He works on the Sabbath because His Father works on the Sabbath.  He also makes clear that He is able to heal because He gives life and that ultimately He gives eternal life that conquers the grave.

"My Father is always at his work to this very day, and I, too, am working." 
... "I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does. For the Father loves the Son and shows him all he does... For just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, even so the Son gives life to whom he is pleased to give it.  ..."I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life...I tell you the truth, a time is coming and has now come when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God and those who hear will live...For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son to have life in himself. 
.... For the very work that the Father has given me to finish, and which I am doing, testifies that the Father has sent me.  (John 5:17-36)

Every one of us chooses how we will respond to the life-giving power of Jesus.  And the two possible choices will lead to very different results.

F—Faith

Journey through the Gospel of John from A to Z with rookie bloggers who are seeking to honor their good friend, Tina.

One of the most beautiful aspects of the Gospel of John is how it relates Jesus' interactions with a variety of people. Yesterday, we looked at how Jesus talked to Nicodemus, a spiritual leader who came to see Him at night.  Today, we see Jesus as the one who comes and initiates a conversation with a woman who is on the opposite end of the social ladder.  Where Nicodemus was the one pursuing answers, here we have a woman at Jacob's well who is avoiding answers.  While Nicodemus might be considered upright and moral, this woman would more likely be labeled "immoral" as she had had a string of husbands and was currently living with someone she wasn't married to.

John makes it clear that "Jews do not associate with Samaritans," reminding us that Jesus did not respect cultural barriers. Even though the culture didn't value her, He cared about this woman and persisted in seeking to reveal the truth to her—that He is the Messiah. Here, Jesus describes eternal life as water that He offers, living water that will abundantly flow from within the believer.

"Everyone who drinks this [well] water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life."  (John 4:13-14)

There is a marked contrast between the Samaritan woman's response and Nicodemus's.  He reacts with confusion, while she reacts with faith that does seem to spring up like a fountain from within—a fountain that refreshes everyone about her.

She testifies to her neighbors and challenges them to believe that He is the Christ. Her faith is somewhat contagious, leading her fellow townspeople to come to Jesus, spend time with Him, and then at last to believe.

Many of the Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman's testimony... So when the Samaritans came to him, they urged him to stay with them, and he stayed two days.  And because of his words many more became believers.  They said to the woman, "We no longer believe just because of what you said; now we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this man really is the Savior of the world."   (John 4:39-42)

John writes this gospel to bring others to faith.  Like the woman at the well, John's faith in Jesus is contagious and refreshing.  Have you put your faith in Jesus?  Are you refreshing others with the living water of Jesus Christ?