Jesus: The Light of the World

“Again Jesus spoke to them saying, ‘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 (ESV)  “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 “The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world.  He was in the world and the world was made through Him, yet the world did not know Him.  He came to His own, and His own people did not receive Him.  But to all who did receive Him, who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.” –John 1:9-13 (ESV).[Read John 8:12-20]

The occasion of Jesus announcing that He is the light of the world came during the annual Festival of Tabernacles when the Jewish people and leaders were assembled at the Temple in Jerusalem. The festival was observed for eight days, about this time of year.  It commemorated a joyful celebration of the harvest but also remembered the time when the people dwelt in tents or tabernacles during the years of wilderness wanderings.  God had delivered them from those hardships.  Every night during the days of the Festival, the priests would light four large candelabra in the court of the women and these gave much light.  They reminded the people that God had led them with a pillar of fire by night and a glowing cloud by day that had shown God’s direction, protection and provision.  They would sing and dance, repeating assurances of God’s presence:  “The Lord is my light and my salvation” (Psalm 27:1) or “Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord rises upon you” (Isaiah 60:1). In the midst of the celebration of lights, Jesus stood and said, “I am the light of the world!”  The learned Jews among them should have known that Light was one of the names given to the Messiah.  That was seen in the prophecy of Daniel 2:22: “light dwells with Him” and in Malachi 4:2: “But for you who revere My name, the sun of righteousness shall rise with healing in its wings.”  Unfortunately, the Pharisees hearing Jesus argued with Him and told Him that they did not believe His testimony, that it was not true.  Regardless of what the Jewish leaders believed, they were standing there, observing and hearing the very Light of the World as He sought to enlighten them. What a pity that they would not hear the truth that the Light had been with God since the creation of the world.  John would write about the Light at the beginning of his gospel.  Even at that moment that true Light stood and taught among them.

Following the discourse with the Jewish leaders, Jesus went outside the Temple courtyard and soon found a man blind from birth.  He told His disciples in the presence of the blind man, “As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world” (John 9:5).  He then proceeded to restore sight to the blind man, bringing the poor man from darkness to light.  A discourse ensued between the healed blind man and the Jews, but the man told the Lord he believed in him, praised Jesus for restoring his sight and worshiped Him.  He had experienced the miracle of Light performed by the one Who is the Light of the world.

James Hudson Taylor lived in Brighton, England.  He got a burden for the lost of China, and arranged for a loan from his bank to start the China Inland Mission in June of 1865.  The mission work was hard and tedious, but Taylor persisted in his mission “to open the eyes that are blind, to free captives from prison, and to release from the dungeon those who sit in darkness”(Isaiah 42:7).  And Jesus, the Light of the World, calls each of us  (as he did James Hudson Taylor) who have come to His light to be light-bearers wherever we are:  “Ye are the light of the world,”  Jesus said as He called us.  And our privilege is to follow Him and let our lights shine where He has stationed us.  “Therefore, let your light so shine!” Let us reflect the glory of the Father through the Light of His Son.   (Matthew 5:14-16).

Paul’s Second Missionary Journey Ends at Antioch

“After this Paul stayed many days longer and then took leave of the brothers and set sail for Syria, and with him Priscilla and Aquila.  At Cenchreae he had cut his hair, for he was under a vow.  And they came to Ephesus, and he left them there, but he himself went into the synagogue and reasoned with the Jews.  When they asked him to stay for a longer period, he declined.  But on taking leave of them he said, ‘I will return to you if God wills,’ and he set sail from Ephesus.  When he had landed at Caesarea, he went up and greeted the church, and then went down to Antioch.” –Acts 18:18-22 (ESV).

Paul ended his second missionary journey at Antioch in Syria, his sponsoring church, the one that had laid hands on him and Silas and sent them out.  What Luke recorded of it is from Acts 15:36 through 18:22.  When I think of any of Paul’s missionary journeys, I am reminded of a good teacher friend of mine, Rachel Higdon, now enjoying her reward in heaven.  Being a teacher of history and French, as well as an excellent student of and teacher of the Bible, she always wanted a map to point out the places mentioned in the Bible.  With Acts, she had a “map-happy” time with her teaching, because she had such knowledge from ancient history she shared as she taught the Word.  “We are talking about real people here,”  she would emphasize, “and real places!”  She would invite us always to imagine the dangers Paul faced on land and on sea as he traveled, and remind us of the compelling force of the Holy Spirit that propelled him on from place to place to complete his divinely-appointed mission.  In today’s passage, Paul stayed “many days longer” at Corinth—longer, perhaps, than the 1 and ½ years previously stated.  When he decided to set sail for Antioch of Syria, his friends and co-tentmakers, Aquila and Priscilla accomaanied with him.  Their first stop was at Cenchreae, about 6 ½ miles eastward from Corinth, the city of Corinth’s main port to the Aegean Sea. At that town, Paul got a haircut, but it had to do with his Nazarite vow (see Numbers 6:1-21 for laws concerning this rite). We are not told what the vow involved but it could have been one of gratitude or in fulfillment of his dedication to God.  They sailed to Ephesus in Asia Minor and there Priscilla and Aquila stayed to strengthen the ministry there.  The Christians at Ephesus begged Paul to stay, but he declined, saying he would return if God willed.  This invitation was the basis of Paul’s third missionary journey, as we will see later.  One sentence summarized the last very long lap of finishing up his second missionary journey.  From Ephesus the ship took the coastal route south eastward, weaving though islands, including Rhodes, the largest one, to the west of the ship’s route.  Then a long Mediterranean Sea journey southeastward to Caesarea in Palestine.  By orverland road to “the church”—which everyone understood to be at Jerusalem—and then northward overland through Damascus and Syria up to Antioch.  Paul had been gone for well over two years and had traveled thousands of miles, preached many sermons, taught many lessons, had personal advisement sessions, worked to make his own way, written his first epistles, been imprisoned, beaten, accused, reviled, had to sneak away at nighttime to avoid more persecution.  And here he was, safely back at his home church!  Can you imagine the joy of greetings and the crowds that gathered each time he gave his “missionary report”?  They might have asked, “Paul, will you stay here awhile?”  And this anointed, itinerant preacher would no doubt have answered:  “I can’t quit yet (can’t retire yet)!  God has more work for me to do!”  And soon he would launch upon his third missionary journey.  The gospel came to us on its way to someone else, just as it had to Paul on the road to Damascus.  Faithfulness marked Paul’s Christian call.  Where does the Lord want you to faithfully witness, diligently labor in His “harvest field”?  “For the fields are white already to harvest”…(John 4:35).  There’s an urgency now about getting the harvest of souls in:  “For the night cometh when no man can work” (John 9:4).

Shout Hosanna! Jesus’ Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem

“Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your king is coming to you; righteous and having salvation is He, humble and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.” –Zechariah 9:9 (ESV). “Most of the crowd spread their cloaks on the road, and others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. And the crowds that went before Him and that followed Him were shouting, ‘Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!’ And when He entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred up, saying, ‘Who is this?’ And the crowds said, ‘This is the prophet Jesus from Nazareth of Galilee.’”-Matthew 21:8-11 (ESV).

All four gospel writers record what we have come to term Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem.

You might like to read all four accounts in their entirety: Matthew 21:1-11; Mark 11:1-11; Luke 19:29-44; and John 12:12-19. In Christendom, we call the observance “Palm Sunday,” marked by the triumphant waving of palm branches. On that day in Jerusalem the jubilant waving of palm branches and laying of cloaks in the path were outward acts declaring the people’s recognition of and submission to Jesus as King. Waving of palm branches had been associated with important Jewish victories of the past. Imagine the tenor of the crowd as they expected soon that their long-expected Messiah would declare His rule and free them from Roman oppression. Jesus rode on a donkey. That, too, had significant symbolism. One who rode in triumph on a lowly donkey brought peace—not war. Of the four gospel writers, Matthew is the only one who mentions two animals, both the donkey and her colt. We are not to see a problem here, but that both were brought by the disciples sent to get them. It is fitting to recognize that the donkey would have walked alongside her unbroken colt to give confidence to the young animal on whom no one had ever ridden. But Jesus rode on the foal. The shout of “Hosanna in the highest!” is from Psalm 118:25-26. The translation from the Hebrew (hoshiahna) is rendered “Save us!”: “Save us, we pray, O Lord! O Lord, we pary, give us success! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord! We bless you from the house of the Lord.”

An atmosphere of celebration and jubilation is everywhere. Noted by the religious authorities whose critical watch was ever upon the prophet and healer—whom they termed an impostor—they commented on the commotion at the city gate: “You see that you are gaining nothing. Look, the world has gone after him” (John 9:19). When some of the Pharisees asked Jesus to rebuke his disciples for the celebration and demonstration of loyalty their shouts and actions displayed, Jesus told them, “I tell you, if these were silent, the very stones would cry out!” (Luke 19:40). Jesus was referring to the words from Habakkuk 2:11: “For the stone will cry out from the wall, and the beam from the woodwork respond.”

We are likely to view the triumphal entry into Jerusalem with regret because the ones who cast palm branches and cloaks before Jesus and cried so fervently, “Hosanna in the highest!” could so quickly turn against the King of King and Lord of Lords and cry, “Crucify Him! Crucify Him!” But we must view this great event in the earthly life of our Lord in the perspective of His purpose for coming to earth. He was, indeed, King of King and Lord of Lords—but not in the way anticipated. He was not just for the Jews to be declared their king alone and to establish His rule in the holy city of Jerusalem. He is indeed the righteous Davidic Messiah who would “save His people from their sins” (see Mark 8:31, Romans 5:6-8). His triumph as Christos, Saviour, Messiah, Emmanuel was His ultimate purpose: Not for the Jews but for everyone who will crown Him King! Not for an age, but for all ages! Not for an earthly dominion but for the glory of an eternal kingdom! Let us indeed shout “Hosanna! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!”