“Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life. The Pharisees therefore said unto him, Thou bearest record of thyself; thy record is not true. Jesus answered and said unto them, Though I bear record of myself, yet my record is true: for I know whence I came, and whither I go; but ye cannot tell whence I come, and whither I go. Ye judge after the flesh; I judge no man. And yet if I judge, my judgment is true: for I am not alone, but I and the Father that sent me. It is also written in your law, that the testimony of two men is true. I am one that bear witness of myself, and the Father that sent me beareth witness of me. Then said they unto him, Where is thy Father? Jesus answered, Ye neither know me, nor my Father: if ye had known me, ye should have known my Father also. These words spake Jesus in the treasury, as he taught in the temple: and no man laid hands on him; for his hour was not yet come.” John 8:12-20
We continue our study of the Fourth Gospel and the verse that collects the reigning theme of chapter eight is at the end of this passage when the temple officials brought the matter to its crisis:
“Then said they unto him, Where is thy Father?”
From here forward chapter eight is entirely taken up with paternity — not only Jesus’ paternity but also the paternity of the temple officials and by application the paternity of everyman. But we must be patient before we get to an application because if we are not careful and intentional we will misunderstand this narrative. Be attentive to the details, the voices, the beginning and the end of the narrative and resist looking for a payoff which is a distraction. When you read and study the Bible, utilitarianism, what’s in it for me, is the well worn path of our day that reduces the narrative no more than a vehicle for delivering personal benefits. It is our duty to understand the story.
This is what happened: After Jesus forgave the woman caught in adultery, he told her to go home and live the life she was created to live. Then he declared to the people remaining and presumably to those who were re-gathering, that he is the Light of the World:
“Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.”
We already know that Jesus is the Light of the World because the prologue to the Fourth Gospel declares that the Word of the Father is the very source of life and his “life was the light of men.” The Word is not identified with light but rather the Word is identified as the Light; the Word does not reflect light, but rather light burst forth from the interior Word of the Father. He is the birthplace, the fountainhead of light. John the Baptist, even with all his importance to Israel, is specifically, in the prologue, pronounced not to be the light. The Word is the “true light which brings light to everyman.”
Here is one thing I want you to see: The Beloved Disciple knew that the Word of the Father was light and that any light that was light issued from Son because that was Jesus’ self-understanding which he had made known to his enemies as well as his friends. The Beloved Disciple heard the very same sermon the Pharisees heard, the difference being that the Beloved Disciple believed Jesus.
“Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.”
This is what Jesus said: those who believe in him as the light of the world, those who follow him, will not walk in darkness, which is to say, that before Jesus, they were in darkness. Jesus was not saying that really and truly believing in him is a matter of following a moral or ethical code — after all the Pharisees had in their possession the perfection of any moral code and they followed it. Nor is Jesus saying that getting your moral life straight is the way you follow him and thus make yourself fit for the Kingdom of God. “So what does it mean to follow Jesus?” you ask.
This is what it means: it is first of all a matter of coming to Jesus and receiving him as the Light of the world, as the one who sees the Father face-to-face, as the one who has come down from heaven proceeding from the bosom of the Father, as the one who will judge the world, as the one who will give eternal life to whom he wishes, as the one who deserves, by nature, the same honor that is paid to God the Father — that is what it means to “come to Jesus,” and to walk in the light. It is a matter of receiving Jesus to be just as he understands himself to be.
The Pharisees, by now predictably, rejected Jesus’ self-understanding and by that very act they reveal their character and their paternity though it will take the whole chapter to get there. But for the moment, note, that after Jesus declared he is the light of the world the Pharisees tried to pick a fight with him by accusing him of self-praise which was another assault on his character. Jesus of course has made it clear beginning with Nicodemus that his mission is from God the Father and it is a mission of love and life. But above all it is not a mission of his own making: he is sent from God the Father who is his father by nature. This he says to Nicodemus and this is where the issue of paternity begins in the Gospel of John. Jesus is crystal clear in his conversation with Nicodemus that entering into the Kingdom of God, which is the finality of his promise to Abraham, is a matter of being born into it which is also a matter of believing in him, Jesus, as the Son of God. All that Jesus stated openly in public beginning with Nicodemus and on till we come upon this long disputation in the Temple recorded in chapter eight. Building upon what he has already said to Nicodemus, Jesus then declares to the Pharisees that the only witness that really matters is his Father and himself for they are without peer. Who knows what the Pharisees really think? But the matter is finally brought to its crisis with a question:
“Then said they unto him, Where is thy Father?”
Which is to say, “Where is your father? Bring him forward now to make his witness.” There is not a bit of innocence or naivety in their inquiry. Jesus then simply repeated what he is recorded to have said in one way or another over and over again in the Fourth Gospel:
“Jesus answered, Ye neither know me, nor my Father: if ye had known me, ye should have known my Father also.”
From here on paternity is the issue but as I have said paternity has been the issue since he spoke to Nicodemus. This is something else I want you to see. This is all about identifying the children of Abraham, which is to identify who will enter the Kingdom that was promised to Abraham which is the only Kingdom that matters. This is the only way to grasp what is going forward in this book. When Nicodemus came to Jesus he came as a representative of the Rulers of Israel. “We know that you are from God,” he said to Jesus. And before he could get anything else out of his mouth Jesus declared to Nicodemus:
“Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God… Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again.” John 3: 3 & 7
This is so simple and familiar that we frequently miss what is actually going forward in this narrative; the reader frequently fails to be struck by the most important detail of the narrative that right in front of him. You must passover to Nicodemus’ horizon, difficult as that may be, it is not impossible. First of all realize that Nicodemus is not a literary device, not a foil standing in for “Everyman.” He is a specific, historical person that Jesus describes as a Ruler of Israel. Like St. Paul, Nicodemus was a Hebrew of Hebrews, born of a Jewish mother, circumcised the eight day, manifestly a son of Abraham. In chapter three there are three important persons: the popular hero John the Baptist, Nicodemus, and the Jewish Messiah who delivered an extraordinarily offensive, unthinkable, even blasphemous message to this Hebrew of Hebrews.
Wittgenstein wrote:
“The aspects of things that are most important for us are hidden because of their simplicity and familiarity. (One is unable to notice something — because it is always before one’s eyes.)
The default interpretation of Jesus’ conversation with Nicodemus abstracts the event and overlooks the context which is entirely Jewish. Most of the time commentators leap right over the obvious Jewish enmeshment of the whole matter and one way or another they declare that Nicodemus is Everyman, the universal man in need of salvation. But he is not first of all Everyman, he is first of all exactly who Jesus said he was, a Master of Israel, a member of that elite class made up of the powerful first families of Jerusalem. What is most striking and powerful is that Jesus had just communicated to Nicodemus that being a Hebrew of Hebrews, circumcised the eight day, a son of the Torah means absolutely nothing. Zero. John has recorded it for us: this is the pristine, authentic teaching of Jesus the Messiah, which is exactly what St. Paul, St. Peter, as well as the whole first generation Church in Jerusalem declared to be the Gospel of Jesus the Messiah — those who believe in Jesus and have been baptized into Jesus are the Children of Abraham, heirs of the Promise God made to him which is what Jesus is calling the Kingdom of God. If one does not believe in Jesus then one is not a child of Abraham and is not an heir to the Promise. That is the constant unambiguous message of Jesus the Messiah from the beginning of his ministry and the Fourth Gospel makes it the golden thread that holds the synoptics gospels as well as the whole New Testament together.