Life of Christ 102
For three days in a row
now, Jesus has had public conflict with His enemies in the Temple. Already
today, He has tangled with the Pharisees over the woman taken in adultery. He
readily eluded their trap, and, in turn, taught wonderful lessons about
hypocrisy and mercy. Our story today takes place later in the evening on this
same day (John 8.12-20).
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| The menorah in front of the Knesset in Israel |
Herod the Great, one of
the truly amazing builders of the Roman Empire, and now long dead, had launched
a massive rebuilding of the 500 year old Temple that Ezra had built after the
Babylonian Captivity. This expansion and renovation, which really consisted of
an almost entirely new complex, had been going on at this point for 46 years.
One of the changes was a colossal menorah, the seven branched candlestick
famous as a symbol of Judaism. We think of them as small lamps, but
traditionally, and even now, they can be huge, many feet high. Josephus tells
us that this particular menorah, in Herod's Temple, was 75 feet high, and was
used to light the vast Temple enclosure known as the Court of the Women. This
was where the treasury was, and the treasury was where Jesus was in our story
(John 8.20).
If this is the case, and I think it is, then Jesus made the following statement standing in
the light of a truly enormous menorah, one of the largest ever made: 'I am the
light of the world' (John 8.12).
The Pharisees reaction
to this was to reject His claims, saying that He was His own only witness to
their authenticity, and you can't confirm something with just one witness (John
8.13). Jesus responded by pointing out that He was eternal, and so His vantage
point had a perspective that mere humans did not (John 8.14). Not only that,
but the Father had borne witness to the truth of these claims, and that
provided sufficient support in the witness category (John 8.16-18).
With this story there is
one particular thing that jumps out at me, and, as interesting as it is, it
isn't the location of Jesus' words. It is the words themselves. 'I am the light
of the world.'
The concept of Jesus, as
light, being contrasted with the darkness of a sinful world, is found elsewhere
in Scripture. 'That was the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh
into the world' (John 1.9). However, it isn't just the metaphor itself, but the
descriptive phrase accompanying it that arrests me. 'I am the light - of the
world'. Jesus didn't come to just be the Jewish messiah, nor even just the
Jewish redeemer. He came for the whole world.
This was referenced by
Simeon all the way back at His birth (see Life of Christ 10), 'a light to
lighten the Gentiles' (Luke 2.32). This was referenced in Old Testament
messianic prophecy, 'a light of the Gentiles' (Isaiah 42.6). This is clearly a
reference to the news of salvation from sin through Jesus going all the way
around the world. 'I will also give thee for a light to the Gentiles, that thou
mayest be my salvation unto the end of the earth' (Isaiah 49.6).
Not only was this
referenced at His birth, and found in Old Testament prophecy, but it was also
understood this way by the early Church. Paul, in explaining why he had turned
his ministry from the Jews toward the Gentiles, appealed to the verse in Isaiah
49 I just gave you above. 'For so hath the Lord commanded us, saying, I have
set thee to be a light of the Gentiles, that thou shouldest be for salvation
unto the ends of the earth' (Acts 13.47).
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| A 62 foot high menorah overlooking Madano, Indonesia |
Do you give? The
divinely instituted method for the propagation of the Gospel is the local
church, and local churches cost loads of money to operate. You can witness
without spending any money, but you cannot give out a tract without spending
money. You cannot invite the new Christian to assemble with God's people unless
there is a building to assemble in, and those cost lots of money. You cannot
have a scriptural church, in the long term, without a pastor, and pastors cost
money. Paul, speaking as a missionary on the foreign field, thanked the church
in Thessalonica for sending him continual financial support (Philippians 4.16).
Do you give?
Do you pray? More than
money, missionary Paul desired prayer support (II Thessalonians 3.1). The work
of soul winning, if it is to be done correctly rather than as a sales
presentation or a mere manipulation into a prayer, is a spiritual work. The
work of preaching, if it is to be effective rather than just another
entertaining speech, is a spiritual work. The work of pastoring, if it is to be
more than simply being the CEO of another marketed business, is a spiritual
work. These things take the wisdom and power of God, and the way our
missionaries get that wisdom and power is through prayer.
So many missionaries
undertake to spread the Gospel in spiritually dark places where the devil has
held sway for centuries. Demonic powers control these pagan cultures and
people, and the only thing that can break that stranglehold is the power of
God. Do you pray?
Will you go? I cannot
word this any better than Isaiah did thousands of years ago. 'Also I heard the
voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then said
I, Here am I; send me' (Isaiah 6.8). Twenty seven years ago I knelt at an
old-fashioned altar and gave my life to the Lord for His service, and though I
have been through some hard things in the decades since I have not, for one
moment, regretted that decision. It is the privilege of my life to go wherever
He sends me, whether that is rural Pennsylvania, the inner city of Chicago, or
the Ivory Coast of Africa. If Christianity is propagated primarily by churches,
and churches must have pastors, then Christianity is only a few decades away
from being history's footnote provided young people stop joining the ministry.
Will you go?
Let us give. Let us
pray. Let us go. Why? Because two millennia ago Jesus stood in the light of the
75 foot high menorah in Herod's Temple, and said, 'I am the light of the
world.'
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