I Am the Light of the World

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Good morning.

Good morning. I'm Megan Doxon, and I am part of the Thursday evening North Berkeley community group.

Today's scripture reading is from the Gospel according to John 8, verse 12, and chapter 9, verses 1 to 17 and 24 to 41, as printed in your liturgy.

John 8:12

When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said,

I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.

As he went along, he saw a man blind from birth. His disciples asked him,

Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?

Neither this man nor his parents sinned, said Jesus, but this happened so that the works of God might be displayed in him.

As long as it is day, we must do the works of him who sent me. Night is coming when no one can work.

While I am in the world, I am the light of the world.

After saying this, he spit on the ground, made some mud with the saliva, and put it on the man's eyes.

Go, he told him, wash in the pool of Siloam.

This word means sent.

So the man went and washed and came home seeing.

His neighbors and those who had formerly seen him begging asked,

Isn't this the same man who used to sit and beg?

Some claimed that he was. Others said, no, he only looks like him.

But he himself insisted, I am the man.

How then were your eyes opened, they asked.

He replied, the man they called Jesus made some mud and put it on my eyes.

He told me to go to Siloam and wash.

So I went and washed, and then I could see.

Where is this man, they asked him.

I don't know, he said.

They brought to the Pharisees the man who had been blind.

Now the day on which Jesus had made the mud and opened the man's eyes was a Sabbath.

Therefore, the Pharisees also asked him how he had received his sight.

He put mud on my eyes, the man replied, and I washed, and now I see.

Some of the Pharisees said, this man is not from God, for he does not keep the Sabbath.

But others asked, how can a sinner perform such signs?

So they were divided.

Then they turned again to the blind man.

What have you to say about him?

It was your eyes he opened.

The man replied, he is a prophet.

A second time, they summoned the man who had been blind.

Give glory to God by telling the truth, they said.

We know this man is a sinner.

He replied, whether he is a sinner or not, I do not know.

One thing I do know.

I was blind, but now I see.

Then they asked him, what did he do to you?

How did he open your eyes?

He answered, I have told you already, and you did not listen.

Why do you want to hear it again?

Do you want to become his disciples too?

Then they hurled insults at him and said, you are this fellow's disciple.

We are disciples of Moses.

We know that God spoke to Moses, but as for this fellow, we don't even know where he comes from.

The man answered, now that is remarkable.

You don't know where he comes from, yet he opened my eyes.

We know that God does not listen to sinners.

He listens to the godly person who does his will.

Nobody has ever heard of opening the eyes of a man born blind.

If this man were not from God, he could do nothing.

To this they replied, you were steeped in sin at birth.

How dare you lecture us?

And they threw him out.

Jesus heard that they had thrown him out, and when he found him, he said, do you believe in the son of man?

Who is he, sir?

The man asked.

Tell me so that I may believe in him.

Jesus said, you have now seen him.

In fact, he is the one speaking with you.

Then the man said, Lord, I believe, and he worshipped him.

Jesus said, for judgment I have come into this world, so that the blind will see, and those who see will become blind.

Some Pharisees who were with him heard him say this and asked, what?

Are we blind too?

Jesus said, if you were blind, you would not be guilty of sin.

But now that you claim you can see, your guilt remains.

This is the gospel of the Lord.

Thank you for that reading, Megan.

Good morning, everyone.

My name is Andrew, one of the pastors here at Christ Church.

Will you join me in prayer as we listen to what God has to say from his word?

Lord, we come before you wanting to encounter the light of the world.

And we give thanks to you that that is who you are.

You are indeed the light of the whole world.

And we pray for that light to shine on our world in moments like these.

And every day, this dark and broken world that so desperately needs the light of Christ.

So we pray for that light, and we pray that it would start here with us.

Use the preaching of your word to bring glory to yourself and light to the nations, we pray.

In Jesus' strong name.

Amen.

So we are continuing our series in the Gospel of John.

And the good news about Jesus that John especially wants to communicate is that Jesus is God himself.

Come to be with us in the flesh.

He's Yahweh among us, the great I am God among us.

Come to be everything that our darkened, sin-stained world needed but never deserved.

And that's why the Gospel of John famously has these I am statements.

Two weeks ago, we talked about Jesus saying, I am, what, the bread of life?

Last week, Jonathan preached about Jesus saying, before Abraham was, I am.

Well, today on Transfiguration Sunday, this day that we remember Jesus' brilliance and the brightness that emanated from him in the presence of his Father,

we are looking at the next I am statement where he says, I am the light of the world.

I am the light of the world.

Now, to understand what this means and why it matters, I want to invite us to imagine a world without light.

Try to imagine that, a world without light.

If you think about it, it would be both literally and metaphorically a pretty dark place, right?

I mean, there couldn't be life as we know it.

And even if there was life somehow, imagine how you would know and understand anything without light.

It wouldn't be by sight, right?

You'd have to be like, oh, this is a rock because it tastes like a rock.

Or it smells like a rock.

It sounds like a rock.

But you couldn't actually say that this is a rock because I see that it is a rock.

And it's bizarre to think about, right?

A world without light.

Light, no life, no sight, none of that without light.

So here Jesus is.

He's saying, I am the light of the world.

He's saying, in me is abundant life.

And it's only in my light that anyone can see rightly and truthfully.

And man, that's a pretty radical claim, right?

It's a pretty radical claim.

Last week, we heard about how the Jewish people wanted to stone him for invoking the divine name, I am who I am.

But this week, he's saying something pretty radical, too.

That he is the light of the world, the very source of life.

And the only light by which we can see truthfully, truly, and rightly.

Or in other words, what he's saying in no man's words is that without me, even if you think you're alive, you're actually dead.

Without me, even if you think that you can see just fine, you're actually blind and in the dark.

And this is the provocative, even offensive claim that we are confronted with today from John's gospel.

I am the light of the world.

It's a challenge.

A challenge to all the other gods, all the other sources of light that we might be tempted to trust in and hope in.

See, with these I am statements, what John's gospel is trying to accomplish, what John is trying to do is he's trying to lift up Jesus as a superior God, a superior deity.

So far superior to all the other gods of all the other nations.

So when Jesus says, I am the light of the world, John is making explicit that Jesus is not just the I am, Yahweh.

He's making explicit that Jesus is a better God than Ra of Egypt, right?

That God that Yahweh conquered when he sent the plague of darkness upon Egypt and delivered his people out of slavery.

Or in the Greek world, John was saying, Jesus, when he says, I am the light of the world, he's superior to Apollo, right?

The son of Zeus, the God of light and sun.

See, the message of John's gospel is that Jesus is God among us and he is not just the true God, but he's better.

He's better than any other God.

And I think this is very instructive for us, especially for those of us investigating Christianity.

You know, I think sometimes with our rationalistic, you know, modernistic mindsets, we can get stuck on the question, is Jesus true?

And this is an important question that I hope we all wrestle with.

I hope we all check the evidence.

I hope we all try to be as objective as possible and examine all these claims.

But the beauty of the good news about Jesus is not only has God given himself objectively to us to examine as credible and true,

but he's also subjectively compelling.

He's also subjectively compelling.

I want you to imagine if Greek mythology were true, right?

Imagine if that were true.

It wouldn't be satisfying, right?

Would you really want a God like Zeus?

Would you really want a God like Apollo or Hermes, right?

Or Aphrodite?

But the good news of Jesus is that he's not only objectively true, but he is also subjectively compelling and satisfying better than any other option.

So for those of us who are investigating Christianity here today, even those of us who might just struggle with consistent doubt and skepticism,

maybe you're in a season of deconstruction, we're super glad you're here.

And what I want to propose to you is that, yes, keep grappling with that question, is Jesus true?

Is this true?

But I also want to challenge you to grapple with the question, is this better?

Is this more beautiful, more compelling than any other alternative I might place my faith in and give my life to?

And I think that if we dare to ask this question, is Jesus better?

I wonder if we might be pleasantly surprised at the way that our Heavenly Father draws us to himself,

the way his Spirit persuades us about who Jesus is objectively and subjectively,

as the one who truly is better.

Now, one way we might consider if Jesus is better is by asking, does he give us a better story?

Does he make better sense of the world and reality around us?

And I think Jesus is getting at this when he says, I am the light of the world.

I think he's wanting to speak to that question, is he better?

Does he give us a better story?

You know how a lot of people love to quote Dr. King, right?

Dr. King said that the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.

People love that, right?

Religious people love that.

Irreligious people love that.

Agnostics, atheists, we all love that story.

We all want to believe in that story, right?

That ends in injustice and goodness and light triumphing.

But when Jesus says, I am the light of the world, what he's saying is that the story of universal history ending in justice,

it's only possible because he says, I am the light of the world.

See, when Jesus says, I am the light of the world, he's retelling the story of the universe.

We're taking all the way back to the beginning of history.

Page one of your Pew Bibles, Genesis chapter one, verse one.

In the beginning, God created what?

The heavens and the earth.

And then what does it say in the very next verse?

Verse two.

Now the earth was formless and empty.

Darkness.

Darkness was over the surface of the deep.

And I want you to think about that for a second.

God, the triune God, Father, Son, and Spirit, has existed from all eternity in his own unapproachable light, right?

But when he decided to create, when he decided to bring into existence something other than himself,

that was the moment when darkness, formlessness, emptiness, and the potential for chaos and evil came to be,

when God made something other than himself, something that was not God.

It seems a little precarious, right?

Yet from the beginning, this God, who is the inspiration of light itself as we know it,

he was not at all threatened.

He was not at all threatened by the darkness of what he created.

His spirit from the beginning was hovering over the deep, dark waters, giving order to it, conquering it,

giving it purpose and meaning and beauty.

And with a simple word, God put darkness in its place, right?

And God said, let there be light.

And this light was the life of mankind, the light that dispelled the darkness.

It brought the beginnings of order and form and life and vitality to this world.

And this is how the beautiful story of creation began.

In the beginning, God made the world and said, let there be light.

And we were meant to live in creation by his light.

And to know and relate to this world in his pure and powerful light that conquered the initial darkness.

But see, what the fall of history is, the fall of creation,

is when the crown of God's creation, humanity, us,

made in God's image, dependent upon God's light for knowledge and life.

The fall was when we chose to walk in darkness outside of God's light.

The fall was the result of us reintroducing and actualizing the possibilities of emptiness and chaos back into creation.

And what was the result?

The result, as Apostle Paul says in his letter to the Romans,

was that our sinful hearts were darkened because we exchanged the truth about God for a lie.

And we even began to suppress the truth about God.

And see, that's the big predicament that we're in.

That's exactly why we need the divine light once again.

So you see, this story that Jesus is telling,

this story that he's inserting himself into when he says,

I am the light of the world,

he's saying that though you rejected the initial light of creation that I gave to this world,

though you let darkness back in,

I'm entering into this dark world to shine again the light of new creation.

I'm shining the light of new creation, he says.

He's saying, I've come to bring new life and to help you see rightly again.

To rescue you, as Paul says, from the dominion of darkness

and to bring you into the kingdom of the sun, the kingdom of light.

He's saying, I've come to get you to the happy ending of the story.

A story that begins and ends with a triumph of divine light.

John writes about this in the very last chapter of the Bible, Revelation chapter 22.

Revelation 22 · chapter mention

He writes of a city with no more tears, no more darkness, no more night,

and in no need of a lamp or even the sun,

for it says the Lord God will give it its light and he'll reign forever.

History ends with God's people who once chose and walked in darkness,

somehow still dwelling with him at the end in unapproachable light.

And that's the good news that Jesus came to bring as the light of the world.

And John and Jesus, they both want us to end up enjoying that happy ending to the story

and the final defeat of darkness.

But the question is, will we walk by faith in his light?

Will we walk by faith in his light into his abundant life?

You know, the context in which Jesus says this statement,

I am the light of the world,

what's going on here in the Gospel of John is something called the Feast of Tabernacles,

the Festival of Tabernacles.

And what that was was a celebration of how God provided for his people

as they wandered out of Egypt in the wilderness.

And what they would do, what they would do during the Feast of Tabernacles

is they would camp out.

They would camp out for a whole week in booths

and just remember how God took care of them

as they were tent dwellers all throughout the wilderness.

And then at the temple, four huge lamps would be lit up at the temple court

and people would dance and sing and hold burning torches

and they would remember the light that led them out of Egypt into the Promised Land.

They would remember the pillar of fire that led them through the wilderness by night.

And so the point Jesus is making here by saying,

I am the light of the world,

the point he's making as he's about to give sight to this man born blind

and as he's about to confront the Pharisees

is that we are all in the dark.

We are all in the dark.

We are all in the wilderness.

We are all blinded by sin.

And it's only through him, the light of the world,

that we can enter into life and light and sight.

So I want to look at this story now with the next half of what I got to say.

I want to look at how Jesus makes this point

about how we're all in darkness,

how we're all blind,

how we are all in the wilderness.

I want to see how Jesus,

he really executes a real life living parable here

as he heals this man born blind.

And I love how it begins.

Look with me at how it begins.

If you remember from last week,

Jesus was just about to get stoned at the temple

because he had invoked the divine name

and claimed it for himself.

And you might expect that the very next thing that he was going to do

was go find some security,

go find a place to hide.

But here in chapter 9, verse 1,

what does it say?

As he went along,

he saw a man blind from birth.

He sees a man blind from birth.

I love that.

Remember, he is the God of Abraham.

He's the God of Hagar.

He's the God who sees.

And he sees rightly,

and he sees compassionately.

And seeing rightly and compassionately,

he saw what no one else saw.

Imagine the whole world probably blind to this blind man,

this man blind from birth.

Imagine a whole world so used to seeing him beg,

so used to his plight,

so used to his suffering,

that they could have never even imagined a different life for him.

I think about it.

How did everyone know that this man was blind from birth?

They must have seen him and have been familiar with him

and his story for years, maybe decades.

They all, including Jesus' disciples,

simply got used to it.

And as we see in the story,

many of these people,

they couldn't even believe

that he was the same guy

after his eyes were opened, right?

They didn't have eyes to see.

But when all of Jerusalem,

all these pious worshipers,

passed by him and saw his suffering,

and yet really didn't see him at all,

Jesus saw him.

Because Jesus saw a man

that he wanted to display the works of God in.

And because Jesus saw him,

his life was changed forever.

His life was changed forever.

Now again, the disciples,

they saw him,

but they didn't really see him, right,

with the proper lighting.

Really, they didn't see him

as anything other than an occasion

to have an intriguing theological discussion,

a theological debate.

They don't ask,

Rabbi, what amazing thing

are you about to do for this guy?

What amazing thing are you going to do

to bring glory to your Father in heaven?

In verse 2, they ask,

Rabbi, who sinned?

This man or his parents,

that he was born blind?

Now they must have thought

they were being so clever.

They must have thought

they were being so theologically astute,

because everyone knows

that suffering is a result of sin, right?

That was their premise.

And yet this man was born

suffering from blindness.

So like, did he do something?

Maybe like in the womb?

Or was his suffering linked

to someone else's sin?

Maybe like his parents.

In essence, what they were asking was,

is this man suffering

as a perpetrator of sin

or as a victim of sin?

Who's at fault?

Who's to blame?

But Jesus, being the light of the world,

seeing truly,

seeing past this false,

foolish dichotomy

that seeks to blame people

and pin people in darkness,

he says in verse 3,

neither.

Neither.

Neither did this man

nor his parents sin,

but this happened

so that the works of God

might be displayed in him.

Jesus sheds further light

on the story of this blind man.

A far more nuanced light

than simply attributing his blindness

to his own sin

or someone else's sin,

Jesus says,

neither.

Because he knows the truth.

That the relationship

between sin and suffering

is way more complex, right?

It's way more complex than this.

As scripture teaches,

like in the book of Job,

or as Jesus taught elsewhere

in Luke chapter 13

Luke 13 · chapter mention

about the 18 people

who got crushed by a tower,

and he talked about

whether they were more guilty

than the survivors.

No, they weren't.

Scripture teaches,

Jesus confirms,

that while all suffering

is due to sin in general,

not every instance of suffering

is directly related

and simply due

to a particular instance of sin,

like some tit-for-tat

karmic formula.

And honestly,

this exchange warrants

a sermon of its own,

and I was tempted

to just preach on this,

but I decided not to.

If you want,

you can look at a sermon

we preached last year,

Luke chapter 13,

Luke 13 · chapter mention

where he talks about

the tower that fell

on those 18 people.

Or you could read

Tim Keller's book,

Walking with God

Through Pain and Suffering.

It's one of my favorites.

But in the interest of time

and wanting to get,

wanting to keep the big picture

of what's going on here,

I love what the Oxford

New Testament scholar

N.T. Wright,

he says about Jesus' response

to this blind man

and his disciples'

simplistic question.

N.T. Wright says,

Jesus didn't waste time

describing the chaos,

analyzing it,

or discussing

whose fault it was.

Instead,

he created light.

Instead,

he just created light.

Jesus' answer

was basically

that you guys

are missing the point,

trying to figure out

who is to blame.

The main point

is that I am

the light of the world.

And every instance

of suffering

is not an occasion

to discern

where the darkness

came from

and who's to blame.

Rather,

every instance

of suffering

is an occasion

for me to display

the works of God.

And maybe this is a word

for some of us today

who find ourselves

in a season of suffering.

Maybe some of us

feel guilty,

ashamed of ourselves

for the suffering

we believe

that we're responsible for

because of past mistakes

and flaws

and failures.

Or maybe some of us

feel like victims,

angry at others,

our parents,

our family,

our spouse,

our community,

maybe even at God

for the suffering

we believe

we've been unfairly

afflicted with.

And you know,

maybe you're not wrong.

Maybe we are responsible

for our suffering

or maybe others

are responsible

for our suffering.

But what if?

Imagine what kind of people,

what kind of community

we would be.

What if we saw ourselves

not simply as guilty

or as victims,

but more importantly

as people

on whom God

wants to shine

his transformative

life-giving light.

How might that bring

the transcendent healing

and reconciliation

that we

and this whole world

need?

This is what happened

to the man

blind from birth

after his encounter

with Jesus.

He didn't need

an answer to why

he was blind

in the first place.

He didn't even need

a detailed

rational explanation

for how exactly

he came to see

all of a sudden

for the first time

in his life.

All of a sudden

his life became

a story

with Jesus

at the center

as his life

transforming Savior,

as his life

transforming light.

All of a sudden

his whole life

became about

what Jesus

had done

for him.

When his neighbors

and the Pharisees

all continued

to ask him

what happened

and how he gained

his sight,

all he could say

was that this man

named Jesus

did it.

When the Pharisees

pushed and pushed

to get him

to explain

how someone

who supposedly

broke the Sabbath

by making mud

on the day

he was supposed

to rest,

how he could

heal him like that,

all this man

could say

in verse 25

was whether he's

a sinner or not,

I don't know.

one thing

I do know.

I was blind

but now I see.

That's all

he cared to know.

That's all

he had to know.

I don't know

how it worked,

why he spit

on the ground

and made mud

and put that

on my face.

I don't know

why he told me

to go to this

pool, Siloam.

And by the way,

most commentators

don't really know either.

I don't know.

But what I know

is that

I was blind

and now I see.

This was his truth.

This was his truth

and this is what

he was sticking to

and nothing else

mattered.

For this man

who had only

ever known darkness,

Jesus had become

his light,

the light of the world.

And as it says

in verse 38,

he placed all his faith

in Jesus

and he fell down

and he worshipped him.

And again,

this is the real life

parable,

the real life picture

Jesus used

to explain

what it meant

that he is

the light of the world.

I mean,

just try to explain,

try to imagine,

try to think through

the details

of this story.

This guy has been

in the dark

his whole life, right?

He doesn't have a clue

what light even is.

The word color

or red

or green

or purple,

it means nothing

to him.

And he's going

about his daily routine

just trying to

helplessly beg

for charity.

And then

from some direction,

maybe he hears

the judgmental,

dehumanizing questions

of the disciples

about,

hey Jesus,

who sinned?

Who sinned

to make that guy

blind?

No doubt

he's probably wondered

the same thing,

right?

Why me, God?

What did I do?

Or why did you let

this happen to me?

And then all of a sudden

he hears this rabbi

give a crazy surprising answer

that neither he

nor his parents' sin

led to his blindness,

but that the work

of God

was about to be

displayed somehow

and whatever that meant.

And all of a sudden

he hears

right?

He hears someone

spit on the ground.

He feels some mud

on his eyes

and he's given

some strange

and maybe even

inconvenient instructions

to go wash

in this certain pool

in the city.

And so just imagine

this blind guy,

he's still blind

with mud on his face.

He's groping around

trying to make his way

to this pool

called Siloam

with mud on his face,

right?

And he's trying

to get to this pool

so that he could

clean up,

not knowing,

not knowing

what's going to happen.

Jesus didn't even say,

right?

But hey,

he's got nothing

better to do

and he's got mud

on his face,

he's got to get it off

so he's going,

right?

But then imagine

as soon as he washed

in the pool,

as soon as the mud

came off his eyes,

try to imagine

that moment,

right?

the transformation

there.

Imagine everything

he must have thought,

everything he must have

felt as he gained

sight for the first

time ever.

It's hard to even

fathom, right?

The experience

of never having

been able to see

and then suddenly

seeing for the first

time, I mean,

it's almost like,

it's almost like

a new birth.

It's almost like

the beginning

of new life.

Maybe the first thing

he sees is the water

in the pool

at Siloam.

Maybe he sees

his own reflection,

does he even know

that it's him?

Does he even know

what a reflection is?

Everything is new.

Everything is changed.

Maybe everything is

confusing,

but you've got to

believe that with

this new sensation,

everything is also

unimaginably exciting

and life-giving

and transformative

and awe-inspiring.

Have you ever seen

those videos

of colorblind people

getting those special

glasses,

where they put them on

and then all of a sudden

they're just weeping.

They're just weeping

because they're seeing

the world

in a whole new way

and brilliance

like they've never

seen before.

Well, this is like

a million times,

a gazillion times

more amazing than that.

This guy can see

his parents' faces

for the first time.

He can walk back home

without a cane

or assistance.

He no longer has

to beg for a living.

Unlike before,

he can now literally

taste and see

that the Lord is good.

He's a brand new man

delivered from darkness

by the light of the world,

Jesus Christ.

And because of this

encounter with Jesus

and by faith in this

true light of the world,

this guy who is only seen

for maybe a couple minutes,

maybe a couple hours,

he now sees better

than the most learned,

the most studied,

educated,

and respected teachers

of his community.

All because he now sees

according to the light

of the world

because of Jesus.

And this is where

I want to end the sermon today

with the Pharisees.

Now the Pharisees,

they didn't have that,

you know,

self-righteous,

judgmental,

hypocritical reputation

in their society

that we so easily

identify them with

in our colloquial speech.

They were really trying

to save Israel.

They believed

what the prophets said,

that Israel had gone

into exile

because they failed

to observe the law.

And what the Pharisees

wanted to do

was they wanted to

save the nation

by obeying the law

and pressuring everyone else

to obey the law.

If anyone saw clearly

the truth about God

and the world,

it was these guys

who were experts

who knew and studied

the law of Moses.

And yet in Jesus'

real life parable,

while everyone can

clearly see the work of God,

this man born blind,

he knows what's happened,

his neighbors see it,

his parents see it,

well, none of them

can deny the transformation

brought about

by the light of the world

into this man's life.

The supposedly righteous Pharisees,

they remained blind.

They remained blind

because they could not see Jesus

for who he really was.

And this is the point,

Jesus' parable,

his miracle,

it ends in.

Verse 39,

Jesus said,

for judgment,

I have come into the world

so that the blind will see

and those who see

will become blind.

Claiming to be wise,

the Pharisees,

they became fools.

Claiming to see,

they proved themselves blind.

And therefore,

according to verse 41,

claiming to be innocent,

they proved themselves

to actually be guilty.

And I just want to say,

isn't that a scary thing?

The scary thing

is that they were so sure.

These were experts

in the law of Moses.

And as a preacher,

this terrifies me.

These guys were so sure

that they were right.

Why?

How could I come up here

with any kind of confidence?

These guys studied

way more than me,

I'm sure.

Speaking to the healed man

in verse 28,

this is how sure they were.

They said,

you are this fellow's disciple.

We are disciples of Moses.

We know that God spoke to Moses.

But as for this fellow,

we don't even know

where he comes from.

And you know,

this was precisely the problem.

They identified

with the law of Moses,

yet they ironically,

they ironically

did not identify

with the very word of God,

Jesus Christ,

the light of the world.

They failed to see

the shadow of Christ

in the law of Moses.

They failed to see

the whole point of the law.

The whole point of the law

was not self-salvation

through obedience

and adherence.

The whole point of the law

was to point out

our slavery

to the dominion of darkness

and our need

for the light of the world.

The law was not meant

to divide good people

from bad people.

But as the missionary

and commentator

Leslie Newbigin writes,

the proper distinction

is between those

who acknowledge

their blindness

and those who don't.

See, the whole point

of this real-life parable

is the sobering truth

that we can think we see.

We can be so sure

and yet be blind

and in the dark

all along.

The Pharisees

were so sure

they were upholding

God's law against Jesus.

The medieval European

crusaders were so sure

they were standing

for God's kingdom

when they slaughtered

thousands, millions of Muslims.

Vladimir Putin

is so sure

that his violent invasion

of Ukraine

is justified

and even in accord

with his Russian

Orthodox Christianity.

But they were,

they are,

all terribly wrong.

And we could be wrong

about so many things too.

None of us

is immune

to darkness.

None of us

is immune

to the blindness.

I'm not.

Neither is Jonathan

nor the Pope

were your favorite

podcaster,

your favorite journalist,

your favorite politician.

None of us.

We're all fallible

and finite

in this broken,

darkened world.

Well then,

you might be thinking,

to whom shall we go?

Who then can we trust?

Are we bound

for a life

of endless deconstruction

and just perpetual skepticism?

Is that the application

of this sermon?

To just doubt everything?

Be skeptical

for the rest of your life.

Trust nothing.

Is that the application

that we shouldn't

trust ourselves

because we could

always be wrong?

Are we left

in the dark forever?

Well, it's to that question

that Jesus' word

to us today

is,

I am

the light of the world.

It's a claim

that absolutely

humbles us

and gives us

the confidence

we need

to live life

to the fullest.

See,

when he says,

I am the light

of the world,

it means that yes,

we could be wrong

about a lot of things,

even most things,

even the most important things.

And therefore,

we must always maintain

a posture of humility

because Jesus alone

is the light

of the world.

We must always be ready

to take the logs

out of our own eyes

before trying to take

the specks

out of other people's eyes.

But I am the light

of the world

doesn't just mean

that I could be wrong

about a whole lot

of things.

I am the light

of the world

also means

that there is truth

that God wants us

to know

and to see

and to live

and depend upon.

And while we can be wrong

about many things,

we can trust

in the light

of the world.

We can trust

in Jesus Christ.

And though

we could never,

though we could never

be the source

of truth and light,

as the moon

reflects the sun,

so can we

relate to Christ,

the light of the world,

declaring with the heavens

his glory.

And Christ Church,

this is the gospel.

This is the gospel

that though we were

in darkness

and though we could

see no light,

the good news

is that we don't

have to supply

our own light.

We don't have to be

the source

of our own light,

but that the

unconquerable

light of the world,

the I am,

has graciously

entered

into our darkness

as the light

of the world,

even hanging

upon a cross

for three hours

in the dark

in order to bring us

the light of life,

hope,

and truth

that we all

so desperately

need.

This is the gospel.

Jesus Christ

is the light

of the world.

Will you pray with me?

Lord, would you

open our eyes

to our blindness?

Would you dispel

our darkness?

Would we trust in you

as the light

of the world?

Would we see ourselves

in this blind man?

Would we see ourselves

in the Pharisees,

even refusing

to acknowledge

all the ways

that we could

conceivably be wrong

before you?

We thank you

that we don't have

to be our own lights.

We thank you

that your son

has come

to give us

the light

that we need.

We ask that you

help us to trust him,

to bear wonderful witness

to this incomparable light

better than any other,

we pray in his name.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.