It’s easy for Christians to fall into a rut: Church is a thing you do, prayer is a box to check, and faith seems far from “the real world.” This fall we let Jesus himself confront our ruts. “Do you believe this?” he asks (Jn. 11:26).
To believe in Jesus is to experience him. It’s more than logic, argument, and doctrine. It is intimate knowledge of God himself. This fall, let Jesus himself speak to you in his seven “I AM” statements in the gospel of John. How is he changing you? What response is he inspiring in you? To believe in him changes everything.
Invocation
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Ponder:
Ponder the I AM statement: “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” Consider how Jesus said “way,” singular. Ponder how our society is pluralistic – many ways. What do you think when you hear Jesus’ exclusive claim?
Word
John 8:15-16
“‘You judge according to the flesh; I judge no one. Yet even if I do judge, my judgment is true…”
Meditation: Seeing the Light by Megan Roegner
When I teach my high school English students about figurative language, I stress the importance of carefully considering the significance of the things being compared. When Jesus says he is the light of the world in John 8, we must ask ourselves, what ideas does light represent? If I were to ask my students this, like I have in the past when we’ve discussed Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave,” they would say that light represents ideas like clarity, and therefore truth; sight, and therefore knowledge and wisdom. They might say that light represents hope, safety, and goodness. All of these qualities are true of Jesus.
I also teach my students about the importance of context. But, ironically, I’ve never before considered the context of Jesus’s declaration that he is the light of the world, which directly follows his refusal to condemn an adulterous woman. The Pharisees who bring the woman to Jesus are not earnestly interested in his judgment. Rather, they are hoping to trap him into saying something blasphemous. Jesus writes mysteriously in the dust and then says, “‘Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her’” (8:7). One by one the men slink away, and Jesus finally addresses the sinful woman: “‘Neither do I condemn you; go, and from now on sin no more’” (8:11).
It is right after that, in verse 12 that Jesus says “‘I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” When I think of this woman and Jesus’s command that she change her sinful life, I am drawn once again to the “Allegory of the Cave,” to the story of the prisoner who is dragged out of the cave and first sees the light of the sun. For this prisoner, sunlight is initially painful. His eyes, which have only known darkness, cannot bear the brightness. He must accustom himself to it, through gazing upon reflections in the water and through the dimmer lights of the moon and stars. But finally, writes Plato,“‘he would at last be able to gaze upon the sun itself…finding that it is the universal
cause of all that is right and beautiful.”
Turning away from darkness to embrace the light can be uncomfortable. Accepting the truth about our sins can be painful. I think this is why Jesus tells the Pharisees “‘You judge according to the flesh; I judge no one’” (8:15). It is not that Jesus cannot judge rightly but that, as the light, he gives us the ability to see ourselves truly. With this sight, we can judge for ourselves how flawed we are.
But the painful process of self-conviction is not the end of the journey into light. Once we can get past ourselves, we see that the light is not there to condemn or harm us. Rather, it saves us. It is beauty, goodness, and truth. The light is love. It is everything we longed for when we were trapped in darkness.
I wonder what happened to the woman that Jesus did not condemn. Did she walk away stumbling, dazed by unfamiliar or forgotten light? All I know is that this is what I do daily. I imagine a hand reaching out, pulling me out of the darkness of guilt and regret, back into the light.
Jesus, you have every right to judge us, to condemn us. Yet, your light is full of grace, forgiveness, and love. Give us the strength to turn away from darkness, to go and sin no more. Amen.
Prayer
Jesus, you said, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” In a world of competing ways, show me the narrow path that leads to you. I have tried paths that lead to nowhere. You alone are truth and life. Draw me close to you. Amen.
Benediction
Now unto the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen. (I Tim. 1:17)