I Am the Light of the Word

INTRO

Within John are seven “I am” statements. So far, we’ve only covered one: “I am the bread of life” (John 6:35). Today’s passage presents the second “I am” statement. Before we get there, however, we’ll look at a story in John 8:1-11 to build a case for why Jesus said, “I am.”

TEACHING

John 8:1–3: Jesus went across the Kidron Valley from Jerusalem to the Mount of Olives and spent the night there (v. 1). At dawn, Jesus returned to the temple complex and “all the people were coming to Him” (v. 2). All the people. Jesus sat down to teach them. “Then,” in response to what was happening, “the scribes and the Pharisees” came to Jesus (v. 3a). This is one of the few times John recorded the scribes and the Pharisees together. They brought an adulteress woman before Jesus (v. 3b). Nelson’s Commentary states that they were trying to interrupt Jesus’ teaching.¹The scribes and Pharisees were looking for Jesus, they were looking for trouble (John 7:45). They brought the woman before Jesus and made her stand in the center.

John 8:4–5: The scribes and Pharisees explained about the woman’s sin and reminded Jesus that the law of Moses required she be stoned (vv. 4–5a). Then they asked Jesus what He thought should be done to the woman (v. 5b). John wrote that the whole incident was a trap (v. 6). The trap actually had multiple layers: Deuteronomy 22:23–24 explains that if a young and engaged virgin has sex with a man, both of them should be taken to the city gate and stoned - her because she didn’t cry out and him because he took his neighbor’s fiancé. Leviticus 20:10 says if a man committed adultery with a married woman, both he and the woman were to be stoned. The act of adultery takes two people.

The scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman caught in the act of adultery to Jesus, but they ignored the male who was involved. They asked Jesus what to do only with the woman. If Jesus had said not to stone her, He would have contradicted the law, but if He had said to stone her, He would have gone against Roman law, which said Jews were not allowed to carry out executions.²Jesus was in a no-win situation.

John 8:6: They asked Jesus this question to trap Him and get evidence against Him (v. 6a). In response, “Jesus stooped down and started writing on the ground with His finger (v. 6b). We don’t know what Jesus wrote in the dirt, but one possibility is He was writing the Ten Commandments (Exodus 20:1-17). Exodus 31:18 says, “When He finished speaking with Moses on Mount Sinai, He gave him the two tablets of the testimony, stone tablets inscribed by the finger of God.” Nelson’s Commentary suggests that, “Maybe by writing the law Jesus is symbolically saying He is not a teacher of the law; He is the giver of the law.”³

Jeremiah 17:13 provides another possible picture: “LORD, the hope of Israel, all who abandon You will be put to shame. All who turn away from Me will be written in the dirt, for they have abandoned the LORD, the fountain of living water.” John 7 just recorded Jesus’ teaching that the living water comes from God. What if Jesus had started writing their names in the dirt? Exodus 23:1 shows another possibility: “You must not spread a false report. Do not join the wicked to be a malicious witness.”

John 8:7: They continued to question Jesus, so He stood up and told them: “The one without sin among you should be the first to throw a stone at her.” Jesus knew the law and used it to turn it back at the scribes and the Pharisees. The accusers were to be the ones who stoned the guilty person (Leviticus 24:14; Deuteronomy 13:9; 17:7).

Nelson’s Commentary states that Jesus “did not abolish Moses’ law; rather, He applied that law to the lives of those who had accused the woman.” ⁴Jesus knows the word, because He is the Word.

John 8:8–10: Then Jesus continued to write on the ground (v. 8). While Jesus wrote, the scribes and the Pharisees began to leave one by one, “starting with the older men” (v. 9a). “Older” men tend to have the greater conscience - they’ve been down that road, experienced a lot, and learned from it. Finally, only Jesus was left with the woman still standing in the center (v. 9b). Nelson’s Commentary pointed out that this entire encounter “could have happened in a few minutes.”⁵It was still early in the morning. Jesus stood up and asked the accused woman, “Has no one condemned you?” (v. 10). She replied, “No one, Lord.” Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you . . . Go, and from now on do not sin anymore” (v. 11). “Jesus forgave her. He did not condemn her, but neither did He condone her sin.”⁶This means that when there is sin, we can forgive, but we cannot condone the sin.

John 8:12: Jesus said to those He had been teaching before the interruption, “I am the light of the world.” The use of “I am” ties Jesus back to the Father when He said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM” (Exodus 3:14). Those who follow Jesus will never be in darkness, but will have the “light of life.” Verse 12 makes sense because of verse 11. “Go and sin no more,” means to walk behind the light. (Psalm 119:105.) If we go back to the sin (such as the woman and adultery), we allow the darkness to take over, and we no longer walk behind the light. Remember that this took place right after dawn. Nelson’s Commentary points out that “as the sun is the physical light of the world, so Jesus is the spiritual light of the world.”⁷In John 8:1–11, Jesus exposed sin. In John 9:1–9, a blind man was healed because Jesus gave him sight. Jesus truly exposes sin and gives life.

We’ve seen two I am statements so far: “I am the bread of life,” and “I am the light of the world.” Constable explains that in the Old Testament, light was always associated with God’s presence⁸:

• God created light (Genesis 1:3, 14–19).
• God showed Himself as flame to Moses (Exodus 3:2).
• God led the Israelites in the wilderness in a cloud of fire (Exodus 13:21–22).
• God appeared to the Israelites in fire on Mount Sinai (Exodus 19:11).

Isaiah 49:6 says, “It is not enough for you to be My Servant raising up the tribes of Jacob and restoring the protected ones of Israel. I will also make you a light for the nations, to be My salvation to the ends of the earth.” Anyone in the temple complex who heard Jesus would have thought of Isaiah 49:6. During the Feast of the Tabernacles, the priests would light three huge candelabras in the women’s court to symbolize God’s presence.

CLOSING

John recorded one claim the Pharisees continued to make against Jesus: He had not proven His claim to which Jesus said, “I am the light of the world (v. 12), and that His testimony is valid because He knows where He came from and where He is going (v. 14). Then they asked a series of questions:

Where was Your Father? Jesus responded that if they actually knew the Father, they would also know Him (John 8:19–20).

Was Jesus going to kill Himself? Jesus said, “I am from above” and not from this world (John 8:21–24).

Who Jesus was? He responded that He was precisely who He had said He was and that He speaks only what the Father had told Him to speak (John 8:25–29).

How would He be made free? He responded that everyone could be made free in Him (John 8:30–37).

Each of these present Jesus as “I am” - I am the bread of life, I am the living water - I am God.