Text for the Week: The Light is Our Judge

Scripture: John 8:12-30

¹² Jesus spoke to the people again, saying, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me won’t walk in darkness but will have the light of life.”

¹³ Then the Pharisees said to him, “Because you are testifying about yourself, your testimony isn’t valid.”

¹⁴ Jesus replied, “Even if I testify about myself, my testimony is true, since I know where I came from and where I’m going. You don’t know where I come from or where I’m going. ¹⁵ You judge according to human standards, but I judge no one. ¹⁶ Even if I do judge, my judgment is truthful, because I’m not alone. My judgments come from me and from the Father who sent me. ¹⁷ In your Law it is written that the witness of two people is true. ¹⁸ I am one witness concerning myself, and the Father who sent me is the other.”

¹⁹ They asked him, “Where is your Father?”

Jesus answered, “You don’t know me and you don’t know my Father. If you knew me, you would also know my Father.” ²⁰ He spoke these words while he was teaching in the temple area known as the treasury. No one arrested him, because his time hadn’t yet come.

²¹ Jesus continued, “I’m going away. You will look for me, and you will die in your sin. Where I’m going, you can’t come.”

²² The Jewish leaders said, “He isn’t going to kill himself, is he? Is that why he said, ‘Where I’m going, you can’t come’?”

²³ He said to them, “You are from below; I’m from above. You are from this world; I’m not from this world. ²⁴ This is why I told you that you would die in your sins. If you don’t believe that I Am, you will die in your sins.”

²⁵ “Who are you?” they asked.

Jesus replied, “I’m exactly who I have claimed to be from the beginning. ²⁶ I have many things to say in judgment concerning you. The one who sent me is true, and what I have heard from him I tell the world.” ²⁷ They didn’t know he was speaking about his Father. ²⁸ So Jesus said to them, “When the Human Oneis lifted up, then you will know that I Am. Then you will know that I do nothing on my own, but I say just what the Father has taught me. ²⁹ He who sent me is with me. He doesn’t leave me by myself, because I always do what makes him happy.” ³⁰ While Jesus was saying these things, many people came to believe in him.

Questions

1. What is a testimony you would accept about God’s work in the world?
2. What does the discussion about Jesus’ testimony teach us about his relationship to the father?
3. What does it mean for Jesus to judge, why does he first say, “but I judge no one” and then reverse it to say his judgments are true and that he has “many things to say in judgment”?

Background

Related Scriptures: Job 22:21-30, Daniel 7:9-14, John 3:17-21, 5:19-30,

Thematically the story in John 8:1-11 depicts Jesus as the righteous judge, the one with power to decide people’s fate but who also acts out of overwhelming mercy.

The concept of judgment in this passage refers to passing a verdict on someone, judging them guilty.

For more background you can watch my video here

Reflection

I think it is natural to approach John 8:12-30 with questions about Jesus’ words in verses 15-16, specifically what he means by “judge”. He says the Pharisees judge people by the wrong standards and that he does not judge people but then seemingly does a 180 to say that he judges truly and all of this appears to be in tension with passages like 5:19-30 where Jesus is clearly the judge and judges others. The difficulty stems from the fact that the word “judge” has several meanings and it can be difficult to know which of those meanings is active in the current context. In John 5 Jesus uses the word “judge” with a definition similar to that of the Old Testament, to govern with a special focus on sorting issues and people to promote peace. This is the standard idea of God the judge in the Old Testament, particularly the prophets, God is the one who reigns over Israel and part of that rule means working out issues in the community in a way that promotes the well-being of the community and harmony among people- peace. John 5 takes that understanding of God’s rule and combines it with Daniel 7 where God gives authority to a Human, which of course is Jesus, who is permitted to exercise authority on God’s behalf. This theme is also behind the controversy in John 8 where the pharisees are questioning Jesus’ authority and asking him how he justifies his ministry and Jesus is claiming unity with the Father.

Though there are a number of links between John 5 and John 8 there is one key difference, Jesus is using the word “judge” differently, in this context he is using it to mean “condemn”. Jesus is saying to the Pharisees they are guilty of condemning people by the wrong standards and that he does not condemn people. This line echoes John 3:17-21, where Jesus’ role is not to condemn the world but reveal the light of God’s love. The story immediately preceding this confrontation is an illustration of Jesus’ words. The Pharisees bring a woman to Jesus who is guilty of a crime deserving death, they want Jesus to pronounce sentence on her. Jesus does not exonerate her or even suggest that what she had done was not important, rather he takes the conversation in a different direction asking who is worthy to condemn her. He does not shame her or exonerate her, he simply asks if the group looking to condemn her has that authority, and then when they deny having it he tells her he is not condemning her but rather commending her to live in the light.

The emphasis in John 8 is that Jesus as the light of God does not condemn people as humanity is so often tempted to do, rather Jesus brings the light of God into the world and offers us the opportunity to walk in his light. Jesus’ role as judge means that he is committed to work to help people find themselves in the light and that he is not going to condemn them to live in darkness. There is a reality, as John 3 says, that some may choose to remain in the darkness and not follow Jesus into the light but that is the source of their condemnation not Jesus. The emphasis is that these people saw the good and rejected it, deciding to remain in the darkness of evil. Where the Pharisees were condemning people who did not hold to their standard of behavior, Jesus was holding out life to people based solely on their commitment to him. For those who do listen to him and walk in his light, he is the true judge, governing his people and helping them to live in the harmony of his peace. This is why he can say to the woman caught in the act of adultery “go, sin no more”, he is not concerned with what she had done as much as he is concerned with her commitment to his reign. This is both good news for us, because it means that Jesus too is unconcerned with our pasts, and is a challenge for us to show grace and mercy the way Jesus does and avoiding the condemnatory words and actions of the Pharisees.

Takeaway

Jesus, because of his relationship to the Father, is the true light of the world and the true judge of all humanity. But unlike humanity Jesus will not judge by our standards but will be merciful on all who desire to walk by his light and in his life.