Light of the World – John 9:5

THERE’S MORE TO SEE when you look at Jesus.

I guess “dumb blonde” jokes are politically incorrect these days, but there is one harmless little story about a golden-hair that still makes me chuckle. Blondie said she wanted to go on a spaceship and land on the sun. “That’s crazy,” her husband protested. “You’d be fried to a crisp.” “No way,” his wife responded, “I’d go at night!”

Light is mentioned 21 times in John’s gospel. John called Jesus the light of men (1:4), the Life-Light (1:5, msg), the True light (1:9), the clear light (9:39, msg), and on it goes.

In John 9:5, Jesus declared, “While I am in the world, I am the light of the world.”

Notice the definite article. Not a light but the light. What an audacious claim! As we all know, light represents hope, direction, illumination, attraction, and life itself. Jesus is claiming to be all of those things for anyone who sees Him for who He is. He is the whole spectrum of deep, unending life.

If you’re discussing light with a scientific person, he or she may speak in terms of electromagnetic radiation—radiant energy with wavelengths ranging from one billionth of a meter to over 60,000 miles. What’s more, our eyes only perceive a tiny sliver of that light. That miniscule shard of light visible to us is light with a wavelength ranging from four hundred billionths of a meter (ultra violet light) to seven hundred billionths of a meter (infrared light). Think of it like this: If a cable stretched all the way around the earth represented total light (every wavelength of electromagnetic radiation), visible light would be but a scratch of a pencil or pen on that cable. When it comes to light, there’s so much more than what we see!

When the apostle John saw the Lord’s glory shine through His earth-suit veil on the Mount of Transfiguration, he fell face down in shock and awe. If you and I saw His entire wavelength, His radiant glory, our eyeballs would pop like popcorn.

Jesus is the light of the world. He is hope, illumination, direction, attraction—and so very much beyond what we could ever express. Jesus is life. He’s the life-light, God’s invisible aliveness made visible. Put on your sunglasses and take a closer look.

Life Challenge: Ask Jesus Christ to open the eyes of your heart and show you something about Himself this week that you’ve never noticed before.