Light of the World

It is time for the Feast of Booths, and Jesus goes to Jerusalem for the Feast. And while in Jerusalem, he gives a series of messages.

And, after outlining how each “I am” message is combined with a miracle, it seems like this message has no associated miracle. But, a closer look reveals that the connected miracle happened the last time Jesus was in Jerusalem, before he fed the 5000.

There was a pool in Jerusalem, around which sick people would gather. It was said that when the water was stirred up, or agitated, that it was caused by an angel. The first person to get into the pool, when the stirring began, would be healed.

So, when Jesus passed by the pool, he found a man, who was crippled, and wanted to get healed. But, because he was crippled, when the water was stirred, he could not move fast enough to be first. So, Jesus healed him, instead.

The problem, however, was that it was the Sabbath. People aren’t supposed to work on the Sabbath. And, apparently, performing miraculous healings is work.

We have discussed here, the system the Jews devised to ensure obedience to the Law. Keep the system, and one keeps the Law, they reasoned.

But only God can enable the blind to see, or the crippled to walk. How can someone not keep the system, but find favor with God? (Who should be angry with someone, because he’s not keeping the system.) So, the Jewish leaders stalked, and spied on Jesus. They looked for, and even tried to invent, things that would discredit him.

The message was a simple proclamation. If you are in the dark, you can’t know the way to go. But, if you follow Jesus, he will provide light – he is light – and we can see the way to life.

If we follow Jesus, we can see how to live, how to be restored to correct relationship to Father, and how to connect to people in god-honoring ways, which boil down to love.

And we don’t need to keep score on how well we keep the system. Because God doesn’t keep score. He knows we will automatically lose.

And the Jews, who worked hard at keeping the system, automatically lost. Because no system is complete, thorough, or good enough. And it blinded them to God’s #1 concern: love.