10.11.09
Enlightened Eyes: I AM the Light of the World
Most of us are familiar with the story of Moses and the burning bush – how God spoke to Moses on Mt. Sinai and told him to go back to Egypt and to set the people free. When God did that, Moses started to ask a lot of questions and, basically, to make excuses. We see one of his questions to God in Exodus 3:13-16:
13 Moses said to God, “Suppose I go to the Israelites and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ Then what shall I tell them?”
14 God said to Moses, “I am who I am . This is what you are to say to the Israelites: ‘I AM has sent me to you.’ ”
15 God also said to Moses, “Say to the Israelites, ‘The LORD, the God of your fathers—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob—has sent me to you.’ This is my name forever, the name by which I am to be remembered from generation to generation.
16 “Go, assemble the elders of Israel and say to them, ‘The LORD, the God of your fathers—the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob—appeared to me and said: I have watched over you and have seen what has been done to you in Egypt.
What we see written in our English Bibles as “The LORD,” with “LORD” in all capitals is actually the Hebrew word “Yahweh.” This is the name that God revealed to Moses and to the people of Israel, and it’s closely linked with the verb “to be,” “to exist,” and that’s why God says that he is the “I AM.” There are only four letters in the Hebrew word because, originally, Hebrew didn’t have vowels. In fact, we’re not 100% sure of the pronunciation because the Israelites considered the name too holy to pronounce. When they got to those four letters in the text, instead of even daring to try to pronounce them, they would just read “Adonai”—which means “LORD,” and that’s why our English translations today continue that tradition today, by writing the word “LORD,” in capital letters.
Now, I believe the name of God is holy and should be revered, it should certainly never be used casually or disrespectfully. I think it is shameful and sinful the way that the expression “Oh my God” is used today in a way that makes it clear that the person’s not even thinking of God. But I also think that the Jews went to the opposite extreme. If anything, it seems that the name “Yahweh,” or however you’re supposed to say it, was a name that God wanted to make known – he even said, “it is to be remembered from generation to generation.”
Now, every Jew in Jesus’ day considered the name sacred; they knew that it referred to God alone, that it was linked to God’s revelation of himself as the “I AM.” That’s why, at the end of John chapter 8, we read this:
“I tell you the truth,” Jesus answered, “before Abraham was born, I am!” At this, they picked up stones to stone him, but Jesus hid himself, slipping away from the temple grounds.
These folks understood that when Jesus used the expression “I am,” not only was he was claiming to have been around before Abraham, who had lived about 2,000 years earlier, he was also claiming be the very God who had spoken to Moses on the mountain. No wonder they wanted to stone him!
In fact, throughout John’s gospel, Jesus uses the phrase “I am.” In John 6, he says, “I am the bread of life,” and in John 8:12, just after Jesus’ words of grace and challenge to the woman caught in adultery, that we talked about last week, John records,
When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”
These words carry over directly into this week’s text, which is John chapter 9. In fact, John 9 is a commentary and an illustration that shows us the difference between those who walk in light and those who walk in darkness, and it does so through the miracle of Jesus giving sight to a blind man.
You see the clear connection between the two texts – just like in John 8, Jesus says here in John 9, “I am the light of the world.” But what does it mean to have that light of life, and what does it mean to refuse it, to walk in darkness? That’s what we’ll be looking at as the week goes on.
