The Meaning
The Meaning
It was proper for the Jewish people to observe this feast because God had commanded it. However, it was tragic that, in their many joyful activities, they were ignoring the Son of God, who alone could bless them! Jesus had to stand up and shout to get their attention. Divine truth had been replaced by man-made tradition. Nowhere did the Lord command the priests to light huge candelabra or to pour out water at the altar. There was nothing essentially wicked about either activity; but unless the priests and people lifted their minds and hearts to the Lord and experienced changed lives, those traditions were futile. When man’s tradition replaces God’s Word, then illusion replaces reality. We glory in the past but never grow in the present.
Great value can be found in celebrating meaningful traditions that are handed down from generation to generation. Every nation, city, and family has them. The English word tradition comes from the Latin traditio and simply means “to hand over.” When Paul commended the believers in Corinth for “holding to the traditions” (1 Cor. 11:2), he was referring to the commands he had received from the Lord and had faithfully passed on to them, including how to observe the Lord’s Supper (vv. 23–26). The tradition itself is not wrong, but it is wrong to observe it in a meaningless and routine way and to ignore the Son of God. The late theologian and church historian Jaroslav Pelikan wrote, “Tradition is the living faith of the dead; traditionalism is the dead faith of the living.” 1 In our Lord’s time, the Pharisees practiced and protected their legalistic traditions and criticized Jesus for neglecting them, but Jesus rejected both their traditions and the legalism behind them (Mark 7:1–23). But before we criticize the Pharisees too severely, let’s examine our own churches and see if perchance our practices may represent “the dead faith of the living.” Godly tradition, born out of biblical truth, loving ministry, and deep spiritual experience, is too precious to be abused or ignored.
As the priests extinguished the candelabra in the court of the women and thus ended the festival, Jesus called out, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life” (John 8:12). He didn’t condemn their tradition; He simply asked them to allow that tradition to point to Him. They had light in their temple but spiritual darkness in their minds and hearts. In spite of their joyful religious festivities, the priests and people were dead in their sins, and the festival itself could never give them life. Jesus offered them life—eternal life—if only they would trust Him and follow Him.
In short, Jesus wanted them to have lasting blessing in the present tense, and only He could give them that blessing. The Jews were only looking back and remembering what God had done for their ancestors, when God was willing that very day to give them the water of life and the light of life! “Light” is one of the names of the Messiah, based on the phrase “light dwells with him [God]” in Daniel 2:22, and surely the Jewish religious leaders knew this. They also knew the prophecy in Malachi 4:2: “But for you who revere my name, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its rays.” Here they were, pouring out water, lighting lamps, living in booths, and having a joyful time, yet they really had nothing to celebrate because they had ignored Jesus.
Jesus knew the appalling spiritual condition of the people, especially that of the religious leaders. “Though seeing, they do not see; though hearing, they do not hear or understand.… For this people’s heart has become calloused; they hardly hear with their ears, and they have closed their eyes” (Matt. 13:13, 15; see also Isa. 6:9–10). They didn’t know who Jesus was, nor were they willing to investigate (John 8:25). They claimed God as their spiritual Father (v. 41) and Abraham as their ancestral father (v. 39), when in reality Satan was their father (v. 44). Israel faced a much greater judgment than the “unclean” Gentiles because they had been given more light and yet rejected it (vv. 39–45).
These Jewish religious leaders could see the sun in the heavens (John 8:2), but they did not know the Son who came down from heaven to save them. They didn’t love Jesus (v. 42), understand Him (v. 43), believe in Him (v. 45), or honor Him (v. 49), nor did they really know the Father (vv. 54–55). Instead of listening to Jesus carefully and believing His words, they argued with Him, and as a consequence, they rejected Him. The darkness of unbelief and ungodliness was overcoming them.
In our physical world, the sun is “the light of the world,” but in the spiritual kingdom, Jesus is the Light and there is no other. Everything in our galaxy depends on the sun, and without it, there would be only darkness and death. Satan masquerades as an angel of light (2 Cor. 11:13–15), but Jesus is the only true Light (John 1:9). “For there is one God, and one mediator also between God and men, the man Christ Jesus” (1 Tim. 2:5 NASB). If you have trusted Christ as your Savior and Lord, you need no angel or saint in heaven nor person on earth to represent you before God. Jesus is your Mediator, Advocate (1 John 2:1–2), and High Priest, interceding for you at the throne of God (Heb. 4:14–16). Just as the sun is sufficient to give light to our planet, so Jesus is sufficient to enlighten His church.
The sun is in the center of the earth’s solar system and our planet orbits around it. Jesus is at the center of all things that relate to the Father and to His church and we must keep Him central. He must never be relegated to the fringes. The apostle John saw Jesus among the seven churches on earth (Rev. 1:13) and also in “the center of the throne” in heaven (5:6; 7:17). When He was here on earth, Jesus was in the midst of the teachers in the temple (Luke 2:46), and He promises to be in the midst of His people when they assemble in His name (Matt. 18:20). At His crucifixion, He was placed between two thieves, accessible to both, and after His resurrection, He appeared in the midst of His disciples (Luke 24:36; John 20:19, 26). Jesus in the midst!
But why was Jesus Christ depicted at the center of things? To remind us “that in all things He may have the preeminence” (Col. 1:18 NKJV). It’s unfortunate that there are people in our churches who are like Diotrephes and love to have the preeminence (3 John 9 NKJV).
During my many years of itinerant ministry, I preached to more than one church congregation that was divided and almost destroyed by people who wanted to be important and have their own way. We shouldn’t be surprised if some Christians promote themselves; after all, even the apostles argued over which of them was the greatest (Luke 9:46; 22:24). But Jesus warned them, “For those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted” (Matt. 23:12).
If the sun were extinguished, life as we know it on the earth would also be extinguished. Jesus is “the light of life,” but only to those who trust Him and follow Him. Yes, the Father “causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good” (Matt. 5:45), but the Son of God shines His grace and glory only on those who trust and obey. “But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin” (1 John 1:7).
When we fellowship with the Lord, meditate on the Word, and obey what He commands, God’s light shines “in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of God’s glory displayed in the face of Christ” (2 Cor. 4:6). We not only learn more about Christ, but we also become more like Christ, “transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit” (3:18). The most important part of our lives is the part that only God sees—our daily worship time with Him; and to ignore that privilege or treat it carelessly will cause us gradually to go from heavenly sunshine into earthly shadows.
The nation of Israel was chosen to be “a light for the Gentiles” (Isa. 42:6; 49:6), a privilege that God eventually gave to Paul and the church (Acts 13:47). Jesus watched as the Jewish religious leaders lit the festal lamps each night, but the light did not transform anybody. They were just as blind as ever. The Jews may have boasted over Isaiah 42:6 (Rom. 2:17–24), but they ignored Isaiah 42:7: “To open eyes that are blind, to free captives from prison and to release from the dungeon those who sit in darkness.”
But that’s exactly what Jesus did in John 9, and He is still doing it today through His faithful servants. Let’s watch Him and learn how to do it.