Jesus As Light

Jesus cried out and said, “Whoever believes in me believes not only in me but also in the one who sent me, and whoever sees me sees the one who sent me. I came into the world as light, so that everyone who believes in me might not remain in darkness. And if anyone hears my words and does not observe them, I do not condemn him, for I did not come to condemn the world but to save the world. 

Whoever rejects me and does not accept my words has something to judge him: the word that I spoke, it will condemn him on the last day, because I did not speak on my own, but the Father who sent me commanded me what to say and speak. And I know that his commandment is eternal life. So what I say, I say as the Father told me.” (John 12:44-50)

I sometimes wonder how to reconcile our belief in a just, merciful, and loving God with Jesus’s statement: “Whoever rejects me and does not accept my words has something to judge him: the word that I spoke, it will condemn him on the last day.”  Being condemned because someone rejects Jesus is quite a harsh punishment.  

It suggests that people of other faiths or those who don’t believe Jesus is divine are just @%*# out of luck. Seems a bit preposterous and arrogant don’t we think?  Everyone besides us Christians are in darkness?  That’s a mindset that has led to Crusades, Inquisitions, persecutions, and condemnations – evil thinking and acts.  

John is speaking for Jesus by putting words in his mouth.  How many words we will never know because John wrote his Gospel perhaps 70-80 years after Jesus’s death and resurrection.  Jesus did not have a recording secretary.  

Perhaps this is one reason why I prefer the other Gospels and especially their parables I can apply to my everyday life.  They give me light and help me when I find myself in darkness.

Deacon David Pierce