What’s in a Name?

Several years ago I had a unique, and as it turned out, funny experience flying most of the day. I had flown several short hops on the same airline. Several different planes. I actually changed planes several times during the day. Different aircraft. But the same carrier. I also had been with the same flight crew all day long. They also had been on several different flights. They had been up and down that center aisle many times, serving food and beverages. And they were worn out. As the Flight Crew climbed onto the last flight of the day they made the announcements about air masks, the overhead luggage, what to do in case of turbulence or a crash, etc. They made all the typical safety announcements. But at the end of the announcements the flight attendant said. “Those wishing to read during this flight will need to use the individual lights. The overhead lighting will be turned down during this flight.” Then she said, “The purpose of the lower lighting is to enhance the appearance of the flight crew.” I will not comment on the flight crew that day, but I look better in the dark.
Light is an instrument of revelation. Under the illumination of the Spirit of God and looking into the Lamp of God’s word, we discover the Light of the world, Jesus Christ. In John, chapter eight, verse twelve Jesus declared “I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life.” That statement is the second of the emphatic statements by Jesus through which He says there is no other like “I AM.” In the Greek it is “ἐγώ εἰμι.” Which is to say, “I and no other am.” “I am the one and only,” in this case, Light of the World; “ἐγώ εἰμι τὸ φῶς τοῦ κόσμου.” In plain English, Jesus asserted, “I am the light of the world.”
But that statement was more than a single statement. The statement made in John 8:12 has everything to do with everything else we read in John, chapters eight and nine. Beginning in John, chapter eight, verse one right on through chapter nine, verse forty-one, we see three separate and specific types of darkness. We see darkness illustrated three different ways in these chapters. And we see darkness illuminated by the Light of the World.
Of course some people like their darkness. Some people are comfortable in the dark. I heard about a kid who
was camping out in the backyard. In the middle of the night, he woke up hungry. He pulled out his flashlight and an apple. He bit into the apple. And the light from his flashlight shown down on a worm in the apple. By the way, do you know what is worse than finding a worm in your apple? Finding half a worm. Think about it. But this kid found a worm in his apple. Immediately, the kid threw the apple away. He picked up another apple. Took a bite. And again, the light showed another worm. He threw that apple away. The boy picked up a third apple. But the same thing happened again. Finally, the boy just turned off the flashlight. Ate an apple as fast he could. And went back to sleep. Some people would rather live in darkness than deal with the truth.
In the first eleven verses of John, chapter eight, we see moral darkness. The illustration is a man and a woman caught in adultery. The scribes and pharisees brought to Jesus a woman who had been caught in an adulterous relationship. Verse four says that she had been “...caught in the very act.” This obviously was a dark moment in her life. Of course she was already living in darkness—the darkness of immorality. And, of course, there are lots of people living in that world today. Certainly, the lost world is walking in darkness, specifically the darkness of immorality. But lest we become judgmental, we ought to acknowledge that the church also is involved. We are not immune. It is not with any sense of pride, but with overpowering shame that we have to acknowledge we find it in the church.
In John chapter eight, we see immoral activity on the part of this woman and the man who was with her. You understand, I assume, that no one commits adultery alone. More about that later. But we first need to understand the serious nature and the consequences of immorality. By the way, there is more than one way to commit immorality. Jesus indicated that we can commit adultery and never get outside our minds. If, in your mind, you have lusted after a woman or a man, that is immoral activity. But adultery is not the only form of immorality. When children lie to their parents or to their teachers at school. That is immoral. When parents lie to their children, or to their husband or to their wife, or to their boss at work. That is immoral. And when we begin to commit immorality in any form, our thought processes begin to become clouded, our minds become darkened and we begin to live in a world of immorality and too soon we come to the point where we can no longer tell the difference between right and wrong. Some people live in moral darkness because of immoral activity.
But others live in moral darkness because of immoral attitudes. That was the pharisees in John, chapter eight. They thought they were righteous. In righteous indignation they brought a woman to Jesus. But they were not sincere. We know they were not sincere because if they had been honest, they would have brought a woman and a man. You do not have to be a theologian, just know a little biology, to know that they had to find the woman and the man together to catch her “...in the very act.”