John 8:12 – Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.
The tabernacle of Moses is loaded with the image of Christ literally everywhere you look. I guess the best place to start may be the lampstands that light up the rest of the tabernacle. The lampstands are a pretty obvious picture of Christ being the light of the Lord. This is the light that shines out from Him that brings revelation to everything else. Without the light of Christ we would walk around in darkness having no idea of the beauty found in Christ portrayed by the different articles of furniture in the tabernacle. This speaks to us of the moment when we first had our eyes opened to see Christ as the Light of the World. The revelation that flows from Him brings light to everything. Everything from the power of the written word, the glory of God in His church, the beauty of redemption, and God’s handiwork on display in creation is clearly seen after we are awakened by the light of Christ. Here is how the Christ Centered Expository Commentary describes this.
“C. S. Lewis wrote, “I believe in Christianity as I believe that the Sun has risen: not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else”. By claiming to be the light of the world, Jesus is saying, “Only by me can you see and understand everything else. Only by me can you see and understand this world.” Apart from Jesus, this world is simply unknowable. The parts only make sense because of Jesus. Your life will only make sense as you submit to Jesus. Until the light of the world illuminates your world, you’ll never make sense of the world.
The imagery here is pretty simple—if our world didn’t have the sun, not only would we not know the sun, but we wouldn’t see to understand our world. Jesus is like the sun. We can’t make sense of a world that has so much evil and so much good without Jesus. Jesus helps us see it. He helps us understand it. In Jesus’s light we can embrace the reality that this world is broken because of sin, but we can do so with hope, for Jesus has promised to fix it.”
Jesus said very clearly in today’s verse “I am the light of the world”. Just as the natural world would be dark, cold, and dead without the sun, our lives would be dark, cold, and spiritually dead without the revelation of Jesus. He is the light of the world and in His light we see everything differently. Darkness had blinded our eyes but now we can see.
