Exaudi—Easter 6
Dear friends in Christ. On Thursday the Church remembered our Lord’s ascension into heaven. Forty days after His resurrection Jesus ascended into heaven, the work for our salvation complete. The ascension marked the end of Jesus’ appearances to His disciples after His resurrection, proving that He is alive; and now He, as both God and man, is in the glory of heaven ruling and reigning all things. Next week we in Church will remember the day of Pentecost, the day Christ visibly sent the Holy Spirit to His Church. This week is the in-between time. So what were the disciples doing between the day of Jesus’ ascension and Pentecost, when Jesus would send His Holy Spirit? St. Luke records when Jesus ascended [24.51]: And they worshiped Him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy, and were continually in the temple praising and blessing God; and then [Ac 1.12]: when they had entered [Jerusalem] they went up into the upper room where they were staying… These all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication, with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with His brothers.
Today as we live between the time of Christ’s ascension and His return on the Last Day we do well to heed what the disciples did: they were continually in the temple praising and blessing God and continuing with one accord in prayer and supplication. What a wonderful encouragement for us to be faithfully here in church around our Lord’s holy word and Sacrament! The risen and ascended Christ is not ascended so He can be gone, but so that He can be with His Church wherever she is gathered in worship. And where Christ is He gives His Church every heavenly and spiritual blessing by His Spirit’s work in the word and sacrament. How blessed we are this day as we now hear Christ speaking to us in Holy Scripture!
Jesus reveals Himself to us today in His holy Word as He tells us as He did the Jews that day: "I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall in no way walk in darkness, but has the light of life". As we examine our text today we will see that Jesus, as the Light of the world, is life; and that as Life, He is Light.
1. To be sure, all this talk of life and light sounds very confusing to modern ears; and yet it is not all that foreign to us. We associate light with good; darkness with evil. So for Jesus to say that He is the Light of the world, means that without Him, the Light, all around us in the world is darkness; is evil. Without Christ, we would all be and remain in the darkness of sin and unbelief. The darkness that Jesus talks about here is the very fitting description of the world estranged, separated from God. It is a description of our natural condition, the condition in which we are all conceived and born; the way in which we come into the world. Darkness is an apt way to describe people in spiritual and divine things: we know that there is a God, but we don’t know who that true God is; we know that we do bad things and by them deserve the wrath and punishment of this God, but we cannot reconcile ourselves to Him; we cannot make up for our sins; we cannot make things right between us and God—that’s what, except for Christianity, all the religions of the world try to do: appease God by our works. That’s that deep spiritual darkness—left to ourselves we cannot find the way back to God. Our hearts are restless until they rest in the true God.
The very ones that Jesus was talking to in our text—even though they should have known better—are a perfect example of that spiritual darkness, blindness and unbelief. To them Jesus says: You judge according to the flesh; and "You know neither Me nor My Father. If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also”. That spiritual darkness that they were living in, that all people—you and me included— are born into, is such a deep corruption that they know neither their own darkness—their sin and corruption—nor do they know the Light, the true God. You judge according to the flesh. Human reason cannot figure out who the true God is and the way back to Him; it cannot figure out a solution to sin. Left to ourselves and our own reason and abilities we would forever be in godlessness and in the fear of death groping about in the dark never finding/ reach our goal.
But thank God that He is merciful and took on human flesh and blood and in the Person of His Son, Jesus, revealed Himself to us and rescued us from our spiritual darkness. "I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall in no way walk in darkness, but has the light of life".
Jesus, true God who became also true man, is the Savior long promised—ever since Adam and Eve by the fall into sin brought sin and that spiritual darkness into the world and to us their children. Jesus, the Savior, whose coming was long prophesied, was described in those prophecies as being the light of the world. For example His coming is prophesied this way [Is 9.2]: The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in the land of the shadow of death, upon them a light has shined; in prophecy the Father says of His Son’s, the Savior’s coming [Is. 49.6]: I will also give You as a light to the Gentiles, that You should be My salvation to the ends of the earth; and through the last OT prophet, Malachi [4.3], He says: The Sun of Righteousness shall arise with healing in His wings. So when Jesus here says, "I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall in no way walk in darkness, but has the light of life". He is saying “I am the promised Messiah, the Savior of the world.”
That’s precisely what we remember this first half of the Church Year as we traced Jesus’ saving work for us and for our salvation—beginning with His conception and birth in the Advent and Christmas seasons and then going through His suffering, death and resurrection in Lent and Easter; and now celebrating His glorious Ascension—the marked completion of His saving work. Jesus is the Savior of the world! That’s why He came, as He says [3.17]: For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. As Savior of the world, He is the Light of the world—the Light that brings us life.
Jesus told the Jews then and us today: I judge no one. And yet if I do judge, My judgment is true; for I am not alone, but I am with the Father who sent Me. Jesus came as Savior; so He postpones judgment until the Last Day when He will come as Judge. But now is the time of grace! That’s why we rejoice as we look ahead to the celebration of Pentecost next week! We live in the age in which Jesus has brought about our salvation—it is an accomplished fact!—Easter and the Ascension prove that! And now He has the blessings of His saving work go out into the whole world as the Church, as you and me, bring that saving word of Christ, bring Christ, the Light of the World, to those still in the spiritual darkness of their sin and death. Jesus, the Light of the world, has shone on us in His holy word and sacrament and given us the light of life; and now, led and empowered by His Holy Spirit, we bring Christ, the Light of the world, to the world, to our world, to those the Lord has placed around us. What a time of grace for us and for all!
Jesus, the Light of the World, conquers the darkness of sin and unbelief. Just like the darkness disappears from a dark room when you turn on the light, so too now that Jesus has come and brought about our salvation He comes bringing that saving word. By the Holy Spirit’s work in the word and sacrament, Jesus draws us to Himself creating faith in our hearts to know Him rightly as our Savior and the true God; He draws us to Him as by that faith we then receive Him and turn away from our own ways and efforts of trying to earn heaven to trust in His saving work—His life, suffering and death. Here, we, through faith, follow Christ, the Light of the World, leave the darkness of sin and death and enjoy the Light of Life.
2. Jesus is at the same time our Light and our Life. Jesus, the Light of the World, is the very Light that brings us life—full true, spiritual life. "I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall in no way walk in darkness, but has the light of life". The Holy Spirit testified of Jesus through John earlier in this Gospel [1.4]: In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. Jesus, the living source of divine and heavenly life, has come to bring us eternal life. Because He is our Light, Jesus is also our life. He enlightens us through His Word so that we come to know the true God and through this saving faith and knowledge obtain the perfect splendor of the eternal glory—true spiritual life that begins now in this life and continues into all eternity. Now in this life we enjoy salvation, forgiveness, the grace of God; we are God’s dear children enjoying new life; then, in heaven we will have that full spiritual life in all its fullness and glory.
In the OT, the Israelites had a Light—the Pillar of fire and Pillar of cloud that led them through the wilderness into the Promised Land. They couldn’t get there themselves; instead they merely followed where He led them. The same thing applies to us. We have Christ, the Light of the world. Salvation goes out from Him and He leads us to heaven. We cannot get to heaven except that we follow Christ. "I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall in no way walk in darkness, but has the light of life". Dear Christian, Jesus has destroyed the devil’s kingdom of sin, death and tyranny by His life, suffering, death and resurrection and has lead us out of the darkness of the slavery to devil and sin, out of the darkness of sin and unbelief and into His glorious kingdom of life, the Church; and by His Holy Spirit at work in the word and strengthening and empowering us by His Sacrament, Christ, our life is, as a light, leading us through our life here on earth to Himself in heaven. He will not lead us the wrong way.
It’s not that Christ merely makes it possible for us to find our own way back to God—as if we could even do that—but He is the way back to God. Jesus is, as He tells us [14.6], the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father but by Me. Not only has Jesus reconciled us sinners to the holy God and opened for us the way back to Him, but in Jesus we first come to know God rightly because Jesus is both man and God. He is one divine being together with the Father and the Holy Spirit. If we know Jesus, we know the Father; we know the one true God, the Triune God, as Jesus says in our text: for I am not alone, but I am with the Father who sent Me. It is also written in your law that the testimony of two men is true. I am One who bears witness of Myself, and the Father who sent Me bears witness of Me." Then they said to Him, "Where is Your Father?" Jesus answered, "You know neither Me nor My Father. If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also". Jesus in Whom and from Whom we have full spiritual life, is our way, our Light back to God. First in Jesus, do we come to know Who God really is—because Jesus is true God—and we come to know What He is like as we see Jesus on the cross.
Dear Christian, the glorious thing about Jesus being both, at the same time, our Life and our Light, Who is leading us to heaven, is that He is in us leading us and guiding us; He is united with us; He is moving us and leading us into a life of faith and good works. St. Paul [Eph. 5.8] puts it this way: For you once were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light; Jesus says this about us, His dear Christians [Mt. 5.14]: You are the light of the world. We are so blessed as the risen Lord dwells within us and leads us. We then reflect the Light of the Light of the world as we live our lives of faith and good works. Through us, Jesus, the Light is shining in this world of darkness to give life—as He tells us: Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven. INJ