The Fourth Sunday in Lent, Year A
March 10, 2002
Christ Church, Covington

“[Jesus said], ‘I am the light of the world’” (Jo. 9:5).


Our reading today contains one of the great ringing affirmations of the Gospel of John, in which Jesus announces his character and his ministry through a metaphor. In John’s Gospel, Jesus calls himself “the door”, “the vine”, “the shepherd”, “the bread of life”, among others (seven in all), each of which reveals some aspect of his person. These affirmations are paralleled by seven miracles or “signs” (as John calls them), which also reveal who Jesus is and why he came into the world. Our reading couples an affirmation with a sign; Jesus announces that he is the light of the world, and then heals the man born blind and gives him his sight.

Light, of course, is a continuing theme in Scripture, and in the Gospel of John. The story of Creation begins with God’s “Let there be light” (Gen. 1:3), as order comes out of chaos and life begins. Light is contrasted with darkness in Genesis, and light is equated with life. Later the prophet Isaiah uses the same metaphor to underscore the move from ignorance to knowledge. “The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light” (Is. 9:2). The Gospel of John also associates life and light, “In him was life, and the life was the light of all people” (Jo. 1:4), in a way very similar to Genesis; and the same Gospel uses the metaphor of light to describe growth in understanding, “The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world” (Jo. 1:9). Over and over again in Scripture, the imagery of light is borrowed to make the point that God is splendid, illuminating, and life-giving.

Jesus’ affirmation, and the miracle of the healing of the man born blind, certainly make these same points. But there is also present in the affirmation and in the sign another aspect of this great metaphor, and that is the triumph of good over evil, of righteousness over sin. Not in an unreflective way, for Jesus is quick to point out that sin cannot be simply assigned to the man or his parents, as the reason for the man’s blindness: “Neither this man nor his parents sinned; he was born blind so that God’s works might be revealed in him” (Jo. 9:3). Nor is the story an unsubtle one in which the man leaves behind a wicked life to follow Jesus. Yet for all this, the story is a story of interior transformation, in which Jesus changes life. When the man is healed, God’s works are revealed; the great triumph of good over evil is played out, and God’s righteousness is revealed in the setting back to order of that which has gone awry.

In other words, when Jesus says that he is the light of the world, and gives sight to the man born blind, we get a glimpse of the moral transformation of the universe and of humanity. Not only is life and understanding given to humanity, but also transformation of the heart. He who is the light of the world is meant to change us in our very being; when this light comes into the world, no corner is left in shadow. As light, Jesus reflects the character of God; as it says in the First Letter of John, “God is light, and in him there is no darkness at all” (1 Jo. 1:5). 

We get a sense of the meaning of this transformation for the early Christians, their vivid sense of its reality, at the end of our reading from the Letter to the Ephesians. Here, the Apostle is quite likely quoting another source, perhaps the liturgy of the Church that he knew, “Sleeper, awake! Rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you” (Eph. 5:14). The words are quoted in an extended section on the way in which Christians are to live, taking no part in “the unfruitful works of darkness” (Eph. 5:11) but instead living “as children of light” (Eph. 5:8). These were folks with a keen sense of moral transformation; not that they were perfect, or Paul would not have had to write to them. Yet the Gospel for them meant a change in the way they lived; Christ the light had shined upon them, and nothing could ever be the same again.

The Good News of God in Christ cannot be divorced from a way of life. Another way of saying this is that the God who has given us new life through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ has also called us to live a new life. Jesus has risen from the dead, and for us nothing can ever be the same again.

The Rev’d John Bauerschmidt is Rector of Christ Church, Covington.

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