Thoughts for the Day

Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, ‘I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness but will have the light of life.’

(Church in Wales Lectionary, New Revised Standard Version)

Thoughts

Jesus is teaching the people in the Temple and the scribes and pharisees are interogating everything he says after he forgives the woman taken in adultery whom they had wished to stone, and in doing so shamed her accusers (John 8.1-11).

But what does he mean by saying that he is 'the Light of the world'? The largest light in our world is the sun, and on a summer's day it can lift our spirits, shine into every corner of our world, and encourage nature to grow. Before the 19th century our world mostly lived in gloom once the sun had set, no wonder early people were terrified that the sun had disappeared when their was a solar eclipse. Parables like the woman who had lost a coin from her head-dress and is forced to sweep out her house, show how difficult it must have been to search for something on an earthen floor. Living each night in the light from a tiny pottery oil lamp would not have been easy (Luke 15.8-10)

In the same way that the sun's piercing rays show everything in great detail, so too Jesus the Light of the World exposes the good, as well as the dirt and evil in our own lives. Nothing can be hidden from His piercing light, and today we ask Him to help us see the things in our life of which we should be ashamed; and if we are in a dark place to see a way forward.

Lord of Light,
You shine Your radiant goodness
upon our world.
May we welcome that light
and work with You
to make changes to our life.
Help us to seek out others
who are in the darkness of despair,
and offer them the light of Christ.
Amen.