John 11:9b-10 “ If anyone walks in the day, he does not stumble, because he sees the light of this world. But if anyone walks in the night, he stumbles, because the light is not in him."
I can only speak for myself, and I can find myself tripping over stuff, even in the daytime. As a kid I used to shuffle my feet when I walked, just to hear the noise, and inevitably I would hit a crack in the sidewalk, trip and fall down. Of course, I’d look at the crack like it was its fault, as well as looking around to see if anyone saw. Naturally, if I had been paying attention, I would not have fallen.
Jesus’ disciples here are asking Him if He is going to actually show up in a place where the Jews wanted to stone Him. He could have said, “Yes, I need to go for Lazarus’ family’s sake.” Rather, he answers by continually teaching, again using light and dark as metaphors of life’s options. Walk in the light, or walk in the dark.
If we walk in the dark, we will stumble. It’s not a maybe, we will stumble. Remember back in this book where Jesus explained that people did not want the light, they wanted to stay in the dark? Light exposes everything, and for those who wish to try to keep hidden from God, the light is very threatening. Light, Jesus, that is, exposes sin. Light exposes our need for a Savior, and that takes a humble heart to accept.
Track down to verses 49 and following. Caiaphas is speaking and reasoning why they must put Jesus to death. And this trip Jesus makes to help Lazarus is just prior to Him entering Jerusalem where He will be crucified. Caiaphas gets it. People around him think that killing Jesus will save their nation from this supposed prophet’s teaching and influence. He knows that the Pharisees and chief priests are threatened by Jesus’ ministry. They will lose their status if Jesus is really the Messiah. Caiaphas knows their motives, and yet still enters into their plan to kill Jesus. Yet note that Caiaphas had an ominous prophecy, (yes, apparently the high priest at that time, still prior to the personal indwelling of the Spirit to individual believers, had the power of the Spirit to prophesy) that Jesus would indeed die and gather God’s children (all those who will eventually accept Him as Savior) together.
God revealed a key portion of His plan to a man who was to be His high priest at the time. How right his prophesy was. Jesus did indeed die, he paid that penalty for all sinners, so that whoever would accept Him, believe in Him as John wrote in chapter 3, would then, as in chapter 1, become a child of God. I think Caiaphas missed those quotes by Jesus. Lots of people today miss those quotes by Jesus.
Praise God they are still true. But people still live and walk in the dark. Jesus tells believers that we are salt, we are light. People desperately need the Light that we can shine on this world, the Light that is Jesus Christ. Otherwise they will continue to stumble. They have no Light by which to “see”.
And for the believers, we, too, need to purposely walk in that Light. We, too, can stumble. Live for Jesus on purpose.
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