《Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary – John (Vol. 2)》(Various Authors)

08 Chapter 8

Introduction

PART IV. (B.)

II. THE GROWING CONFLICT, ETC.

1. Christ manifests Himself in His public ministry as the light of men.—

(1) At the feast of tabernacles; the woman taken in adultery (Joh );

(2) Jesus is the light of the world, to which truth the Father testifies (Joh );

(3) discourse in the temple concerning His person and mission, and controversies arising there from (Joh );

(4) many believe on His word (Joh ).

2. Controversy with the Jews regarding true freedom.—

(1) The enlightenment of truth leads to freedom for Christ's disciples, spiritual sonship, and eternal life (Joh );

(2) His angry rejection by the Jews because of His claim to be "before" Abraham, and the "I am" (Joh ).

Second Year of our Lord's Ministry

Time and place in Synoptic narrative.—See Chap. 7, p. 200

Verses 1-12

EXPLANATORY AND CRITICAL NOTES

Joh . For the general exposition of this section see Homiletic Notes, pp. 233-235.

Joh . Early in the morning ( ὄρθρου).—St. John's usual word is πρωῒ (Joh 20:1, and comp. Luk 21:38).

Joh . The scribes and Pharisees.—St. John does not name the scribes in his Gospel; they are included under the general name the Jews.

Joh . As though He heard them not.—Omitted in best copies.

Joh . Again.—See Joh 7:37. Our Lord here perhaps makes use of the other great symbolical feature of the feast of tabernacles—the lighting of the candelabra at night in the Court of the Women. There were divided opinions regarding Him among the people, and He gave them another opportunity of arriving at the truth.

MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Chap. Joh to Joh 8:12

The Light of the World as Revealer.—Whatever view be taken of the position of this narrative in the gospel, its authenticity is generally held. The feast of tabernacles, with all its joyousness, was past. The joyous morning assemblages were over, the lights at eventide blazed no more in the temple courts. But the Saviour came early to the temple intent on His great work; and as the crowds of festival worshippers still remaining in Jerusalem gathered round Him, "assuming the position of an authoritative teacher" (Mat ) He sat down and taught.

I. Jesus is the light of the world in revealing the evil in men's hearts.—

1. Whilst engaged in teaching He was interrupted by His ever-vigilant foes. They brought before Him a poor creature, who, instead of having her heart brought nearer God in the religious and joyous feast just ended, had given herself over to sin of the grossest and most debasing nature. The guilty wretch had evidently been brought before the Sanhedrin for judgment; and it was so clear a case that had they dared they would have carried out the old sentence of capital punishment. Hearing that Jesus was teaching in the temple, they brought the guilty woman before Him, hoping thereby to entrap Him, and gain for themselves the name of being zealous for the law.

2. The Pharisees had formerly tempted Him on this subject (Mar ), and had been sharply reproved for the laxity of their conceptions regarding the holiness of the marriage tie. On this occasion they probably thought they might "turn the tables" on Christ, by entrapping Him either into giving a too lenient judgment, or by answering their question in the affirmative, thus bringing Himself under the penalties of the Roman law.

3. And, moreover, they either misread their own law, or presumed that Jesus was ignorant of it. The punishment for adultery was stoning only in special circumstances (Deu ). In what form the punishment was to be carried out in other cases was not specified (Lev 20:10). Here, then, "Jesus seemed forced to occupy a position opposed either to the law of Moses or to the Roman authority" (Luthardt). It was the same kind of snare into which they endeavoured to draw Him on the question of the tribute money (Mat 22:17).

4. But Jesus knew the hearts of these men (Joh ). Their hypocrisy could not hide their true feelings and motives from Him. They professed to revere the law; but in reality this law, like others, had become a dead letter to them. The whole Jewish community, during our Lord's time on earth, had become more or less corrupted by Roman licentiousness, and the sanctity of the marriage tie was disregarded. The more enlightened and spiritual custom of the time was to deprive the guilty woman of her dowry and divorce her; and our Lord seems to have stamped this method with His approval so far (Mat 5:31-32). But He sternly disapproved of the granting of divorce for trifling causes, and with so much facility as seems to have obtained. But these Jews did not want any direction or guidance as to their procedure; they simply wished to entrap the Saviour, and to render Him obnoxious to the people as a subverter of the law, or to the Roman authorities, as recommending the exercise of the power of life and death to the Jews.

II. Jesus is the light of the world in the revelation of the higher and spiritual law.—

1. The divine wisdom of the Saviour defeated the evil purpose of His enemies. He came "not to judge the world"—not to usurp the functions of human justice, but to reveal the higher law toward which human law and justice should ever be more closely conformed as men come under the influence of the gospel. He raised the case above a merely human level; and did He not perhaps point to what is too often forgotten, even among Christian communities, that the framers and administrators of the law should model their enactments and actions as nearly as possible to the revealed and eternal law of righteousness?—

"And earthly power doth then show likest God's

When mercy seasons justice.… Consider this—

That in the course of justice none of us

Should see salvation: we do pray for mercy;

And that same prayer doth teach as all to render

The deeds of mercy."

Shakespeare.

2. These men had no true sense of this divine attribute of justice; in brutal fashion they dragged in this poor criminal before the assembled people. They were therefore not the men to administer the law, since they had no true sense of the spirit of the law. Our Lord did not say that human justice in this and other cases should not be carried into effect; but the men who carry it into effect must have true ideas concerning it.

3. He, therefore, raised the case to a higher tribunal. He brought accusers and accused alike before the bar of conscience. Stooping down, He wrote on the ground (Joh ), as if intimating that a judicial sentence such as they desired was to be delivered; for such sentences were not only spoken, but written. And when the sentence came it was with crushing effect—not first on the accused, but on the accusers: "He that is without sin," etc. (Joh 7:7). Here the claims of the holy law were vindicated perfectly; and those self-constituted judges, conscience-smitten, stole away one by one in utter confusion.

III. Jesus is the light of the world in that He points out the way of safety.—

1. When the last footfall of the baffled and retreating conspirators had died away on the ear, our Lord turned to the poor sinner brought thus before Him in shame and disgrace.

2. The question, "Where are?" etc. (Joh ), does not mean, Has no man accused and convicted thee of this crime? That, alas! was evidently plain enough. The meaning is, Hath no man offered to carry out the death sentence they threatened? Therefore His further words, "Neither do I," etc., simply mean, "Neither do I pronounce that sentence." He gave her indeed an opportunity for repentance, as His closing words show, while at the same time He intimated the enormity of her guilt: "Go and sin no more."

3. He condemned the sin; and it is noteworthy there is no word of forgiveness and peace, such as we find at Luk . As in the case of the woman of Samaria, our Lord's manner of reference to the sin stamps it with its true nature.

4. Thus "the judges were made to feel that freedom from outward guilt is no claim to sinlessness; and the offender, in her turn, was led to see that flagrant guilt does not bar hope" (Westcott).

5. We learn that human justice should be modelled on the divine righteousness; that those who carry into effect the decrees of human justice should be men of a righteous, God-fearing disposition; that there is another bar before which men, even though acquitted or condemned by human law, must stand; and that men must forsake sin ere they can have forgiveness and peace.

Joh . The world's need of Christ, the Sun of righteousness.—How important is the material sun in its relation to our world! Without its light and heat-rays darkness and death would reign. The world's existence, humanly speaking, depends on the continuity of our earth's relation to that star. It is the most important to us of all the starry hosts. It would, therefore, be a bold assertion for any man to make that he was as important to the moral and spiritual life of men as the sun to their physical life. Yet here we have such an assertion made. Jesus came, as it appears from the narrative as it stands, over-night from Bethany to the temple early in the morning. The sun had lately risen, clothing in light "the mountains round Jerusalem," and gladdening all nature by its rising. Jesus, in view of the glorious scene, seems to say, Just as the sun has awakened animated nature to new life in a new day, so am I come to give spiritual awakening to those slumbering in the darkness of sin and error. [Or if the narrative is to be continued from Joh 7:52 to Joh 8:12, then His reference may have been to the candelabra in the temple court, and His meaning somewhat similar.] And Jesus had given good reason to those who heard Him for this claim of His. His works of power, His words of wisdom, marked Him out as more than human—to be what He claimed to be, the Messiah, the promised Sun of righteousness, the Light of the world. Notice:—

I. The world needed such a light.—

1. There are some questions which have in all ages engrossed, and will engross, the minds of men, and which cannot be answered by unaided reason. There are problems that puzzle and perplex which no merely human intellect has solved or can solve. These subjects lie in lofty regions, on heights to which philosophy and science vainly attempt to climb. They have been shrouded in darkness, like earth at midnight—have been dimly discerned, as through a mist, distorted, etc.

2. This has been so with the knowledge of God, of the means of approach to Him, of a future life. By reason men have attained to only dim and illusory conceptions of these great subjects, and it has been long felt that reason alone cannot here pronounce decisively.

3. By the light of natural religion men can go only a little toward the verification of such great truths; and even when they seem to have attained to a clearer view, the mists of doubt roll down, and it vanishes from their ken.

II. Jesus is the light of the world in that He leads men to a true knowledge of the nature and character of God.—

1. Among the nations at large, as regards this, darkness prevailed. The most cultured nations of antiquity had not risen above idolatry. Only a few voices called men to a better knowledge, and they were either unheeded or stopped.

2. Amongst barbarous tribes the darkness "was such as might be felt."

3. There was but one exception—Israel; and in their case tradition had encrusted the windows of the soul and darkened their spiritual vision.

4. The further men had gone from the primitive revelation, the further they had fallen from the true knowledge and love of God. They bowed down to all the hosts of heaven, and finally came to "worship devils" (1Co ). And this description is still true of the great heathen world.

5. But in the gospel of Christ there is given such a view of the nature and character of God as satisfies the heart. The existence of such a Being clears up the enigmas of life, and makes what at first sight seems "a dubious maze without a plan" to appear full of meaning and order. There is revealed to us One immeasurably removed above our highest uninspired conceptions. His government is seen to be founded on laws which are the expression of His own perfect character, and obedience to which is seen to be for the welfare of the race, etc.

III. Jesus is the light of the world in that He made known the way by which men can approach to God acceptably.—

1. It is not enough for sinful men to know that there is a God; they must know how they stand related to Him. All the religions of the world were framed with a view to this end.

2. Even the chosen people, when Jesus came to earth, needed light on this subject of subjects. They had retained the letter of their law, but had lost the spirit of the law (Joh ). They misapprehended the prophets. Tradition and ritual were what the Pharisee trusted in; whilst the Essene leaned to asceticism and the Sadducee to rationalism. But in none of these ways was there any true approach to God (Mic 6:6).

3. Jesus has shown us the way of access to the Father. He revealed God as holy, abhorring sin, by no means clearing the guilty; and as the sinner, gazing on His revelation of the Holy One, cries out, "Depart from me," etc., Jesus presents Himself as the Lamb of God, etc. (Joh ). Sinners are shown that, though eternal Justice forbids that a free, unconditional escape from the guilt and penalty of sin should be granted, yet a way has been found whereby justice and mercy can be and are reconciled. It is true certain conditions are affixed to this boon. Men are required to repent of and renounce sin, and accept the pardon and peace offered in Christ.