Given the details that the Bible does not choose to give about certain incidents of interest, it is rather telling what details it chooses to give. What a writer says, what a writer implies, and what a writer does not choose to discuss at all are important elements in determining an author’s worldview, approach, values, and purposes in a given work. It often requires a critical attention to details as well as to an author’s themes and concerns that is often missing. Today, therefore, as a modest post in what could be a much larger and deeper examination into the subject of John’s contrast of light and darkness, we will examine two incidents in which John comments upon the fact that it is night and comment a bit on how this is significant.
In John 13:18-30, we read of Jesus’ troubled state as He exposes his betrayer: “I do not speak concerning all of you. I know whom I have chosen; but that the Scripture may be fulfilled, ‘He who eats bread with me has lifted up his heel against Me.’ Now I tell you before it comes, that when it does come to pass, Now after the piece of bread, Satan entered him. Then Jesus said to him, “What you do, do quickly.” But no one at the table knew for what reason He said this to him. For some thought, because Judas had the money box, that Jesus had said to him, “Buy those things we need for the feast,” or that he should give something to the poor. Having received the piece of bread, he then went out immediatley. And it was night.”
Let us examine what John is talking about here. Jesus begins this section of his long Passover discourse by bringing up a specific prophecy from Psalm 41:9 and literally fulfilling it by giving a piece of bread to the one who would shortly betray him. Jesus had just washed his feet, but it was before Jesus gave the bread and wine symbolic of his body and blood, and now Jesus gives a piece of bread that has been dipped (in wine?) to Judas. This particular act points to the depth of Judas’ betrayal in ways that are not always immediately evident to the reader. The Middle East has long had fairly rigid codes of hospitality that required hosts of a house to go to extreme lengths to protect guests that have been granted sanctuary (see Judges 19 and Genesis 19). Several books of the Bible deal with the subject of hospitality and its implications as a main element of the books (see Philemon, 2 John, and 3 John). To eat bread with someone is to be a friend, and in light of Christianity to be a part of the body of believers. Those who eat the Passover bread show themselves by their act to be claiming membership in the body of Christ, whose sins have been covered by his blood (as we claim by drinking the wine). For Judas to eat the bread (dipped in wine) while being subtly exposed (so subtly that the rest of the disciples did not understand) was to highlight his treachery.
Why is it significant to note that it was night in this particular story? There are at least a couple of reasons why this detail is important. For one, the institution of the Passover symbols of bread and wine at this Passover ceremony were required to take place at night, “between the evenings” on the fourteenth day of the first lunar month. Since Jesus perfectly kept God’s laws, we would expect Him to perfectly keep the laws concerning festivals like Passover as well. We ought to note that the disciples did not appear to notice anything unusual about celebrating the Passover at the beginning of the fourteenth, rather than at the end as has been customary among the Pharisees and those who follow them, but as the disciples were not always among the most observant of people in the Gospel accounts, we should not make too much of that observation.
The importance of the reference to night appears related to an earlier part of the same Passover discourse we have been examining, where Jesus states in John 12:42-50: “Nevertheless even among hte rulers many believed in Him, but because of the Pharisees did not confess Him, lest they should be put out of the synagogue; for they loved the praise of men more than the praise of God. Then Jesus cried out and said, “He who believes in Me, believes not in Me but in Him who sent Me. And he who sees Me sees Him who sent Me. I have come as a light into the world, that whoever believes in Me should not abide in darkness. And if anyone hears My words and does not believe, I do not judge him; for I did not come to judge the world but to save the world. He who rejects Me, and does not receive My words, has that which judges him-the word that I have spoken will judge him on the last day. For I have not spoken on My own authority; but the Father who sent Me gave a command, what I should say and what I should speak. And I know that His command is everlasting life. Therefore, whatever I speak, just as the Father has told Me, so I speak.”
We see here that those who follow our Messiah walk in the light according to the commands of God, and those who do not believe in Jesus Christ, and hear and obey His words, walk in darkness, as Judas did. Let us also note, though, an element that we may not often consider, that is discussed in both of these passages of John, and that is the principle of agency. In John 13, we read how those who receive believers receive Christ, and that those who receive Christ receive the Father. God works on the principle of representation, and how we treat the representatives of God is how we treat God. Now, this ought not to be a new concept for Christians, for one can read in Matthew 25:31-46 that how we treat the least of these [the brethren] is how we are judged to have treated Jesus Christ Himself. When the Bible mentions the same concept over and over again of representation and a chain of authority [1], we ought to take special care to take the ideas and apply them seriously.
Part of walking in the light appears to be related to our public demonstration of faith in Jesus Christ through treating the people of God with love and respect and concern. When we act with kindness and outgoing love and concern to believers, we are showing respect and honor to the One who sent them. Since God operates on the principle of representation, it is a matter of deep seriousness to examine those who are truly his representatives. It is not my point to discuss this matter in depth, for though it is an important element, it is one that requires far more time and explanation than I can give to the subject at present. We ought to note, though, that the seriousness of showing honor to God’s representatives is stated in the note of judgment of those who did believe in Jesus Christ but who thought it more important to be accepted by mankind rather than follow their beliefs. Such cowardice is all too common and all too lamentable, as believing and practicing the ways of God will tend to alienate one from those who are interested only in seeking profit or prestige in this present evil world.
As it happens, we have another account of this contrast between the ways of light and darkness in John 3:1-21 in an exchange between Jesus Christ and one of the leaders who secretly believed in Jesus Christ but had not yet proclaimed his belief publicly (see also John 7:45-52): “There was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. This man came to Jesus by night and said to Him, “Rabbi, we know that You are a teacher come from God; as no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with him.” Jesus answered and said to him, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” Nicodemus said to HIm, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?” Jesus answered, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and hwere it goes. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit.” Nicodemus answered and said to Him, “How can these things be?” Jesus answered and said to him, “Are you the teacher of Israel, and do not know these things? Most assuredly, I say to you, We speak what We know and testify what We have seen, and you do not receive Our witness. If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things? No one has ascended to heaven but he who came down from heaven, that is, the Son of man who is in heaven. And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must hte son of man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. He who believes in him is not condemned, but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather htan light, because their deeds were evil. For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be clearly seen, that they have been done in God.”
Let us note at least briefly that the message of the apostle John in John 3 is entirely consistent with that of John 12. Both passages comment on those who secretly believe in Jesus Christ but who are afraid of the corrupt leaders of the world who condemn the believers of God because genuine believers who live in the light expose the evils that are done in darkness, and because those who live in darkness do not wish their evil deeds to be brought into the light where they may be examined and judged. It is not only those who are evil who act in darkness, but also those like Nicodemus who live in fear that their beliefs will be known openly and that they will be judged for it. To his credit, Nicodemus was not insulted by the instruction that Jesus Christ gave him that demonstrated his own lack of knowledge of the workings of God or the need to be baptized and to receive the Holy Spirit so that at the return of Jesus Christ he (along with other believers) may be born again into the Spirit realm as a citizen of the Kingdom of God. Though he was a secret and perhaps cowardly believer at the time, at the death of Jesus Christ his actions with Joseph of Arimethea to bury Jesus Christ honorably marked him as a public believer, and so his cowardice in being a secret believer by night was gradually overcome by his faith. We ought not to be too harsh to condemn ourselves when we are not brave enough to live entirely in the light, but rather we ought to see ourselves as a work in progress gradually growing in faith and obedience and courage through the indwelling and working of the Holy Spirit motivating our growing and developing godly fruits.
As believers we ought to walk in the light. We ought to be wise and discernin enough not to walk naively, to recognize that this world is full of great evil and that people who commit acts of evil, especially people in high places, will not welcome those who poke into dark corners and bring dark deeds into the light. We have to expect that our approach and our beliefs will bring us into occasional periods of trial and tribulation, and to live soberly and responsibily in that knowledge. Those who act kindly and hospitably to us are to be praised and appreciated, because by acting kindly with us they show honor and hospitality to Jesus Christ, and through Him to God himself as a result of the principle of representation by which God acts. Let us therefore walk in the light, and show love and respect for those who walk in the light, and let us not walk in darkness as do the wicked, so that we may show ourselves to be the children of God, whose righteous and godly deeds cannot be hidden.
Edge Induced Cohesion 