I have an idea but on a deeper level, what did Jesus mean when he said “Are there not twelve hours of daylight? Anyone who walks in the daytime will not stumble, for they see by this world’s light. It is when a person walks at night that they stumble, for they have no light.” In context he was talking about going to Judea to resurrect Lazarus but his disciples were telling him it was to dangerous to go because they tried to stone him lat time.
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Hi @esraile, thank you for asking this very challenging question.
As I’ve looked at this passage again today, with the aid of multiple commentaries, I can see that there are many different interpretations.
As I see it, the challenge is that Jesus is speaking on two levels simultaneously. This is a theme throughout the Gospel of John, where Jesus talks about spiritual matters and his audience only understands his words in an unspiritual, or earthly, manner.
To understand what he is saying, we first need to understand the context, then the meaning of his words in an earthly manner, then the meaning of his words in a spiritual manner.
As we go through the passage, we will see some repeated contrasts of John’s gospel: life and death, light and darkness, glory and shame, disbelief and belief.
Let’s start with the context.
Jesus and his disciples have just heard that Lazarus is sick. Jesus tells the disciples that this illness won’t end in death but will glorify God.
After they wait for two days, he tells the disciples it’s time to go to Judea.
His disciples are worried about this because, very recently, he was almost stoned to death in Judea (see John 10:31).
This is a very significant problem for them! They don’t want Jesus to die. As his followers, they don’t wish to die either!
They cannot see how Jesus’ death is necessary for their life — or that one day, some of them will willingly die as martyrs.
In other words, because the disciples lack spiritual understanding, they are opposed to Jesus risking his life for the sake of others.
Then we come to this cryptic passage:
“Aren’t there twelve hours in a day?” Jesus answered. “If anyone walks during the day, he doesn’t stumble, because he sees the light of this world. But if anyone walks during the night, he does stumble, because the light is not in him.”
Let’s make sure we understand this passage on an earthly level.
We need to understand the plain meaning of what Jesus is saying to make sense of the deeper spiritual meaning.
Why is this? Because to responsibly interpret the passage, we need to draw the proper connection between the two levels of meaning, and that requires us to understand the physical meaning before we move into the spiritual one.
D.A. Carson explains in the Pillar commentary,
In days before accurate time-pieces existed, both the Romans and the Jews divided the daylight period into twelve ‘hours’, which therefore varied in length with the changing seasons. During those twelve daylight hours, most people did their work; once the darkness came, it was time to stop work. At the pedestrian level, these verses describe the obvious; this world’s light refers to the sun (408-409).
To put it simply, Jesus says it is safe to work during the daytime because you can see by the sunlight, but it is unsafe to work at night because it is dark.
It’s not very complicated. That’s what his words mean if you listen to them without a spiritual awareness of a deeper meaning.
As I look at the narrative, it seems to me the disciples keep responding to Jesus as if he is talking about ordinary matters.
But why record Jesus offering such prosaic statements?
Is that what he came to teach us? “Work during the daytime, not at night”?
No, that’s not the point.
After the death and resurrection of Jesus, the disciples rethought everything Jesus did and said and realized there was a much deeper meaning to it. It’s impressive that they committed these stories for distribution in the church because it made them look foolish. Still, they were willing to be embarrassed to show others Jesus’ true identity.
So, what is the spiritual meaning?
D.A. Carson is on point when he explains,
…these verses metaphorically insist that Jesus is safe as long as he performs his Father’s will. The daylight period of his ministry may be far advanced, but it is wrong to quit before the twelve hours have been filled up.
More broadly, here’s the point:
If the disciples — or you and me — “see” (have faith) that Jesus is the light of the world, then we can do God’s work.
But if we cannot see the light of the world (Jesus), then what follows? If we can’t see the light, we are in spiritual darkness, stumbling through life.
J. Ramsey Michaels puts it this way:
The riddle is an elaborate way of saying what has been said several times before, that Jesus’ hour (i.e., the hour of his death) has not yet come (cf. 2:4; 7:30; 8:20; cf. 7:6, 39) and that until it comes he is perfectly safe. Yet the solemn manner in which Jesus makes this point suggests to the reader that the twelve hours of daylight are running out and the time of darkness is near (cf. 9:4–5)…
The disciples are reading none of the signals. The breakdown in communication between them and Jesus is almost comic (UTB Commentary).
That is, Jesus is making another point: just as each day comes to an end, his ministry also has a defined endpoint. There is an appointed amount of time for him to be on earth as the light of the world.
Let’s summarize what we found:
First, there’s a comedic but important gap between what Jesus means and what his disciples hear. This should lead to self-examination: do we recognize Jesus for who he is?
Second, Jesus is a masterful communicator. He used ordinary concepts like daylight and darkness to communicate who he was to anyone who ‘had ears to ear.’ He is the light of the world, and when we see his light, we gain the capacity to participate in his mission.
Finally, though the disciples understandably wanted to avoid death (just like Mary, Martha, and Lazarus did), Jesus was preparing them to understand that death is not the end. The resurrection of Lazarus is a miracle that prepares the disciples to believe in the resurrection of Jesus. These miracles are intended to give us confidence that after we die, Jesus will raise us from the dead as well. Therefore, we no longer need to fear persecution or martyrdom because we can see our eternal destiny with the understanding provided by the Light of the World.
So, these are remarkable verses! At the outset, they look like ordinary words about the best time to work. But the more you dive into them, we realize that Jesus is giving us confidence to see our identity and mission in life in light of who he is.
If you’d like to explore any aspect of this passage further or see additional layers of meaning I might have missed, I’d be happy to continue the discussion! And I look forward to learning from the wisdom of other members of the UP community.
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Thank you so much Carson. This defiantly has given me a new prospective. I will be more then happy to read any additional information you would like to share!
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Hi @esraile, I’m so glad to hear that! Please feel free to ask any questions you have about this passage or anything else in the Scriptures, and we’ll keep growing in our faith together!