A Reflection on the Gospel of John 8:12
Imagine being surrounded by pitch black darkness, so dark that even with your eyes open, you see nothing at all.
Despite the darkness, you feel yourself bobbing up and down. You hear the splashing of water and realise that you’re siƫting in a boat. You wonder to yourself, how long have I been in this boat? More importantly, where is the boat drifting to?
You stretch out your arms to feel, but can only grasp at the empty darkness. You yell out “Can anybody hear me?” to only hear your voice echoing in the darkness.
An echo…? If you can hear your voice bouncing off something in the distance, then there must be something out there. What could it be? It must be something enormous if the sound of your small voice can echo off it, back to you. There must be something out there – but what? And where?
You start to fear – what if your boat is drifting towards something dangerous? What if you’re floating towards large rocks that could capsize you?
That’s when you suddenly see it, the bright flash of light, searching for you.
Despite the darkness and distance, you see clearly the strong, towering lighthouse as it lights up for you the safe path home.
Jesus proclaims in John 8:12,
“I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”
The light of life
Christ’s light pierces through our darkness filled with troubles, hurt and sorrows (John 16:33). He searches for us to locate and guide us, just like the non-stationary light of the lighthouse as it sweeps and scans across the dark sea. Many lighthouses have a signature light pattern (think of it as morse code). Before radio signalling, sailors used to memorise the unique light pattern of each lighthouse to navigate from one lighthouse to the next until they reach safety. In the same way, if we are truly followers of Jesus, we must fix our eyes on His patterns and follow His directions (2 Timothy 1:13).
Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness but will have the light of life. Following Christ is more than simply tagging along behind him. Following Christ is to follow Him with purpose and for who He is. It means being so taken with Jesus that you join yourself to Him and we too become the light of Christ to others living in darkness.
Thanks be to God that Jesus, the light of our world, is ever present. We can live with the comfort of knowing that the light of Christ will never burn or fade or away. There is no other source of spiritual truth available to us that can expose the darkness of this world and fill it with light. There is only Christ alone.
May the light of Christ fill and flow through us.
This reflection by Denver Saldanha is excerpted from the May 2026 Chronicle Newsletter of the Lamb of God Community in New Zealand.
Top image credit: Lighthouse photo by Evgeni Tcherkasski on Unsplash. Free to use under the Unsplash License.
Denver Saldanha is a member and coordinator in training of the Lamb of God Community, New Zealand. He resides in Wellington with his wife Clarese and their two young daughters.