Daily Devotion for Tuesday 1st July 2025

Then Jesus cried aloud: ‘Whoever believes in me believes not in me but in him who sent me.  And whoever sees me sees him who sent me.  I have come as light into the world, so that everyone who believes in me should not remain in the darkness.  I do not judge anyone who hears my words and does not keep them, for I came not to judge the world, but to save the world.  The one who rejects me and does not receive my word has a judge; on the last day the word that I have spoken will serve as judge,  for I have not spoken on my own, but the Father who sent me has himself given me a commandment about what to say and what to speak.  And I know that his commandment is eternal life. What I speak, therefore, I speak just as the Father has told me.’

Reflection

I once saw a suggestion for a sermon theme. It was “Moths or Cockroaches”. The idea was that moths flew to the light while cockroaches crawled into dark corners. The listeners would then be left to decide which they were or wanted to be, a moth or a cockroach, though of course, we are all a mixture of the two.

In the passage we have read, Jesus is saying that he has come as light, in effect to offer people light, though it is a choice. They can, if they wish, stay in darkness. They can crawl away from the slightest flicker of light, into the deepest darkness, if that is their choice. Jesus says he will not judge them for their choice, but the word he has spoken will serve as a judge.

None of us like being judged, though we are often quite happy to judge other people on the flimsiest of evidence! In denying we have fallen short, in refusing to admit, even to God, that we might have got things wrong, we are refusing to accept His unconditional love. Coming into the light involves not just seeing things clearly, but it also means that we and what we do will be seen more clearly by others. Often, we prefer to keep our pride intact or we remain fearful and so remain in our dark corners.

God accepts us as we are, faults and all. We do not earn God’s love first, and are then accepted by Him. Rather, He loves us whatever and then, accepting that love, that light, we try to be more as He wants us to be.

It takes courage to come into the light. It is easier to prefer darkness. But without light we can not see, and if we cannot see we cannot understand, we cannot trust, and we can not accept God’s unconditional love.

Prayer

Father, Your light is in the world,
and we see it in Jesus.
The light makes us aware of our faults and shortcomings.
The wrong we have done stands illuminated in the brightness of Jesus’ example. 
But through the light Jesus came not only to shine into the darkness,
but also to show us your forgiveness.
Help us to accept your light and forgiveness,
and increasingly to live our lives in that light. Amen