Stumbling Close to the Light

The disciples said to Him, "Rabbi, the Jews were just now seeking to stone You, and are You going there again?" Jesus answered, "Are there not twelve hours in the day? If anyone walks in the day, he does not stumble, because he sees the light of this world." (John 11:8-9)

What is stumbling?

The act of stumbling is connected with walking which itself is an action of constantly falling forward but catching one's self by moving each foot forward in turn to keep one's balance. Stumbling is when something or some action causes resistance to normal forward movement of the feet and legs causing one to lose balance and start to fall out of control. It may be something in the path that has not been avoided that gets in the way of the foot so it cannot move forward quickly enough, or it could be caused by a person not picking up their feet high enough to avoid dragging them on the ground.

Stumbling is related to several things that create conditions for it to happen. Stumbling may occur because it is too dark to see things that need to be avoided or stepped around or over. It may occur because one is tired or doesn't have the strength to pick up their feet sufficiently. It can also be a result of intoxication where the brain is not able to think clearly enough for good coordination, or it can happen because one is too excited or has focused on something more interesting and is not paying attention to where they are walking. That last cause can include a focus on either something very interesting in a positive way or something very frightening.

Stumbling is something that creates danger of personal harm not to mention slowing down a person's forward movement when that is important to maintain. Generally stumbling is something viewed as a negative problem in the Bible and is often associated with sin. Stumbling is also closely linked with offenses which is an extremely important but under-emphasized topic in the Christian life. Jesus talked about the feelings of the Father about anyone who might cause one of His little ones to stumble and His intense displeasure with that kind of situation. (see Matthew 18:6)

As I meditated on this passage I wondered why Jesus brought up this issue about stumbling in this context. Why did He feel it important to warn the disciples about stumbling just then? They were walking with Him and clearly He was always walking in the light of truth. But apparently it does not just follow that because they were with Him that they too were walking in the light. He says to them that a person stumbles when they walk in the dark and apparently they were either about to stumble or were already beginning to stumble and He wanted to keep them from falling, whatever that meant.

The scene for this story is set up in the first few verses of this chapter in the context of previous chapters. All through this book John keeps reminding us that the way Jesus views things is almost always upside-down to the way we usually view things. What frightens His disciples and us does not seem to disturb Jesus at all, yet what grabs His attention and prompts Him to give us warnings often seems to be something we don't perceive as necessarily being a problem. So what was going on here that prompted Jesus to suddenly insert this strong statement about the need to walk in the light and avoid trying to walk in the dark?

Jesus had just made the statement that they should all go back to Judea where they had recently come from. This statement raised serious concerns and fears in the hearts of the disciples given the threats and treatment they had recently encountered there because of Jesus' actions and words. In the disciple's minds, the most important thing about life with Jesus was staying safe, protecting Him and themselves from harm and trying to help Him establish His power and authority as their Messiah. They viewed His role among them through the perceptions of the traditional assumptions and expectations about a Messiah who was to come and resist the Roman occupation and eventually establish a Jewish empire that would rule over the whole world. The whole Jewish nation had cultivated and nurtured deeply held beliefs that the promised Messiah was to come to elevate the chosen people of God (the Jews) and subjugate all their enemies to their control. This was the yearning of nearly every Jewish person and the disciples were no exception.

Given these deeply entrenched assumptions about the role of a Messiah and their hopes that Jesus was indeed that Messiah, everything that happened and everything that He did was interpreted to relate to the accepted scenarios that had been nurtured for generations. All the disciples were keen to be a part of this new kingdom they were sure Jesus was going to set up on this earth and they were willing to sacrifice everything in order to secure favor with Jesus and receive positions of honor and power when He finally would decide to assert His power and throw off the Roman occupation.

These disciples viewed everything from a political perspective just as the Jewish leaders did and most people do yet today. The main difference between Jesus' disciples and the unbelieving Jewish leaders in their minds was that the leaders had not yet been convinced that Jesus was the right Messiah to bet on. During those days there were many people claiming to be the promised Messiah and used various means to try to raise up insurrections or launch pious religious groups in an attempt to perfect themselves enough to please God so He would come and rescue them.

The disciples believed that the problem with the Jewish leaders not accepting Jesus had more to do with lack of evidence or not being able to see what Jesus was really like. But in reality the disciples themselves did not perceive what Jesus was really like precisely because they shared so many of the same false assumptions about the role and purpose of the Messiah that the leaders believed and indeed had taught them from childhood.

Jesus saw clearly these false assumptions about what a Messiah was supposed to look like and how He was supposed to act based on desires for power and glory and He described them as darkness. When people operate under false assumptions they cannot perceive what is true because they are so confident that their opinions about truth are the right ones. There is no one so difficult for God to reach as one who is confident that they have the truth and there is very little left for them to learn. Such people isolate themselves from any new light that God may try to bring to them and they lock themselves into a cocoon of stubbornness, pride and prejudice. Yet those very people are fully confident that God is on their side and all the problems lie with others not accepting their version of what they insist is reality and truth.

Jesus' disciples were reacting to His statement about returning to Judea where His life had been threatened, but they viewed this proposal through the eyes of how all of us have grown up viewing reality. Their attention was primarily on the politics of their situation, on the threats of the enemies of Jesus and they failed to perceive how the Spirit was leading Jesus or to view things through the eyes of heaven as Jesus always did. It was not that it was impossible for them to see properly, for Jesus had been seeking to groom them and mentor them for quite some time to learn how to view things in heaven's light. But their hearts still so tenaciously clung to their own desires for earthly glory and recognition and power that these were still obstacles in their path that threatened to cause them to stumble in their walk with Jesus.

Jesus desired for His disciples to learn how to walk differently, to walk by faith and be led in the light by the Spirit just as He was doing. He daily was demonstrating to them how to walk in the Spirit and perceive things from God's perspective rather than human perspective, but they were very slow to accept what He was seeking to teach them. So once again they were stumbling over their fears of what could happen to them if they went back to the region where their enemies were so hostile rather than perceiving an opportunity from an awareness that the Spirit had plans to glorify Jesus in a most stupendous miracle through circumstances that currently appeared most discouraging.

Jesus was demonstrating how to walk in the light of day while at the same time His disciples were still walking in the night. The reason they were stumbling over the idea of returning to Judea was because they had not yet grasped what it meant to walk with the light of the truth about God inside their hearts as Jesus did. Without having the real truth about God as a source of inner illumination that would change one's perspective about everything around them, they were still stumbling over things that they could not see because they were still clinging to false beliefs and feelings and assumptions about how God operates and how He relates to His children which gave place for fear in their hearts.

For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind. (2 Timothy 1:7 NKJV) When I find myself reacting to any situation in a spirit of fear, I am reminded that my decisions and perceptions are not in harmony with heaven's view of reality. If I do not first deal with the issue of my own spirit first and allow God's Spirit to bring me back into His perspective of reality, then any choices I make no matter how well informed or sincere are likely to result in some sort of stumbling. It is vital that I learn the lesson Jesus is seeking to teach me here about keeping the light of the truth about God in my mind and heart and stay in tune with His Spirit so I can avoid the pitfalls and the obstacles that may seem so right religiously or logically to me but are in fact not really part of heaven's perspective of my situation.

Are there not twelve hours in the day? If anyone walks in the day, he does not stumble, because he sees the light of this world. But if anyone walks in the night, he stumbles, because the light is not in him. (John 11:9-10)

Father, please keep my attention on the Light of this world – Jesus – and help me to make and keep my heart as a welcome sanctuary for You to live inside me. Shine the light of Your truth both into me and out of me so that I will perceive all my circumstances and all those whom I relate to in the light of reality as You see it. Fill me with Your light, Your love, Your mind of humility and grace and joy so that I may be free of fear and rest in Your presence all my days.