It was night (John 13:30)

In John 13:30, we have this little statement, seemingly a little bit of trivia, "It was night". Jesus had just announced his betrayal, and Judas had "immediately went out". Prior to that Jesus had washed the disciples' feet, a pointer to the way he would love "them to the end" (13:1), after saying he will be "lifted up from the earth" (12:32) and that he came "to save the world" (12:47). As with many details John gives us, I think his choice of words are very intentional and meaningful. He makes use of facts and details to craft a story of divine realities.

The phrase, "It was night", seems to introduce us to the darkest--and actually also brightest--parts of John's Gospel. These are the last days and hours up to and including Jesus' crucifixion. One disciple betrays Jesus, and another disowns him. The Jews and the Gentiles join together to crush Jesus. And they seem to succeed. Arresting him. Falsely accusing him. Unjustly condemning him. Beating him. Mocking him. Killing him. These are the darkest of times.

Interestingly when Mary Magdalene comes to the tomb, John describes it as "while it was still dark". He could have used the language of "dawn" (Matthew 28:1, Luke 24:1; although actually two different Greek words) or "when the sun had risen" (Mark 16:2), emphasising the beginning of light of a new day, like the writers of the other Gospels. But instead he chooses to speak of darkness. John also doesn't tell us about the supernatural darkness that came during the crucifixion (cf Matthew 27:45, Mark 15:33 and Luke 23:44). Perhaps John wants us to think of that whole period from "It was night" until "while it was still dark" as a time of great darkness, and not be distracted by the peculiar darkness just at the crucifixion (although one might expect him to highlight that).

Yet at the same time, I think John wants to see this time as the time when Jesus shone the brightest, because the "light shines in the darkness" (1:5). After John told us "It was night", he also records Jesus as saying, "Now is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified in him" (13:31). Ultimately in Jesus' death, as God-become-flesh dies, to demonstrate the greatest love and "lay down his life for his friends" (15:13), it is then that we most brightly see "his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth" (1:14), and it is at that moment, more than any other in all of time, that "grace and truth came through Jesus Christ" (1:17).

Jesus is "the light of the world" (8:12), and "the darkness has not overcome" (1:5) his light, not ever. And our amazing privilege is that anyone who trusts in Jesus "may not remain in darkness" (12:46), and in following him we "will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life" (8:12). And as the Father sent Jesus into the world, so now Jesus sends us. (17:18, 20:21).

J I Packer on knowing God's will in life

From J I Packer's book Truth & Power: The Place of Scripture in the Christian Life...

... a Christian can always find in the Bible guidance as to the next step in obedience, whatever perplexities his or her life situation may currently present. Walking by the light of Scripture is not like walking by daylight, any more than shining your flashlight is like the rising of the sun. Beyond the little circle of vision that your flashlight gives you, the darkness remains, and it is through this continuing darkness that you travel. You are regularly in the dark, in the everyday slang sense, unable to find meaning in the things that happen around you. But Scripture enables you to see each next step that you must take, so on you are able to go. All of us, I am bold to say, walk through life with a quiverful of unanswered questions about the ways of God. Why this? Why that? What is really going on here? We don't know, for God does not tell us. All he tells us, as we consult his Word, is how to cope Christianly with this and that as it comes and to get on with our life of worship and service through it all.

Gen 3:22-24 No Life without Death?

I have often heard people interpret Genesis 3:22 like this: God in his mercy prevented man from eating from the tree of life otherwise he would have lived forever in a state of sin. But I am uncomfortable with this for a number of reasons:

• It seems a too sophisticated intrepretation; there is a lot of logic involved in the statement above and beyond what is in the text.
• It attributes a 'magical' property to the tree itself, that by physically eating it eternal life is conferred, ex opere operato.
• It views 'live forever' only as meaning an unending physical life, a continuation of whatever current physical state is being experienced (kind of like the wind changing when you pull a face ;-)

Instead, I would prefer understanding Gen 3:22-24 as simply about cutting off man from life (and perfected life) as a consequence of sin. The wages of sin is death ('you shall surely die'), and not life, therefore man has no right to the tree of LIFE, and must be cut off from it. So 3:22 is not a mercy, but a judgement. The only way to life is God's way, and man lost the opportunity for life when he sinned. So man was sent out of the garden and cut off from the tree of life. (One wonders if the labour of 3:23 required of man indicates he is 'stuck' in the sixth day, and unable to enter the rest of God, in the perfected seventh day..?)
More tentively, I wonder if Gen 3:24 signifies that there will be no access to the tree of life, without first passing through suffering and death (the flaming sword wielded by the cherubim). This would seem a wonderful picture of what will happen in Christ, that he first dies before obtaining eternal life. But correctly reading typology and symbolism is always difficult!!!
I like Calvin's comments on this:

It is indeed certain, that man would not have been able, had he even devoured the whole tree, to enjoy life against the will of God; but God, out of respect to his own institution, connects life with the external sign, till the promise should be taken away from it; for there never was any intrinsic efficacy in the tree; but God made it life-giving, so far as he had sealed his grace to man in the use of it, as, in truths he represents nothing to us with false signs, but always speaks to us, as they say, with effect. In short, God resolved to wrest out of the hands of man that which was the occasion or ground of confidence, lest he should form for himself a vain hope of the perpetuity of the life which he had lost.