Throughout John’s Gospel Jesus has been traveling on a journey marked along the way by signs that are meant to indicate the purpose of his quest. In chapter 2 water was changed to wine, in chapter 4 an official’s son was restored to health, in chapter 5 an invalid was enabled to walk, in chapter 6 loaves were multiplied to feed thousands, in chapter 9 a man born blind was given sight and in chapter 11 a dead man named Lazarus was raised to life. Echoing the six working days of the first creation, these six works of Jesus serve as signs pointing toward the journey’s end when the new creation will break forth like the dawn upon a world long darkened by evil and death.

But here in chapter 12, twilight has come upon Jesus. Soon, night must fall and the servants of the Enemy will do their worst to him. Perhaps with an eye toward the setting sun, Jesus urges his followers to remain loyal in the midst of the coming darkness. “As long as the light remains,” he says, “believe in the light. Once darkness overtakes you, you’ll be lost.” Where Jesus goes they cannot follow. He must walk through the valley of death’s shadow alone. By the end of this second creative week the darkness will have overcome the light.

But for those sons of light who dare to believe through the hours of the night, a new day will dawn—the first day of a new week—as the light of God’s glorious future breaks in upon the world to make it new.