Jesus’ final week was, among other things, a great Summing Up—his way of emphasizing one last time what really matters. In today’s reading, Jesus linked life (the seed) and light to describe himself, the same two words John used in the Prologue to his Gospel (1:5). It is a linkage that began in Creation, where light engendered all of life, across the spectrum, from the smallest particle to the farthest star.

Light enlivens. As the light of the world (John 8:12), the Word was the light of all people (John 1:4). The desire of the Greeks to meet with Jesus is John’s way of pointing this out. As the incarnation of God—as the universal Christ—Jesus did indeed draw all people to himself.

We live in a God-saturated cosmos. The light gives life to everyone coming into the world (John 1:9). No one is bereft of this light. Nothing in all creation is without it. And because the light is in us, we are drawn, as the Greeks were, to light wherever we find it.

Light also exposes. In the verse just before the beginning of today’s reading (12:19), the Pharisees are deeply troubled that “the whole world” has gone after Jesus—instead of after them. As light, Jesus exposed the failures of the religious/political system they had built—a system that worked to their advantage. Jesus’ light exposed all that, and they didn’t like it—not one bit. System builders never do like it. They push back whenever light reveals that their status quo has become a sacred cow.

To walk this Holy Week journey just like John is to walk in the light as Jesus did (see 1 John 1:7), and, like Jesus, it is to become light and life for others.