Light for All
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
Last year a show was reintroduced to America: Quantum Leap. It was based off of a show from the late 80s and early 90s by the same name. The premise of the show is that a scientist has learned to time travel within his own lifetime, leaping into bodies of people to put right what once went wrong. I don’t think I ever missed an episode, which took some doing as it came on on Wednesday nights right after our midweek service at church. We lived behind the church through some woods and I would race down the trail we had made and get home just in time to watch it.
There were a lot of great episodes. One in which the main character Sam was trying to stop Lee Harvey Oswald from assassinating Kennedy. Another where he played himself as a kid and then leaped into his brother in Vietnam. So many good episodes! But there’s one that ranks very high on my list. It may be my favorite. He plays a blind concert pianist. Of course, he’s not blind, but he has to pretend because the body he has leaped into is a man who is blind and everyone knows he’s blind.
At one point he gets caught reading the ingredients of some dog food by the mother of this blind man’s girlfriend, who hates him as she does all men. The girlfriend in the original timeline of history was murdered by a serial killer. Sam had leaped in to stop it. At one point near the end, Sam is scrambling through a crowd and a camera flash went off right in his eyes causing temporal blindness. This happened right before the mother attempted to show her daughter that he could really see and wasn’t blind at all. She lit a match to light her cigarette and instead shoved it right in front of his eyes. He didn’t flinch; he just sits there oblivious. He had no idea what she’d done because he could not see due to the flash. In the end, he saves the girl’s life, changes the heart of the mother, and restoring the relationship between her and her mom.
This morning, we’re looking at light and darkness, vision and blindness. Ultimately, Jesus is speaking about these opposites in reference to himself and the effect he has on our holiness. And what we see are four micro-lessons in these few short verses that we need to hear and meditate on so we can see the macro-lesson, the overarching lesson of Jesus and his effect on our holiness. The first lesson has to do with purpose. The second has to do with power. The third lesson is a paradox. And the fourth has to do with the product.
Purpose
Power
Paradox
Product
“No one after lighting a lamp puts it in a cellar or under a basket, but on a stand, so that those who enter may see the light.
Your eye is the lamp of your body. When your eye is healthy, your whole body is full of light, but when it is bad, your body is full of darkness.
Therefore be careful lest the light in you be darkness.
If then your whole body is full of light, having no part dark, it will be wholly bright, as when a lamp with its rays gives you light.”
Purpose
Purpose
Keep in mind that the macro-lesson is about Jesus and his effect upon our holiness. Jesus is teaching this so that everyone who heard or reads about this event would understand him and his purpose in their lives. Thus, the first micro-lesson that we see is about purpose—the purpose of light and the purpose of our eyes.
This lesson seems pretty straightforward as most great lessons are. The purpose of light is to help people see. Most of us have probably wished at some point in our lives that we had utilized light while walking through the house in the dead of night. We’ve stepped on a Lego, kicked the dog, tripped over a shoe, or nearly broken a toe or a shin on a piece of furniture. Light helps us see.
That’s why when we turn on a light, we don’t hide the light. It’s counterproductive to its purpose. Again, we’ve probably all had an experience when we turned on the light and someone shouted for us to turn it off. Maybe a surprise party, or maybe a sleeping teenage kid that you’re trying to wake up and they refuse. You want to see where you’re going so you flip the light on. The party-goers want to hide in secret and want you to stop shining the light. You want the light to flood the eyes of your child who went to bed at 4 am; they want to sleep until 4 pm. You get yelled at for utilizing light the way it was intended.
So Jesus says,
“No one after lighting a lamp puts it in a cellar or under a basket, but on a stand, so that those who enter may see the light.
Do you see the words, “so that”? That’s the Greek word “hina” which is used to bring about the idea of purpose. It’s always good to take note of purpose. A couple of years ago, I said that we need to watch out for the word “because,” and now I want us to look out for the words, “so that.” “Because” gives us a reason for something and “so that” gives us the purpose behind something. In this case, the purpose of lamp is to give light. Really there is nothing profound in that by itself.
But remember that this lesson on purpose is a micro-lesson. Clearly, Jesus doesn’t want to just give a lesson on the purpose of a lamp in and of itself. He’s really referring to himself.
God sent Jesus into this world to give it light. That’s one of his main purposes. Just like one does not hide the light once it’s lit, so God does not hide Jesus once his ministry has begun.
Many in the crowd, especially the Jewish leaders, just want Jesus to lay low, to go away, to stop bothering them and messing with the status quo. The problem was that everyone is walking in darkness; they just don’t know it. Like the teen that wants the light to get turned off, so the crowds want Jesus to hide himself; snuff the lamp out.
The word “cellar,” in the original, is actually a word in which we get our word “cryptic.” It simply means a hiding place. Thus, no one lights a lamp and then puts it into hiding. But that’s exactly what some want Jesus to do. Go hide. At the same time, no one lights a lamp and then puts it under a basket. These baskets were sometimes used to snuff out a lamp, depriving it of oxygen, but more often as covers.
Think about Gideon who was going off to fight the Midianites. They wanted to attack them by surprise, so what did they do?
And he divided the 300 men into three companies and put trumpets into the hands of all of them and empty jars, with torches inside the jars.
Gideon wanted the light—he needed the light, but he didn’t want the light to be seen too soon. Thus, he hid the light. This is the exception that proves the rule. There has to be an extraordinary exception to hiding a light in a jar/basket.
Many wanted Jesus to take Gideon’s approach. It wasn’t so bad that he had light or even was the light, so long as he didn’t shine his light. He needed to keep those teachings to himself. All those parables needed to stop. Stop drawing the crowds away from the rabbis. Stop talking about the kingdom of God. Stop putting the light in front of people.
Beloved, the world hasn’t changed. No body minds if we have the light of Christ in our lives so long as it stays hidden within us. And understand that kindness and niceness aren’t the light of Christ. We are called to be kind for sure. But the light of Christ is the gospel message of sin, repentance, and salvation in him alone. The world says keep that light to yourself. No one wants to see that!
That leads us to the second purpose. The purpose of the eyes.
Luke 11:34 (ESV)
Your eye is the lamp of your body.
In other words, the eye’s purpose is to let the light into the rest of us. The light that we let in only comes in by the eyes. It’s why we have eyes. Again, not too profound. God gave us eyes for us to see. He gave us eyes to let the light in and illumine our minds and our hearts and our souls. We get that with physical life, our physical eyes. We often forget it when it comes to our spiritual eyes, our spiritual life.
Power
Power
Which leads us to the second micro-lesson. The first was the purpose of light and eyes. The second has to do with the power of the eye.
Your eye is the lamp of your body. When your eye is healthy, your whole body is full of light, but when it is bad, your body is full of darkness.
Do you see the power that the eye has? It has the power to fill you with light or the power to fill you with darkness. The difference as to whether light or darkness is let in has to do with the state of the eye. Is it healthy or bad?
The word healthy there is the Greek word “hapLOUS.” It means literally means, “simple,” but the idea it conveys is one lacking guile. In other words, the eyes are wide open without any preconceived notion. They are wide open and sincerely looking for answers. There are no ulterior motives. For instance, the adverbial form is used in
If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him.
The word generously is the adverbial form of “hapLOUS.” God gives generously, sincerely. He gives with no ulterior motives.
Thus to have a healthy eye is to have an eye that is open to what God is up to, what he is doing. It’s an eye that is looking for the light without any agenda or preconceived notion.
What about the bad eye? That word for “bad” is the Greek word “poneROS.” It literally means “evil.” Yes. It’s the evil eye. There are two kinds of evil eyes. There’s the superstitious evil eye that is believed to be a look of cursing. Then there is the simpler evil eye, which is just a look of suspicion. It’s the sideways glance. It’s the looking down the nose. It’s the squinting and angry eye. This is more like what Jesus is speaking about.
If the people look with an evil eye, an eye that is full of suspicion and hatred and anger, there will be darkness in the body.
And it is interesting that Jesus used this word and I think it was on purpose. Keep in mind that even though we took a break between the text we read and studied last week and the one we are studying this week, there was no break as far as Luke’s writing is concerned. Do you see anything that would connect what Jesus said last week to what we are reading this week (vs. 29-32)?
When the crowds were increasing, he began to say, “This generation is an evil generation. It seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of Jonah.
This generation is an evil (poneRA) generation and therefore has an evil (poneROS) eye. This is why they wanted Jesus to hide his light in a hidden place or at least put it under a basket so they don’t have to see him with it. They were an evil generation with an evil eye. They did not want their bodies flooded with the light that Jesus was bringing.
As we read in John,
And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil.
Do you see how much power lies within the eye. If it’s a sincere eye that is looking for light, it will find it and the body will be flooded with light.
You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart.
But if it is an evil eye that looks with suspicion and anger, it brings only darkness to the body.
And let’s be honest here. This is our natural condition. We are born in the kingdom of darkness. We are born with an evil eye. We are born blind to Christ and his glorious light. We are all born in our sin and perishing in our sin. We are given the gospel message of light, but in our own sin and evil eye, we do not see it. As Paul wrote,
And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing.
In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.
And we will remain this way unless God gives us sight. Clearly, the eyes are a metaphor on one level. One does not need to see in order to see. One does not need eyes to see Jesus clearly. The people of Jesus’s day certainly saw Jesus and all that he was and had done. They’d see the resurrection and yet look on it with an evil eye rather than repent and be flooded with his glorious light. But we believe based upon witnesses, never having seen the miracles ourselves and never having witnessed the resurrection ourselves. We see with our hearts and our minds. But we see only because God has given us sight.
For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
There is great power in the eyes. But not in our hearts. Our hearts are powerless to overcome the evil we are born into . It is only when God the Father says, “Let there be light” that we see with a healthy, sincere eye and a healthy, sincere heart.
Paradox
Paradox
Which then leads us to the third micro-lesson. The first was the purpose of light and of our eyes. The second is the power of the eye and of God. The third is about a paradox.
Therefore be careful lest the light in you be darkness.
That’s an interesting saying isn’t it? It seems contradictory. How can the light in us be darkness? It’s a paradox, that which seems contradictory but can be explained.
Let’s go back to Quantum Leap and Sam Beckett. A flash went off in his eyes, blinding him to everything else. The way that they depicted it in the show was red, orange, and white flashes going off in the eyes. He couldn’t see true light because his eyes were filled with false light brought on by the flashbulb of a camera.
This is Satan’s strategy so many times. It isn’t to keep people in utter darkness and blackness. But to give them false lights that cause them to never see the true light. Like using a filter, the true light never gets in and so the body, the heart, the mind, the soul, is just as dark as if there were no light at all.
This was the issue that the people of Jesus’s day were facing. Their light—their teachings from their rabbis, the Pharisees, the Sadducees, or whoever else they aligned themselves with, were incomplete. They were were defective and false. They believed themselves to be people of the light because they had the law and the traditions. But for many the traditions outshone the law, and for others they completely misunderstood the law.
And Jesus gave warning. Be careful. Literally “Look out” or “watch out!” The word is where we get our word for “scope,” as in microscope or telescope. It is to look or watch. Be watchful, look out, watch out, lest all this light you think you have turns out to actually darken the soul because it keeps you from seeing me as the only light.
We live in a day and age where we can get anything at the drop of a hat. It used to be that we’d have to seek out the quack jobs that teach stuff that sounds right and good at first and without further scrutiny is believable. We used to have to stay up late watching false teachers who paid to be on television. Or we’d have to watch certain television channels on our cable or satellite dishes. Today we have YouTube and TikTok. Through their algorithms we may look up someone that is spot on theologically speaking, but the algorithms can’t tell the difference between good and bad teaching—teaching that leads to more light or that which leads to darkness—more of Jesus or more of man-centeredness, more of heaven or more of this world. It sees tags and clicks and likes. So suddenly we are inundated with the quack jobs that make a lot of sense and appeal to our own ways of thinking and traditions and desires and suddenly, we are letting in more and more darkness and we can’t figure out why we are becoming the way we are. Why are we becoming paranoid? Why are we worrying? Why are we suddenly confused and disagreeing with people we’ve never had an issue with before?
Could it be all the darkness masquerading as light that we are putting before our eyes bringing darkness into our bodies? “Be careful, lest the light in you be darkness.”
Product
Product
And this leads us to the fourth micro-lesson. The product that comes from light.
If then your whole body is full of light, having no part dark, it will be wholly bright, as when a lamp with its rays gives you light.”
If we’re careful about what is going in, so that the light of Christ goes in and the darkness that masquerades as light is kept out, then who we are (and as a result, what we do) will change. “It will be wholly bright - that’s the result. That’s the product that is produced by bringing in more light. Holiness—light—will have its full effect.
Jesus isn’t saying that we can avoid every bit of darkness. What he is saying is that we avoid bringing that darkness inward. Jesus in his light, shining through the eyes and into the body produces a holy character and holy living. How is this possible? Because the light of Jesus is shining and dispelling the darkness.
But when anything is exposed by the light, it becomes visible,
for anything that becomes visible is light. Therefore it says, “Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.”
The simile is there. “As when a lamp with its rays gives you light.” Literally, as when a lamp with (or by) its flashes gives you light.” If we were to think of an oil lamp or a candle even, we know that it dispels darkness. The candle flickers here and flickers there constantly, almost as if it is fighting the darkness back. It’s almost like a battle going on. The light as already won, as it has brought illumination where there was once only darkness. But the darkness tries hard to come against it and it swipes at the darkness here and it strikes at it a second later there. So it is with Jesus.
If you’re wanting a holy life, a life wholly bright—having no part dark, then the eyes must be healthy. They must be open and sincere, no doubting, no suspicions, no secret agendas, and we don’t substitute the true light for darkness masquerading as light. We are careful to test the spirits for many false prophets have gone out into the world. Many deceivers have gone out in to the world.
There are other ways of saying this same thing. Paul tells us that we should set our minds on things above where Christ is and not on this earth. Or to the Philippians he wrote,
Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.
Flood the mind, the body, the soul with light. Not with darkness masquerading as light.
Much like what we’ve seen over the past few weeks, there is a choice between two. The kingdom of God or the kingdom of Satan, gathering or scattering, evil or holiness, light or darkness. If it is not the light of Christ that goes through the eye into the body then it is darkness that we let in. We’d like to think things are neutral, but they really aren’t. And certainly there are things that we cannot help but see, but let’s be honest. There are quite a few things that we do want to see and open our eyes to see. And we do so without the least little thought as to how it shapes us in sanctification or molds us in despair. We watch television and movies and documentaries and videos uncritically. How does what is being presented here align with the light of Christ and his word? Rarely do we ask that question. And so rather than shining light on the darkness we let in, the darkness is given room—somewhere in the back away from the light. But one day it will set its own eyes on the light but for the sole purpose of expelling it from the body.
Conclusion
Conclusion
As we finish this section, I said a few times that these are micro-lessons of the main lesson: who is Jesus? He is the light that everyone at some point in life wants to be hidden. And it is also a lesson on how his light affects our holiness, our peace, our joy. And so we’ve seen step by step through these micro-lessons how that is true. Jesus is the light and was set out so all could see. Whoever looks with open and sincere eyes will see and be filled with light but those who look through slanted, suspicious evil eyes will be filled with darkness. If we’re bent on sticking with our traditions rather than Christ, our light will actually show itself to be darkness, but if we let that go and look truly and sincerely to Christ, he will expel the darkness in us and we will ultimately be wholly bright.
There may be some here who are not looking at Jesus with sincere eyes. You may have been going to church your entire life, but always with an evil eye. The light hasn’t shone in you because you’ve never saw any of these things—these teachings, these songs, these prayers, etc.—as nothing more than a bunch of things hypocrites do or even the opposite. It’s what good, moral people do. But you’ve never actually opened your eyes to Jesus. Let me encourage you to do so today.
Some have, but most of us still haven’t yet dealt with dark matters. There are areas in which we keep our eyes on this or that. Or perhaps its rather new. We’ve picked up this or that on YouTube or TikTok or Instagram, etc. Unwittingly or wittingly, we’ve allowed false lights to bring darkness into us. Looking to those thoughts, those philosophies, those celebrities to counter the light of Christ. Today can be the day of repentance, exposing the darkness and having Christ shine brighter than ever.
Prayer
Our heavenly Father,
You are the Father of light and in you there is no shadow or turning. You sent your Son into the world to be the Light of the World and yet we in love with our own evil stayed in darkness until you said “let there be light” in our eyes so that we could see Jesus in his glory. But we confess that even in the midst of seeing and knowing that glory, our eyes turn to things that sparkle and glow and pretend to give light, but flood us with darkness. We are not so careful about our light being darkness.
Forgive us of this. And strengthen our gaze. Let us see more of Christ. Let us think more of him who is true, honorable, just, pure—him who is lovely, commendable, excellent, and worthy of praise. Turn our eyes from looking at worthless things; give us life in your ways. And then may we flood this world unashamedly with the light of Jesus.
Thank you for your grace. Thank you for your Son. Thank you for light.
In Jesus’s name we pray. Amen.