The way to be full of light

Luke 11:35-37

33 ‘No one after lighting a lamp puts it in a cellar, but on the lampstand so that those who enter may see the light. 34 Your eye is the lamp of your body. If your eye is healthy, your whole body is full of light; but if it is not healthy, your body is full of darkness. 35 Therefore consider whether the light in you is not darkness. 36 If then your whole body is full of light, with no part of it in darkness, it will be as full of light as when a lamp gives you light with its rays.’

Light appears numerous times in the Bible, this week we will look at three texts that use the image of light. In today’s passage Jesus speaks, using light as a metaphor for the spiritual/inner life.

We need to know something about how people in ancient world wrote. They would often start a paragraph with an image or event (in this passage, lighting the lamp). They would then move to write about something else that was sort of related to the first topic – although at times the link is not immediately obvious (in this passage, the eye). Then they would end the paragraph by returning to the topic they had started with (in this passage, the lamp giving light). The two topics/images built on each other to give readers a deeper understanding of the author’s intentions. As modern people we sometimes struggle with this style of writing because that is not how people write today.   

To the passage from Luke: a lamp is put where its light can be seen and illuminate what is dim or dark (opening topic). The eye is a lamp – for through it light comes into the body – and parts of the body can be dark. Here the metaphor takes over – this is not physical light but spiritual light, light coming into one’s soul. So, if the eye is healthy (focussed on the things of God, which bring hope, peace, joy) then the light of God can come into the body/the soul/the person, bringing hope, peace, joy. The light of God coming through the eyes (heart/commitment/mind) will bring the light into every part of our lives, driving away the dark.

The light of God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, shines into our lives so that we can see the way to be followed as followers of Jesus Christ.

PRAYER:

God of light, shape us by the work of the Holy Spirit that we might keep our spiritual eyes focussed on you, so that the gifts of your light – hope, peace, and joy – might shine forth in our lives. In Jesus’ name. Amen.