Luke 11:33-36 Lighting the soul

Luke 11:33-36 Jesus talks about light and darkness in the soul. Parallel passages in Matt 5:15-16, Mark 4:21-22. Perhaps this passage is an introduction to the section that follows, as Jesus was saying that the Pharisees had turned light into darkness. Jesus' primary point is that the purpose of light is to enable people to see clearly. Seeing can be inhibited when the light is hidden, or when the eye has a problem. In Jesus' day, lacking modern optometry and ophthalmology, peoples' sight would have been much more commonly impaired. Things that we routinely mitigate with eyeglasses, for example, or various treatments for glaucoma, cataracts, etc, would have seriously affected people's vision. So Jesus was using this as a metaphor.

         We might wonder what light is a metaphor for. The law was God's initial revelation to the Jews, and certain the section that follows talks about the Pharisees' and lawyers' misuse of the law. The section that preceded it talked about the preaching of Jonah and the wisdom of Solomon. The common thread is the revelation of God. He gave Moses the law as a blessing to the children of Israel. He gave Solomon wisdom greater than anyone who preceded him, and probably greater than anyone who followed him, apart from Christ Himself. Jonah preached repentance to the people of Nineveh, and with the power of God, they repented. He implores His listeners to allow God's self-revelation to fully illumine their lives, to allow no dark spot to remain hidden or shielded from the illumination of God's revelation. (Luke 11:36)

         Right! All have sinned and come short of the glory of God. (Romans 3:23) Who among us does not have areas in our life that we want to shield from God's sight, His judgment, His correction? It may be something that we did in the past that we do not want to own responsibility for, or want to avoid consequences of; it may be a secret vice that we do not want to let go; it may even be an ability or a strength in our life that we draw self-image and pride from, and do not want to lose. But what Jesus is telling us is that it all needs to come into the light, to be fully illuminated by God's revelation. And He provides the way: Forgiveness for our sins through His blood on the cross; Deliverance from the sins and strongholds that control our life now; A new identity in Christ through which we derive our worth not from our own strengths or accomplishments, but through allowing God to use us in His ways so that His glory is revealed through us.