The Purpose of Light
Written by Brian Jones
“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.”
Luke 11:33-36 ESV
Christmas is the time of year where there’s so much light and happiness around us. But it’s also during this time of year the pain of the past seems too difficult to ignore. Maybe it’s the relationship that feels broken, maybe it’s that thing you’re hiding from everyone because of guilt and shame. And we do a pretty good job hiding it, but it comes out sideways in your irritability, anxiety, or lack of motivation in life.
Today is an opportunity to learn about the purpose of light, as well as your purpose. The purpose of light is to shine. It would be weird if someone tried to hide a light. It goes against its purpose. That’s what Jesus is trying to teach them about who he is–he isn’t meant to be some part of our lives that we hide sometimes and pull out when it’s convenient. Jesus wants us to have his love and grace so evidently on display through our lives that people see it everywhere they go!
The eye has the power to go to darkness or light. What someone looks at is powerful in its connection to whether that person lives in the light or the darkness. Jesus’s hope for his followers is that they’ll be full of light, not in darkness at all. He knows that darkness traps, and light frees.
Darkness is where you hide. But light exposes. You can’t hide well in the light. Darkness has lots of unknown. But light is where you’re known, fully known. Darkness can be cold, but light brings warmth. Things die in the dark, but the light brings life and growth. Every person starts out in the darkness. Sin thrives in the dark. The gospel exposes what is done in the darkness and shines a light on it. The light is healing. The gospel says that Jesus takes my darkness and shines his light, so now I get to carry his light to anyone and everyone.
Have you ever taken the first step out of darkness into the light? Here’s what that could look like: “Jesus, I admit I am a sinner. (Share some examples of your sin with him). I believe that you died and rose again to defeat sin and death forever. Thank you for forgiving me. Give me courage to confess to someone else and walk in the new life you give.”
What is a place you’ve been looking into the darkness? Today could be the day you bring it out into the light, confess to yourself, to God, and to someone else.