Wednesday 12 December 2012

Luke 11:33-36 The light of Christ



Light is an important symbol in this season of Advent and Christmas.  We become very aware of the importance of light, particularly with the long dark nights of winter.  This is one of the reasons why it is so nice to light up our homes with special lights at Christmas.  At Christmas we also think about how Christ, came into our dark world of sin. 

In the wonderful opening verses of John’s Gospel we read: ‘In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.  In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind.  The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome.’

Luke 11:33-36 is also about light.  It is about the Light of Christ shining in the world, and shining into our personal lives. 

In these verses it emphasises the importance of light for sight both in the physical sense and also in the spiritual sense.  If we don’t have light, or if our eyes are damaged or diseased in any way, we can become physically blind.  Likewise, we can also become spiritually blind if we do not have light.  Jesus is the light, and the eye represents our spiritual understanding and insight, that is what Jesus means when he talks about the eye being the ‘lamp of the body’  The true light of Christ allows no darkness!

So the message of this passage is our we allowing the light of Christ to fill our minds and fill our understanding?  Or are we allowing other things into our lives, which make our lives less sensitive and blot out the light of Christ’s presence, for example greed, selfishness, pride, lust, resentment… 

If you are having a hard time seeing God at work, it may be that you need to check your vision. 

No comments:

Post a Comment