learning to be the light

“You are the light of the world – like a city on a mountain, glowing in the night for all to see.”

 

- Matthew 5:14, NLT

 

It is a rather famous statement, spoken by Jesus to the masses of Galilee, Decapolis, Jerusalem, and Judea. These crowds of common folk gathered to hear the man so unlike the religious, the man who healed the incurably sick and diseased, pulled the wheelchair-bound to their feet, and gave eviction notices to demons. And this uncommon man told them, “You are the light of the world.” We miss the shock; the audacity of it is lost on us. I imagine these people hanging on Jesus’ every word, only to erupt with murmurs upon hearing this. Perhaps even a few whispers of “blasphemy” or “heresy” punctuated the tumult. “Who are you talking to, Jesus? Surely not us! We are not societal elites. We are the rabble, mere ordinaries.” But it was to them that Jesus spoke, as he speaks to us now.

 

In this, what Jesus was really saying was, “You are like me. You can do what I do.” After all, this is the very same designation he used for himself in John’s Gospel: “I am the light of the world” (8:12, 9:5). Certainly he wasn’t speaking of saving humanity from sin; nor was he saying, as some suppose, that we can become “enlightened” and thus, our own saviors. These are obvious perversions of his teachings. He was, however, stating quite forcefully and in no uncertain terms that we can follow in his footsteps, illuminating planet Earth with the radiant glory of God.

 

Something within us, like the itinerant crowds, bristles at this notion. Our straight-laced upbringing cries sacrilege: “I am too unworthy, too much of a sinner, too far fallen!” And so we prophesy, self-fulfilling. We forget that we were created in God’s image. We disregard that Jesus’ mission was the ransom and restoration of God’s original, flawless design in us. We settle for spiritual mediocrity, chanting our mantra of “just a sinner saved by grace.” But in emphasizing our failures over the fact that we are the redeemed, we are really saying to Jesus, “I don’t believe you. No, not me, you must have the wrong person. My flaws are greater than your grace.”

 

What happened to becoming a new creation – “old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new” (2 Corinthians 5:17)? Perhaps the devil stole that blessed promise from us. Perhaps he has convinced us that orthodoxy means living a defeated life. But God forbid! We were created to blaze with the very light that illuminated Jesus’ face at the Transfiguration. We were made for glory – not our own, but to reflect that of our Creator. Friends, it is high time that we begin taking Jesus at his word. Together, let us begin to say, “We are the light of the world.”