Gotta Light?

“33 “No one after lighting a lamp puts it in a cellar or under a bushel basket, but on a lampstand, so that those who come in can see the light. 34 Your eye is the lamp of the body. When your eye is sincere, your whole body is full of light also. But when it is evil, your body is dark also. 35 Therefore pay careful attention that the light in you is not darkness! 36 If therefore your whole body is full of light, not having any part dark, it will be completely full of light, as when the lamp with its light gives light to you.” (Luke 11)

Lamp on the lampstand.  Ah yeah.  I know this analogy.  Heard it before.  Jesus is the light of the world.  You are salt and light.  Your word is a lamp unto my feet.  Yep, light, light, light.  Heard it, got it, moving … wait.

Is Jesus the Lamp or am i?  What does he mean, if your eye is sincere?  How can my light be darkness?  Maybe i don’t understand this as well as I think I do.  Maybe there’s more here than immediately meets the lamp of my body.  Lord, if we may paraphrase Robin Williams in a prayer, illuminate whilst we ruminate. 

Light is everywhere in the Bible so let’s start with “lamp.”  Rule of first mention, what’s the first time anyone in the Word speaks of lamps?

“31 “And you will make a lampstand of pure gold; the lampstand will be made of hammered work—its base and its branch, its cups, its buds, and its blossoms will be from it.” (Ex 25)

Ah yeah, the Tabernacle.  The seven lamp lampstand in the Holy place.  So right off the bat we remember the Tabernacle is the sketch or rough copy of God’s heavenly throne room (Heb 8).  Position is important. “20 “And you will command the Israelites, and they will bring to you pure, beaten olive oil for the light, to cause a lamp to burn continually. 21 In the tent of assembly outside the curtain that is before the testimony, Aaron and his sons will arrange it, from evening until morning, before Yahweh as a lasting statute throughout their generations from the Israelites.” (Ex 27) A light shining continually, not in the Holy of Holies where only God can see, but in the Holy place where the priests go in and out, before the shewbread, fed continually, by sanctified priests, a special blend of olive oil.

Oil, while never explicitly explained in the Bible, is often taken to be a symbol for the office of the Holy Spirit.  It is used to anoint priests (Ex 29, Lev 8) and kings (1Sam 10, 16), often accompanied by the “rushing upon” or filling of the Spirit.  It is used to heal the sick (Mark 6, Jam 5).  The shewbread was made with it (Ex 29) and the lamps are lit with it.

So the lamp, a holy light, fed by the Spirit, tended by priests, burning in the darkness continually.  Hello, that sounds familiar!  Where have I heard of lamps that need to be trimmed in the darkness?

Proverbs 31 provides Lemuel’s description of a good wife.  “18 She perceives that her merchandise is good;


    her lamp does not go out in the night.”

Okay, yes, but there was somewhere else, somewhere more familiar.  Jesus.  When in doubt, the answer is always Jesus.  Jesus tells the parable of the wise and foolish virgins… “25 “Then the kingdom of heaven may be compared to ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom. 2 Now five of them were foolish and five were wise. 3 For when the foolish ones took their lamps, they did not take olive oil with them. 4 But the wise ones took olive oil in flasks with their lamps.” (Matt 25)  There’s that oil again.  Wives, virgins, the Bridegroom.  Jesus and King Lemuel are speaking of the church.  Whoa Nelly!  Church…church…I’ve heard of churches and lamps before too.

“12 And I turned to see the voice which was speaking with me, and when I turned, I saw seven gold lampstands, 13 and in the midst of the lampstands one like a son of man,” … “16 and he had in his right hand seven stars, and a sharp double-edged sword coming out of his mouth, and his face was like the sun shining in its strength.” … “20 As for the mystery of the seven stars which you saw in my right hand and the seven gold lampstands—the seven stars are the angels of the seven churches, and the seven lampstands are the seven churches.” (Rev 1)

Lamps are Churches, a holy light, fed by the Spirit, burning in the darkness continually.  Awesome!  If we throw in Peter’s description of the church as a “royal priesthood, a holy nation,” (1Pet 2) we got this licked!  So now we know what lamps are.  Back to Luke…

“33 “No one after lighting a lamp puts it in a cellar or under a bushel basket, but on a lampstand, so that those who come in can see the light.”  Yep, Christ has lit the Church up and he’s putting it on a stand for all the world to see.  See?  It works.  “34 Your eye is the lamp of the body. When your eye is sincere, your whole body is full of light also. But when it is evil, your body is dark also.”  So your eye is a church and …it… is…shoot!  Thought we had it there for a second. 

Whelp, “105 Your word is a lamp to my feet


and a light to my path.” (Ps 119)  Obviously we haven’t hiked far enough down this rabbit trail so back to the Word…on Monday.