The Lamp part 2

 The Lamp Part 2

Luke 8:16 "No one after lighting a lamp covers it with a jar or puts it under a bed, but puts it on a stand, so that those who enter may see the light."

In the telling of the parable of the lamp, the lamp is hidden in multiple ways: under a basket, in a vessel, under a bed, or in a cellar or secret place. For some reason, I have always focused on the lamp in this story, but is there anything that can be learned from the various hiding places Jesus spoke of not hiding the lamp?

I think the first one is pretty easy. Setting an open flame inside of a wooden basket would seem to be a recipe for disaster. I suppose we can never be a hundred percent certain, but I’m fairly sure there were no plastic five gallon buckets in first century Israel. Most buckets would have been made of wood, or possibly woven reeds or similar material. Either way, they wouldn’t have been conducive to covering live flames. Trying to cover a lamp with a basket would likely have ended in tragedy for anyone in the house.

So, I guess it goes without saying that when we hide our light, regardless how you interpret what that light might be (see The Lamp Part 1 for my muddled musings), the people around us won’t get the benefit of that light to be drawn to Jesus.

Lamps under beds would generally end much the same it seems to me, so I won’t rehash that now unless I get a flash of inspiration between now and then. But if I do you won’t know because this sentence will probably be gone.

Hiding a light in a cellar reminds me of another story Jesus told of the foolish man whose crops were so plentiful he decided to build bigger barns to store all his newfound wealth. Hiding my light in a cellar sounds a lot like trying to keep the blessing to myself. That would be as foolish and as futile as the foolish farmer’s attempt to hoard his crops, only to find that he was headed to eternity.

But what about placing a lamp inside a jar? Well, I can think of a time when God instructed someone to have his army do exactly that. I assume that much of Jesus’ audience would have thought of the same story I did, since Gideon was one of their national heroes from early in Israel’s history. Gideon had 33,000 men, which God whittled down to 300, and he did so specifically so that Israel couldn’t mistakenly believe that any victory they won would be on their own merits. With those 300, God had Gideon divide those men into 3 companies. Then he gave each man a trumpet and a jar with a torch inside. Then on Gideon’s signal, the trumpets were blown and the jars were smashed, and the light flooded out. The Midianite army destroyed itself in the confusion as God set them against each other.

But that doesn’t really contradict Jesus’ words at all. While the light was trapped inside the jars, the Midianite army was snug in camp, although dreaming less than peaceful dreams (Judges 7:13-14). But when the Israelites released the light from those jars, the power of God showed up and delivered His people from the hands of their enemies without them having to strike one single blow. The Midianite army was routed and all that was left for Israel to do was ride out and do mop-up duty.

Right back to the main point of the parable. If those of us who claim the name of Jesus will break the jars and let the light shine, Jesus will do the work. In fact, we can’t do the work ourselves.

Hopefully, that is as freeing for you as it is for me. I cannot save one single soul by my own effort, and neither can you. Billy Graham, Billy Sunday, nor any other famous evangelist named Billy - or any other name - never saved one soul by their own efforts. The only difference between Billy Graham and Joe Christian who sits two rows behind you every Sunday is willingness to do. Billy Graham heard God’s call, and instead of saying “maybe” or “I’ll think it over” or “let’s get up a committee to study it” or “I’m way too busy right now but ask again in 5 years” he just said “Yes.”

God doesn’t need me. He doesn’t need you.

BUT.

He chose human followers to be the means of carrying His message around the world.

Make no mistake. God could just show up and reveal Himself directly in all His glory. He could overpower our senses with the full weight of His being and set up a throne that would be visible to every eye on earth. He could force all humanity to worship Him today.

But if He did, we would lose the ability to decide for ourselves whether we WANT to worship Him. And God loves us too much to force Himself on us.

And so, He has ordained that the message of salvation be carried in earthen vessels - us. But if we hide the glorious light of the gospel inside of our earthen vessel, it does nobody any good. We have to let ourselves be broken so that He can shine forth and do what only He can do - draw people to Himself. He doesn’t need us to be dynamic or eloquent or super-intellectual. Just willing and faithful. That’s great good news.

2 Corinthians 4:7 But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, so that the surpassing greatness of the power will be of God and not from ourselves;