“Make sure you can see”
By Rev. Michael Stonhouse
Meditation – Tuesday, October 25, 2022
Luke 11:27-36 (Forward, p. 88) CEV p. 1075
Jesus concludes this section with rather pointed words about the eyes and about the need to see properly and clearly if you are to live in the light rather than in darkness. It is just Jesus’ way of wrapping up, encapsulating what He has said only verses before this. He mentions two characters or groups from the Hebrew Scriptures who were able to see, the Queen of Sheba and the people of Nineveh. The Queen came a long, long way to hear and partake of Solomon’s wisdom and yet here is something much greater. And the people of Nineveh repented and turned to God when Jonah preached, and yet here again is something much, much greater. Somehow these people from the past had eyes to see, an understanding of what was about them and the ability to respond.
Why, Jesus seems to be asking, can this present generation, the generation to which He is speaking, not do the same. Why can they not hear and obey what God is saying to them? No, they harken after some other sign from God, and cannot see—there’s that word again—the signs that are clearly before them. Jesus tells them that they will indeed be given a sign, a sign eventually, the sign of Jonah, who was ‘restored’ to life after three days in the tomb of the whale’s stomach. Here Jesus is clearly referencing His own death and resurrection. But, even with this, one has to wonder, whether Jesus’ hearers will indeed see.
All of this throws the ball back into our court: the next play is ours. Will we today have the eyes to see, to see and respond when the evidence is so clearly before us—and with far more evidence than the people Jesus was addressing that day had to go on? I am continually amazed at how many people today examine the evidence before them and fail to respond to it. Perhaps it is because they don’t like where it leads. They know somehow, perhaps instinctively, that it will inevitably call forth some changes in their lives.
But then, perhaps, there is yet another dynamic at work here. Perhaps some of the people around us have never heard the evidence, never been exposed to it—so no wonder that they cannot see, cannot see—or respond. And so, it is incumbent upon us who do see and do understand— to make it available to them, to share it by word and deed. Just think then: you and I could be spiritual eye doctors, restoring spiritual sight to those who so desperately need it, even unknowingly. Let us tackle this task, together, with the help of our Lord. Amen.
Forward notes: “If then your whole body is full of light, with no part of it in darkness, it will be as full of light as when a lamp gives you light with its rays” (verse 36).
“Jesus’s teaching here reminds me of various friends that my wife and I have known in churches we’ve belonged to over the years. These friends, different in so many ways, have this thing in common: they bear the light. Sometimes it’s in their faces through their smiles or in the way their eyes always seem to light up. Sometimes it’s the quiet confidence as they complete a church task at the altar or in a classroom or the kitchen. Other times, it’s the embrace during the passing of the peace in the sanctuary, or, just as likely, the hug when you run into them in a Target store. Their bodies are full of light, seemingly with no part in darkness; they don’t have fewer problems than the rest of us; they just seem to feel and share God’s goodness, God’s light, in all that they do.”
MOVING FORWARD: “Who do you know that is full of light? Lift them up in your prayers.”