Luke 11:33-36  A short passage. Spoiler alert: the whole point is we need to read it. If your Bible isn’t nearby, give it a read here:

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke%2011%3A33-36&version=NLT

Remember the part where I said I wasn’t a theologian? This is one of those passages where it becomes a little more obvious.  I read this, and I’m not immediately sure why Jesus said this stuff about eyes and light.  

When I get stuck like this I try to simplify the parts to see how they might fit together. I also look at the context.  While I’m doing that, I pray and ask God to help me notice the things he wants me to see in this text.  

So, for context, people are misunderstanding Jesus in so many ways.  Some claim he is demonic.  Others are just hoping to see something cool.  In the meantime, he is trying to prepare them for the kingdom of God and help them understand that he is the fulfillment of God’s promises of a rescuer for Israel.

So he says, light is for making stuff visible.  Your eye is what lets the light into your life. When your eyes work well, you see light.  When they are failing, you can’t.  Examine what you see, to make sure it isn’t darkness.  If you are full of light, you’ll be able to see just fine. 

And there it is!  The context is relevant too.  Jesus is saying light is light.  You don’t hide light.  It’s visible to everyone.  I think in this context, the light is a metaphor for the message Jesus is bringing.  Then he says, if your eyes work, you see.  If they don’t, you don’t see.  So if you are understanding the message correctly it’s because your eyes are working.  If you aren’t, it’s because your eyes aren’t working.  You may think you are seeing something but your bad eyes are playing tricks on you.  Imagine if you lived your whole life severely myopic, so anything in the distance just looked fuzzy.  You might start to assume that far off stuff actually is fuzzy.  If your eyes are bad, you can’t see what the light is shining on no matter how bright it is.  Be careful your eyes are seeing clearly before you start making assumptions about what is in front of you.  If your eyes don’t work, you shouldn’t trust them. 

I think Jesus is warning them to carefully examine their assumptions about God and their assumptions about him.  If you filter everything through inaccurate assumptions, you are going to end up with inaccurate conclusions.  Certainly the religious leaders of Jesus’ day had come to some wrong conclusions about him.  

Maybe it is also significant that in other books of the Jewish scriptures the word of God is referred to as a light.  So maybe Jesus was saying, go get the light.  Shine it on my teaching.  Light is light.  The truth is the truth.  If you’re not seeing it, your heart is the problem, not the light levels in the room. 

This is actually something I need to hear pretty much every day.  I am SO quick to rely on my own intuition.  I am so ready to assume my understanding of things is accurate and fair.  But my spiritual eyes aren’t great (and don’t get me started on my physical eyes!)  I have the Holy Spirit in my life but I’m not always listening.  My gut reaction isn’t always in line with God’s teaching. Thankfully the light is available to me, it’s right here in God’s word.  This is why we are reading through it together. This is a necessary exercise because unless we are bringing the circumstances and questions of our lives under the filter of the Bible, we are in danger of using a light that isn’t light at all.