“You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do they light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.” Matthew 5:14-16, this verse we are gonna talk about in-depth on this blog post. This is the parable of the Lamp, which was preached by Jesus during the sermon on the Mount. Why did he bring this parable up? What is it really about? Why did he use this parable, and what was the meaning to get across by the parable of the lamp? Well, we are gonna discuss this further in this blog post!
Mark 4:21-25: Also, He said to them, “Is a lamp brought to be put under a basket or under a bed? Is it not to be set on a lampstand? For there is nothing hidden which will not be revealed, nor has anything been kept secret but that it should come to light. If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear.” Then He said to them, “Take heed what you hear. With the same measure you use, it will be measured to you; and to you who hear, more will be given. For whoever has, to him more will be given; but whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him.”
What does the lampstand for? The lamp is us! The lamp is our message. When we have the light of Jesus, and His message, we aren’t supposed to hide it are we? We aren’t supposed to go to church on Sunday, get equipped with the knowledge, then just sit with that knowledge. We aren’t supposed to say, I did my duty as a Christian, I went to church, so I’m good. Right? No, Jesus told us to go out into the world and to share and spread the Good News, and let our light shine, like a city on a hill. That’s why Jesus illustrated this by a lamp. A lamp is useless when you put it under a bed or hide it, because the lamp is meant to give light, and to give light to the entire room, not just for itself. That is how we as Christians are likened to, and what we should do. We shouldn’t hide our faith, or just keep it to ourselves. When we are called to share our faith, we shouldn’t just leave it to other Christians, we would be useless. Our main purpose here on earth is to share the Good News with others, but when we keep the light and Good Message to ourselves, we aren’t doing what we were meant to do. Like the lamp, the lamp is meant to shine brightly for everyone, but when you hide the light, what is the use of the lamp? That’s why we are meant to share our light with others and be the city on the hill. We are told to share our message and to shine for all to see, we need to show Jesus through our actions, not hide our light.
Well, now here’s another question. Why did Jesus always say, “those who have ears to hear, listen to these words”? Well, when Jesus spoke in parables, he wanted only the people who were really seeking Him to hear and understand. He spoke in parables to make people think harder about His words, and to dwell on them. If they were really seeking Him, and wanted to know the truth, they would try to decipher the parable, or they would come to Him, and ask. This would show Him that they were really seeking Him, not just to go with the crowd and say they heard Him, but to really follow Him, and believe He was the Messiah.
When did He use this Parable, and why? Why did He specifically bring up this parable, and when did He, to what purpose? Jesus spoke of us being the ‘Light Of the World’, that was after talking about we were the salt of the earth. This was during the Sermon on the Mount. He brought up the Light of the world parable, so that we would be able to understand and get a better illustration of the ‘Salt-Of-The-Earth’ parable. Sometimes we don’t get one parable, but Jesus gives us a different angle, or He gives us the bigger picture, so that we could understand the parable a little better. Because the Salt of the Earth, The Light Of the World, and The Lamp parable’s all have a deeper, bigger hidden meaning, but are all based on us as Christians. He talks about how we as Christians, in all three of these parables, we should be sharing our message, and how we show our faith to others, and by doing this, we are like the salt of the earth, a city on a hill, a light that is not hidden, so that they may see and know the Jesus is Lord. Get what I mean? Jesus wants us to understand what He is saying, and we all have different ways of learning, so maybe one parable really sticks out to us, and we understand that parable, because it applies to us, while a different parable might be harder and more difficult for us to understand.
Thank you all for reading my blog post! I really hoped it gave you some insight on the parable of the Lamp. I’m so glad you all have taken the time out of your day to read this blog post, and I can’t wait to write another blog post! -Sadie
