|
Resources
Articles
Important faith topics
Testimonies
Experiences of our
partners
Community Blog
A dialog between us
Recommended Media
Books, audio, and video
External Links
Help from others
To offer feedback about this article or to
check out other blog entries of mine, go to:
gospel-al.blogspot.com.
|
A QUESTION OF LIGHT – Part 1
Allen P. Goff
February 26, 2007
In this
article we will investigate the metaphor found in Matthew 5:14, where
Christ proclaimed, “You are the light of the world.” We will further
explore the biblical definition of light.
The
metaphor is located in, what is known as, the Sermon on the Mount. John
Stott wrote that the Sermon on the Mount is “the best-known part of the
teaching of Jesus,” the “least understood,” and the “least obeyed.”[1]
This is an indication that perhaps Christians are experiencing an
identity crisis. We may, during the course of this essay, interchange
the term Christian with disciple. The Sermon on the Mount contrasts a
disciple’s life compared to life in the world. According to Jesus’
teaching, the two are mutually exclusive. Christians should be
countercultural; but, most of all, Christians should be like Jesus
(John 13:15, Phil 2:5).[2]
A WORLD IN NEED OF LIGHT
On
Christmas Eve, 1968, while orbiting the moon for the first time in
history, the crew of the Apollo 8 broadcasted words from the creation
story of the Bible. They read:
. . . .
And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. God saw that
the light was good, and He separated the light from the darkness. God
called the light “day,” and the darkness he called “night.” And there
was evening, and there was morning—the first day. (Gen 1:1-5)
One thing
that was needed in 1968 was light. A pall of darkness had fallen on the
world. North Korea seized the U.S. Navy ship Pueblo; the North
Vietnamese launched the Tet Offensive, a turning point in the Vietnam
War; and American soldiers massacred 347 civilians at My Lai. Two major
American leaders, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Senator Robert
Kennedy, were shot and killed.[3]
 The three
astronauts, Borman, Lovell, and Anders, were pictured on the cover on
the first 1968 edition of TIME Magazine.[4]
They were chosen as Men of the Year for 1968, recognizing them as the
most influential people of the preceding year. Their successful mission
represented hope, like the rising of the brightly lit earth they had
photographed peering over the horizon of the desolate lunar landscape.
In the 21st Century, times seem just as dark. The world is
weary of the media persistently reporting on war, of natural calamities,
and of death. Like the Psalmist of Scriptures, "Many are asking, “Who
can show us any good?” (Ps 4:6a).
AN HISTORICAL REFERENCE TO LIGHT
After the
Flood, God chose one man, Abraham, to light the world. Abraham was
chosen so that “all peoples on earth will be blessed” through him
(Gen 12:2-3). When Abraham was feeling small and helpless because he had
“not yet received the things promised” (Heb 11:3), God took him outside
to show him a night sky filled with stars. God said to him, “Look up at
the heavens and count the stars—if indeed you can count them. . . . So
shall your offspring be” (Gen 15:5). It was not the black background
that Abraham focused on, but the thousand points of light that bolstered
his faith. At that moment, he no longer depended on his own human
abilities, but he believed God (Gen 15:6) who had placed all the stars
in the sky (Ps 136:7).
In his
1989 inaugural speech, President George H.W. Bush encouraged a new age
of volunteerism and hope with a similar metaphor, saying, “I have spoken
of a thousand points of light, of all the community organizations that
are spread like stars throughout the nation, doing good.”[5]
Throughout their history, Israel struggled to believe the promise. Their
unbelief and disobedience to the covenant often led them into darkness.
But, God sent prophets to them to call them to repentance and to bring them
hope for a better day. Such was the case when Isaiah spoke, not only for
their present time, but for a time hundreds of years into their future,
when he said:
Nevertheless, there will be no more gloom for those who were in
distress. . . . The people walking in darkness have seen a great light;
on those living in the land of the shadow of death a light has dawned. (Isa 9:1-2)
What did
Isaiah mean by alluding to a light? Obviously, it can mean little else
but a reference to the Messiah. Several verses later, Isaiah makes this
clear when he declares, “For to us a child is born, to us a son is
given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be
called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of
Peace” (Isa 9:6). It is, therefore, through this Messiah that God
fulfilled his covenant to Abraham that “all peoples on earth will be
blessed through you” (Gen 12:3).
The
Hebrew Scriptures tell the story of how God chose Israel to teach the
rest of the world about Him. He called them a kingdom of priests and a
holy nation (Ex 19:6). Why would God call them priests? What is
significant about this title? A priest does not live for himself.
Instead, he lives purposefully as an intercessor between God and man.
Paul reminded the Church of Rome of his priestly duty of proclaiming the
gospel of God to the Gentiles (Rom 15:16). The duty of a priest is
defined in Hebrews where it states: “Every high priest is selected from
among men and is appointed to represent them in matters related to God,
to offer gifts and sacrifices for sins” (5.1). It follows, then, that a
kingdom of priests would have the distinction of making God known to the
other nations for the purpose of establishing a relationship between
them. In one sense, God chose Israel to bring the world spiritual light.
Peter extended this notion to the church when he told the church: “But you are
a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging
to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of
darkness into his wonderful light” (1 Pet 2:9).
The
nation of Israel arose from a small nomadic tribe to settle into Canaan,
the land promised to Abraham’s descendants. Their location was
significant to their mission. They stood along the major trade routes
between the northeastern civilizations of Assyria, Persia, and Babylon,
to the north, and the south western empire of Egypt. Although the
Arabian Desert was on their eastern border, the Mediterranean offered
them nautical access to the continents of Europe and Africa. Ray Vander
Laan suggests that Israel was on the “crossroads of the world.”[6]
Israel
was on display for all to see. When they sinned, the nations observed
that God punished them. When Israel lived in holy obedience, the nations
observed how God blessed them. Representative of their holiness was the
temple worship in Jerusalem. In a pilgrim’s song, it reads: “Jerusalem,
well-built city, built as a place for worship! The city to which the
tribes ascend, all God's tribes go up to worship, To give thanks to the
name of God—this is what it means to be Israel” (Ps 122:3-4, Msg). The
Midrash is a compilation of commentaries on the Tanakh (the Old
Testament). It states: “Jerusalem is the light of the world. And who is
the light of Jerusalem? The Holy One, blessed be He” (Breishith Rabba
59:8).[7]
 The contents of the
temple were even more significant than Jerusalem or the temple itself.
It contained the Ark of the Covenant, which in turn, contained the
stones on which the Ten Commandments (the Word of God) were carved. The
Ark represented God’s presence, or glory (doxa), and so it was
positioned in the most holy place in the temple. Besides other contents,
there was a lamp stand (menorah). According to J.D. Douglas, “The
lamp stand often symbolically represents God's perfect leadership in
showing his people their way. It also represents the Holy Spirit.”[8]
It might be suggested that these two things, the Word of God and the
Holy Spirit, residing in the Christian, are the sources that make the
Christian the light of the world that Jesus refers to in Matthew 5:14.
Moreover, the allusion to the City of Jerusalem might represent the
observable positioning of Christians as a “city on a hill.”
Go to
Part 2 of this article
1 John R. Stott. The
Message of the Sermon on the Mount. (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity
Press, 1978), 15.
2 Unless otherwise specified, all Scripture
references are from the New International Version of the Bible.
3 "1968." Year by Year. Fact Monster. (Upper
Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education, publishing as Fact Monster,
2000–2007), 24 Feb 2007 <http://www.factmonster.com/year/1968.html>
4 “Men of the Year.” TIME Magazine. 3 January
1978.
5 Inaugural Address of
George Bush January 20, 1989. The Avalon Project at Yale Law School. (21
February 2007) <http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/presiden/inaug/bush.htm>.
6 Raynard Vander Lann.
That the World May Know: Teacher’s/Leader’s Guide for Faith Lessons
1-5. (Colorado Springs: Focus on the Family, 1995), 11.
7 Samuel Rapaport, tr. Tales and Maxims from
the Midrash. (New York: E.P. Dutton, 1907) Scanned at sacred-texts.com,
January 2003. J.B. Hare redactor. 63.
8 J.D. Douglas.
“Light.” New International Encyclopedia of Bible Words. Revised
ed. (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1999).
Back to Top |
