Your Eye is a Lamp

Luke 11v33-36

No one lights a lamp and puts it in a place where it will be hidden or under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand. So that those who come in may see the light. Your eye is the lamp of your body. When your eyes are healthy, your whole body also is full of light. But when they are unhealthy, your body also is full of darkness. See to it then, that the light within you is not darkness. Therefore, if your whole body is full of light and no part of the dark, it will be just as full of light as when a lamp shines its light on you.

How we see the world and others matters. The health of our eyes is of extreme importance because our eyes allow us to see the world around us. It is the lantern of life. Our perspective and viewpoint are affected. If our lamp is shaded or hidden, by what fills it. Jesus knows that our lives can be affected by not only what we see, but also how we see the world. The window in which we see the world will also affect the lens on how we see our lives and others around us. This is why Jesus' invitation to be born again, results not only in new life, but in new eyes. If you aren't born again, you cannot see the Kingdom. So what keeps us from seeing the Kingdom? Jesus says, if you hide a lamp, you won't be able to see.

Therefore, if darkness can get our eyes to believe they are opened by hiding in darkness, it will keep us from Kingdom vision. Not only will we not see the light. But we won't be able to see everything else because of it. The Kingdom of darkness, with all its shadow of turning, adjust our eyes to acquire a taste for darkness. And as our eyes begin to fill with darkness, we become what we consume, our eyes aren't just an entry point. They are also a vista in which we view life.

Jesus says, if your eyes are filled with the Kingdom of darkness, you will see the world and others in judgment, condemnation, and criticism.

We will become the blind leading the blind.

But if our eyes are filled with the Kingdom of Light, if we drink in from the deep wells of the Light of the world, we will see everything with eyes to forgive and eyes to receive. Jesus calls us to see the reality of sin and darkness, but also to lay down our stone. The Kingdom longs for purity of heart, not biased by works or performance, but free from worldly influences entirely dependent on faith

Because a pure heart is free from obstruction and darkness and those that are pure of heart, they will see God. Because the Kingdom is hidden in the mundane, ordinary, in everyday life. And with every gaze from a citizen of the Kingdom, turns the world into a beautiful sunrise because those in the Kingdom are a ray, but the King is the sun.

The King's word and truth is the fire and we are the wick.

So don't hide your light. Let it shine.