Our Lord and Saviour explains to us his disciples that we are the light of the world. Our question today is; How are we the light of the world? I hope to answer this question today through some references from both the Old and New Testaments.
You are the light of the world
14 “You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden; 15 nor does anyone light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house. 16 Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works and glorify your Father who is in heaven. Matthew 5:14-16
Chiasms also exist throughout the Old Testament.
Jeff A. Benner wrote:
“As Hebrew poetry is written much differently than our own Western style of poetry, many do not recognize the poetry which can cause problems when translating or interpreting passages written in poetry.
Approximately 75% of the Hebrew Bible is poetry. All of Psalms and Proverbs are Hebrew poetry and many other books, such as the book of Genesis, are filled with poetry. The reason much of the Bible was written in poetry is that it was originally sung and stories that are sung are much easier to memorize that when simply spoken. There is much more poetry in the Bible than most realize because most people do not understand it.
The most common form of poetry in the Hebrew Bible is parallelisms, which is the expression of one idea in two or more different ways.”
[From: ancient-hebrew.org/poetry/about-hebrew-parallelism-called-chiasmus.htm]
It shouldn’t surprise us that our Lord used Chiasms in the Gospels especially in the Sermon on the Mount. Last time was saw that light is a powerful metaphor in religions of the World. After God created formless matter He then spoke:
“The Creation
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 2 The earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was moving over the surface of the waters. 3 Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light. 4 God saw that the light was good; and God separated the light from the darkness. 5 Genesis 1:1-5”
John’s Gospel is also interesting because he builds on the above motif:
“The Deity of Jesus Christ
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being. 4 In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men. 5 The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it. John 1:1-5”
Then in the I Am sayings Jesus says the following:
“Jesus Is the Light of the World
Then Jesus again spoke to them, saying, “I am the Light of the world; he who follows Me will not walk in the darkness, but will have the Light of life.” John 8:12”
When we read Jesus’ sayings on his disciples being the light of the World. We need to remember where we came from in the Sermon on the Mount. Before Jesus said these words, he taught us what his disciples are supposed to be through the beatitudes. We see a direct correlation with Jesus who is the genuine, real, only, Light of the World. As disciples of Jesus, we share this light with Him as we walk the walk of faith in complete trust and obedience by grace. There is a direct correlation between light as a metaphor and the moral walk with God. There is a direct relationship on How Jesus lived and how the disciple are supposed to live by the Help of the Holy Spirit. We can go on there is a direct relationship with the death and resurrection of Jesus and so on.
When Jesus came, he did not do away with the Old Testament. He is the Fulfillment of the Old Testament. God’s Moral litmus test cannot be reached by any human in their own capacity. This is what we already learned in the Beatitudes. The other sects in Israel at the time failed the litmus test of the beatitudes. It is only when one lets go of one’s pride and allows God to be in the driving seat through grace, faith, attitude and the enabling by the Holy Spirit who can bring a dead twig back to life. We were the dead twigs my friends but by God grace we were made alive to follow our Saviour.
However, I just want to return to the saying about the disciples being the Salt of the Earth. Salt is also a metaphor in other religion, but I just want to focus on the relations of salt to light in this section of the Sermon on the Mount.
The salt and light metaphors are saying the same thing except:
“
This structure is composed of two parallel parables. The former is negative, and the latter is positive. Readers are expected to become the latter one.
“
[From; bible.literarystructure.info/bible/40_Matthew_pericope_e.html#14
I think the work of Hajime Murai from the Future University Hakodate is very interesting because he has used IT to try to trace all of the chiasms in the Bible. If I did that by reading it would be an impossible task.]
I think the work of Hajime Murai from the Future University Hakodate is very interesting because he has used IT to try to trace all of the chiasms in the Bible. If I did that by reading it would be an impossible task.]
Reflections
Scholars say that the world is made up of science, ethics and aesthetics. Obviously, God who created the universe is the greatest of artists, ethicists and artists and we can only be a pale image of the genuine thing. In Christ however we are under the shadow of heaven and our home is not of this earth. Even as Abraham believed God and he left his home we too in the same manner hope to reach the same city ‘made without hands’.
Scripture is full of Truth Goodness and Beauty. Our Saviour is the greatest of artists and teachers who through his beautiful words prepared a path to heaven itself for us to walk. Let us walk this Trinitarian path to the Father by ‘the Two hands of God’ (the Son and the Holy Spirit (a saying by Irenaeus that Professor Gunton liked to quote while I was at kings College London))
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