Wednesday was a dark and dreary day. I love a good cold front as much as anyone else, but the drab darkness of the grey winter sky was a little too much for me. As soon as I got home, I turned on all the lights in the house. The light comforted me and changed the tone of the atmosphere. I could see better, and I began to feel better.
In this our second week in Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, we’ll hear him teaching his disciples and the multitudes, “You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be easily hidden. Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to the whole house” (Matt 5:14).
We take light for granted in our day. Just like I flipped a few switches and lit up the whole house, so might you be rather nonchalant about the miracle of light. But light in the ancient world was quite different. The rhythm of towns, villages, and whole cultures was centered around the sun’s rising and setting and the seasons that followed from the sun’s courses. So much so, that one of our oldest extant hymns in the church, Phos hilaron (“O Gladdening Light”), praises God for the light of the day and for the Supreme Light of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. So, for Jesus to tell these people that they were the light of the world was quite a startling revelation.
We’ll ponder this saying of Jesus in more depth Sunday night. See you then !
Jay+