You are the Light of the World
A Parable
You are the light of the world. A city situated on a mountain cannot be concealed. Neither do they ignite a lamp and place it under the measuring vessel, but upon the lamp stand, and it illuminates all who are in the house. So allow your light to shine before people so that they see your good works and glorify your Father in the heavens. Matthew 5:14-16
One of the church songs I learned very early on (with hand gestures) was “This little light of mine, I’m gonna let it shine.” My kids learned it too. And of course the song comes straight from this passage: “Let your light shine before men.”
The song is great, but to pigeonhole this passage of scripture into “this-little-light-of-mine” theology is to ignore the depths of what Jesus has to tell us.
There is way more here.
Parables
One of the brilliant aspects of Jesus’s teachings was his use of everyday images.
He is most well-known for using the everyday in his parables: seeds and soil, wine, oil, wheat, pearls, hidden treasure, fish, sheep, goats and other elements either form the core of many stories or spice them up.
But the classic parables were not the only place he used images to illustrate his message.
He often threw these images into his ordinary teaching and he does so right here in the Sermon. He already used salt; now he refers to light. Later on he refers to moths, rust, lillies, birds, dogs, pigs, fish, and snakes.
Jesus did not make a distinction between the spiritual correspondences in his parables and in his other teachings.
There is a larger spiritual reality waiting to be discovered in all of them.
The images are all comparisons or metaphors of some sort and not concerned with the thing itself—every time we see one of these images in Jesus’s teachings, we have to ask ourselves what he means by it.
Jesus used analogy to illustrate the spiritual reality of the kingdom, rather than theological reasoning. He desired for people to visualize who God was and what God’s vision of his creation was.
Whether we name these analogies parables or not is beside the question.
But in Matthew 5:14-16, though not usually called one, we have all the makings of a parable: everyday images, comparisons, spiritual correspondences, and a very specific application.
You are the Light of the World
This second metaphor, “You are the light of the world,” does not appear to present near the interpretive problems as the salt metaphor. Jesus put little of a negative nature in this saying; he waited until later in the Sermon to do that (“the eye is the lamp of the body”).
But appearances can be deceiving.
For those who know the Gospel of John, “You are the light of the world” seems a bit strange. Didn’t Jesus say “I am the light of the world”? Yes, he did (John 8:12; 9:5), and John attributed light to Jesus in other places (John 1:4-9; 3:19).
So here in the Sermon, when Jesus addressed his followers and called them light, we detect that this light is derivative.
The light Jesus called them is the light whose source is God (at least 16 times in the OT, for example, in the Psalms, “Yahweh is my light and salvation” Psalm 27:1), who shines through the Incarnate Jesus (“while I am in the world, I am the light of the world” John 9:5), who shines through his followers (who remain in the world).
When Jesus said, “You are the light of the world” he called them something they are because of who they belong to.
And “You” is plural, not singular. When Jesus referred to “You” he was speaking to all of his listeners (presumably followers) as a group (not “this little light of mine,” but “this light of ours”).
But what does it mean to be “the light of the world?”
Take light away and the world is dark.
Jesus called his followers light because their presence shines the light of God, the light of true reality, on the world.
Light functions to reveal, to expose, to bring life, to dispel darkness, to prevent stumbling or getting lost—all of which are referred to in the Gospels. His followers serve those functions when they embrace and embody the Beatitudes as the attributes of God’s transforming power.
The presence of this light shows the world for what it is.
A City Situated on a Mountain
Jesus used two other images to illustrate what he meant, a city on a mountain and a lamp in the house.
A city situated on a mountain cannot be concealed.
From where he sat teaching the Sermon (see my post “The Mountain”), Jesus could see at least one settlement and probably two situated on hills. Directly across the Sea of Galilee about half-way down the eastern shore was Hippos/Susa, a town that sat perched on an outcrop of the Golan with steep valleys on either side that provided excellent defensive properties. The town was easily seen from all over during the day, and at night, its lights would be impossible to miss with any look in that direction. To the north east and with similar topography was the town of Gamala (famous for a battle in the First Jewish War a few years later). These places stood as virtual lighthouses in the night. Any traveler from the area would know where they were by looking up at those towns.
But is a town shining from a nearby hill what Jesus spoke of?
We need to think about his actual language and then the spiritual implications.
A very literal translation is this: “Not able city to be concealed upon mountain situated.” As you can detect, all of the translations (including mine) must modify these words to work in English: “A city is unable to be concealed when situated on a mountain.”
For his Jewish audience, the combination of “city” and “mountain” and “situated” would bring to mind one place: Jerusalem, the city of God. Psalm 48 and Zechariah 8 both extol Mount Zion as the city of God. Here are some excerpts:
Ps 48:1-2 Great is the LORD and greatly to be praised
in the city of our God!
His holy mountain,
beautiful in elevation,
is the joy of all the earth,
Mount Zion, in the far north,
the city of the great King.
Zech 8:3 Thus says the LORD: I have returned to Zion and will dwell in the midst of Jerusalem, and Jerusalem shall be called the faithful city, and the mountain of the LORD of hosts, the holy mountain. 4 Thus says the LORD of hosts: Old men and old women shall again sit in the streets of Jerusalem, each with staff in hand because of great age. 5 And the streets of the city shall be full of boys and girls playing in its streets. 6 Thus says the LORD of hosts: If it is marvelous in the sight of the remnant of this people in those days, should it also be marvelous in my sight, declares the LORD of hosts? 7 Thus says the LORD of hosts: Behold, I will save my people from the east country and from the west country, 8 and I will bring them to dwell in the midst of Jerusalem. And they shall be my people, and I will be their God, in faithfulness and in righteousness.”
By placing “You are the light of the world” next to “A city situated on a mountain” Jesus called his audience (who are sitting with Jesus on a “mountain”) the inhabitants of that holy city (as in Zechariah 8), which Revelation later refers to as “the new Jerusalem.”
A Lamp in the House
The second image only backs up this idea.
Neither do they ignite a lamp and place it under the measuring vessel, but upon the lamp stand, and it illuminates all who are in the house.
A lamp in the house is not effective when hidden in a bucket or even on the floor, but is best placed on a stand.
The light spreads through the house to provide illumination—but not if concealed.
“Basket” is the usual translation for the Latin loan-word modius (used in both Greek and Hebrew), but Jesus actually referred to a measuring bucket for grain of about two gallons (the Hebrew measure se’a), normally pottery or bronze, that would be common in households and in the temple for measuring grain and wheat, and could actually be used to hide a light (see Judges 7:16 for this in practice). Of course, place fully over the lamp, the light would extinguish.
Jesus contrasted this light-hiding device with the lamp stand which sets the light in a position to illuminate an entire house.
Once again, we see not only a common picture, but—when considered with a city situated on a mountain as a reference to Jerusalem—an image of light in the temple, the house of the Lord.
The lamp stand par excellence was the menorah of the temple—always translated as hē luchnia “the lamp stand” in the Greek OT, just as in this verse. This seven-lamp lamp stand lit up the house of God in Jerusalem. Carved menorahs modeled after the Temple menorah were common motifs in the art of Jewish synagogues—a first century example was recently unearthed at Magdala right near the site of the Sermon.
One more detail is the lamp analogy is perplexing: Jesus used “they” as the subject of the verbs “ignite” and “place.”
To whom is he referring since there is no plural antecedent?
“They” in an ordinary context would be the inhabitants of the house or the priests in the temple.
But the context of this passage is anything but ordinary.
Jesus spoke to his audience as God’s light, God’s city, and then God’s lamp.
“They” is the God-head, Father-Son-Spirit (the “us” of Genesis 1). God is the one who creates the lamp and ignites it and places it for all to see.
The light of the world—the city on the mountain—the lamp in the house—together they present a vivid picture of the people of God who constitute the light of God amidst the darkness of the world (who have opted out of the world’s game for God’s game).
Let your light shine
Jesus then made a specific command: Allow your light to shine before people, so they see your good works and glorify your Father in the heavens.
Jesus finally got to the reason for his images: the purpose of the people of the light is to bring glory to the Father in the heavens and at the same time point those in the world to the same Father!
Light
One thing that I have not addressed is the nature of light.
It just is.
Light only emanates from its source.
Those created by God are inherently full of light from God; the question is whether the light is shining for all to see or has been covered and even extinguished. The light can be covered or open but it exists either way.
God has created the light of his people to shine in the world; whether they take on their created role is up to them (us!).
Shining light
Jesus spoke this command in a round about way.
Not “Shine your light” but “Allow your light to shine.”
There is a subtle and important difference.
God is the one who creates and shines the light, but his people are allowed to have a part in it.
Their part is to act like light, to keep it uncovered for all to see.
That uncovered light has already been described in the Beatitudes. If the people of God simply live out the opposite-of-the-world declarations in the Beatitudes, their light will shine bright and blindingly clear for the world to see.
“Your good works” is nothing more and nothing less than a people transformed into Beatitudes people with Jesus as their supreme model whose entire existence is to glorify God and to be the bright, shining light for the world.
The people of the light are those who have left the game of darkness and joined God’s light-filled game. Your good works are the short description of that game—not because they originate from the players, but from God (John 3:21).
And the purpose of that game is not for winning and losing, but to delight God and to bring the light to a dark world.