BE SHINY!


You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden, 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. Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father in heaven.(Matthew 5: 14-16)

I think this is something that many believers often overlook and downplay, at least in the sense of how these words of Jesus reflect upon their self-identity. It is easy to understand that as His followers we are to be bringing His message to others, for He is the Light of God, after all. But they don’t look at this passage closely.

Jesus does not say “You are bringing my light to the world.” He says, “You are the light of the world.”

Each of us, individually, as the person God created us, we are the light of the world.

In other words: none of us are wall-flowers, easily overlooked, so stop trying to disappear.

A city on a hill cannot be hidden.

I live in Los Angeles, in the midst of a tremendous, sprawling empire of urban development. When I was growing up, I would hear stories of how big LA was, but I had no reference or comparison. I lived in Houston, which is a rather sprawling city in its own right, and I thought I knew “big.” That lasted until the day I flew into Southern California for the first time to attend a conference, in Claremont, east of Los Angeles. The plane crossed over a mountain pass, and immediately below I could see the beginning of the urban carpet. From those mountains to the ocean shore, about 70 miles away, it seemed to be continuous city. Suddenly I knew what they meant by “greater Los Angeles.” Even though there are many independent cities in this conglomeration, they get bunched together for reference purposes. There is no hiding that this is a City.

Jesus tells His followers that this is what they are like. Something that absolutely cannot be overlooked. He mentions the city likeness to drive home the point about what kind of light He is calling His followers to be.

“You are the light of the world.”

We have all at some point been stuck in pitch darkness without a light. We know the power and attraction of discovering some small spot of light in that darkness. We are drawn to it. We cannot see in the darkness, but we can see in the light, so we move toward even the tiniest flicker of light.

And as believers we treat ourselves as Christ’s witnesses as if we are that little flickering candle. That little bright spot that others can see. Friendly, humble little wax candle, limited in scope, with a small magnitude of light. We can illuminate our little spot. That’s enough, right?

The truth is, we do behave like we’re trying to hide our lights away, to put them under baskets because we don’t want to be noticed. Jesus reminds us that nobody really does that with their lamps. He points out that the lamp is there to illuminate the whole house. It is mounted high, so the light can reach the far corners.

I always liked His humor in saying that nobody puts a lamp under a basket. Baskets, woven of dry, combustible materials are definitely not something you want to put over an open flame of any sort. Because you know what will happen in fairly short order – the lamp will set the basket on fire!

You are the light of the world.

Certainly, Jesus wants our behavior before others to reflect well upon our Lord. He says people should “see your good works and glorify our Father in heaven.” But notice that He makes that a consequence of our being light and not the definition of it. We ourselves are the light.

God created each of us to be individuals. He gave us each specific talents, a specific heart and desire. He doesn’t repeat Himself. Even identical twins end up having distinctions between them, because they are indeed individuals. Nobody else has had exactly the same experiences we have had, made exactly the same minute choices we each have made. And God prizes each individual.

That is what Jesus is calling “the light of the world.” The person you are, right down to the smallest part of you. Everything that you are was meant to be bright, shiny, glowing, beautiful in the darkness. There is nothing that you were made to be that is not of God’s light.

How much do we consider that? How much do we hide away for whatever reason? It doesn’t even have to be because we are ashamed of some aspect of our personality. It could simply be that there is something about ourselves that we do not value. So we “stick it in a corner” and neglect it. Maybe the World tells us that a particular aspect of our nature isn’t important, that it is worthless or ugly, that it isn’t useful. And we let their judgment of that override our sense of self, of who God created us to be.

Jesus tells us that our Father made us to be bright lights, to be people that cannot be overlooked.

And yet we hesitate about really being that noticeable. We’re willing to be the small flickering candle, because we can understand that, perhaps even control it. But little candles are easily snuffed out, whereas big cities on hills are not wiped out quite so casually. Is it that we fear the attention bright lights can bring? In an age that easily falls into worshipping celebrity, that craves attention, you would think that our reactions would be different when it comes to being “the light of the world.” But the thing is, we want to be in the light, so we can show off and then slip away. We don’t want to be the light.

Light is attractive in its own right. But it also shows the world around it as it really is. It drives away shadows that can hide realities. It exposes the nature of objects: something that looks handsome and solid when sitting in shadows is shown to be painted, feeble cardboard when it is brought into the light. Because not only is light beautiful, it has a job to do. And we don’t always want to be doing that job, perhaps because we think it might be difficult.

Jesus tells us that we are already the light. If we are the person God created us to be, we will by nature do the job of light. We will so shine that the people around us will wonder at it and know God made it so.

We need to stop trying to remake ourselves, stop trying to be what others want us to be. What we really need to do trust what God made us to be.

Are you hidden under a basket? You, the light of the world? Set that basket on fire.

 Be shiny.