With his Pietá finished, and his patron, the Cardinal of San Dionigi deceased, Michelangelo had no assurance he could install his masterpiece of the slain Jesus in his mother’s arms in St. Peter’s. When his friend and banker, Jacopo Galli, saw the sculpture and called it the most beautiful work of marble in Italy, he knew it must be put there.
Since no official permission had been granted, they had to discreetly—Michelangelo considered it sneaking—smuggle the statue into St. Peter’s while the populace slept. Once it had been installed, the sculptor returned to St. Peter’s and noted how few paid attention to his work. He one day listened quietly as a family argued over its creator, but made no attribution to him. In frustration, Michelangelo returned that night, hammer and chisel in hand, and, on a sliver of stone on Mary, he cut his name as the sculptor.[1]
Can anyone now imagine such artistic genius shrouding itself in secrecy? As inconsistently, can any Christian believe the greatest story ever told about the greatest man ever to live could be cloaked in secrecy?
Brought Out into the Open
Christ likely spoke these sayings about letting our light shine on the second year of ministry. The specific occasion helps reveal the same basic theme and applies the parable in distinctive ways:
“You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.” (Matthew 5:14-16, NIV)
He said to them, “Do you bring in a lamp to put it under a bowl or a bed? Instead, don’t you put it on its stand? For whatever is hidden is meant to be disclosed, and whatever is concealed is meant to be brought out into the open. If anyone has ears to hear, let them hear.” (Mark 4:21-23, NIV)
“For whatever is hidden is meant to be disclosed.”
“No one lights a lamp and hides it in a clay jar or puts it under a bed. Instead, they put it on a stand, so that those who come in can see the light. For there is nothing hidden that will not be disclosed, and nothing concealed that will not be known or brought out into the open. Therefore consider carefully how you listen. Whoever has will be given more; whoever does not have, even what they think they have will be taken from them.” (Luke 8:16-18, NIV)
“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 it dark, it will be just as full of light as when a lamp shines its light on you.” (Luke 11:33-36, NIV) 
Meaning
Jesus wants his disciples to reveal his life, teaching, redemptive death, and bodily resurrection.
Insights
Matthew 5:14-16. However slight, the smallest light penetrates thickest dark. That’s why Jesus never feared sending his people into the worst pest-holes of the ancient world. The slightest expression of his presence banished Satan’s wherever his people lived boldly.
Mark 4:21-23. Jesus used the figure to explain that the purpose of parables is to reveal truth, not hide it; and that understanding parables opens our mind to understanding other teaching.
Luke 8:16-18. The emphasis Jesus drew in verse 17 is that we must carefully listen to what’s taught. In contrast to his usual emphasis, Jesus here warned disciples to listen carefully, not teachers to teach accurately. Both are essential, but this stresses our need to pay attention. It may make the difference between being puzzled by, or understanding, his teaching. The use of the figure also warns us: if we don’t produce a Christian witness at our highest level, we’ll be stripped of our gifts.
“If we don’t produce a Christian witness at our highest level, we’ll be stripped of our gifts.”
Luke 11:33-36. The context in Luke 11:29-32 contrasts Christ’s appearance in Israel with Jonah preaching to Nineveh and the Queen of Sheba visiting Solomon. The earlier visitations upgraded a prophet and a king. With Jesus, however, someone greater than either preached in Israel. Only by accepting him as God do we properly understand him. Otherwise, even what light we shed proves dark. And, even accepting Christ as God, without producing the fruit of the Spirit, minimizes his spiritual truth into moral platitudes.
“Consider Carefully How You Listen”
Christ’s light reveals, penetrates, and pervades. Exactly what he expects from our lives. If we claim the privileges of, we must accept the responsibility of our spiritual enfranchisement. We who live so briefly here will yet live forever in the next world. Once we possess that awareness, we must teach it to others.
Christ came first as a babe—and visibly. He lay in the manger when shepherds came. He comes again as King—visibly and accompanied by angels. Both comings relate to our responsibility. As we look to his first coming for direction, we look to his second for hope. As both are real, not illusory; and experienced, not imagined, in the NOW between the comings we understand and relate publicly and privately, but always clearly and persuasively, that Jesus lives.
We learn to accept sometimes difficult teaching by knowing God’s word more broadly and deeply. Those with a more comprehensive understanding of God’s word can accept what often baffles or troubles those with less experience in it. Pastors don’t have to preach simple sermons to avoid preaching listeners for profound truth. Many ministers think the people seek simpler teaching to preserve their unthinking comfort zones. Many pastors oblige, afraid to over-burden their own minds. That defeats both themselves and their listeners. Only deeper teaching broadens the teacher; only learning deeper teaching broadens the listener. That enables both teacher and student to progressively plumb ever-more challenging didache in the Gospels.
“Only deeper teaching broadens the teacher; only learning deeper teaching broadens the listener.”
Consider the response when Jesus mentally dueled and defeated the Sadducees over the question of resurrection. When Jesus replied that God is the God of the living, not of the dead, the crowds “were astonished at his teaching.” Note…they grasped the meaning, difficult as it was.
Ministers need confidence that the Holy Spirit knows how to use God’s word to enlighten, correct, convict and convert listeners, even if that word is more thought-provoking than usual.
[1] Carolyn Shields, “The Story of the Pieta,” The Young Catholic Woman, https://www.theyoungcatholicwoman.com/archivescollection/2018/3/6/pieta.
