The word “light” is featured very prominently in the scriptures for this weekend. We hear from Isaiah, “The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; upon those who dwelt in the land of gloom a light has shone.” (Isaiah 9:1) In the psalm for this week we hear, “The LORD is my light and my salvation; whom should I fear?” (Psalm 27:1). The quote from Isaiah is featured in Matthew’s Gospel, as Matthew relates the beginning of Jesus’ ministry, then follows with Jesus calling Peter and Andrew, James and John to follow him.
Anyone who has gotten up in the night and whose feet are bruised and injured from stumbling over dog bones and stepping on their kids’ Lego pieces on the floor will attest that light is a very important element in human life. Had we turned on a light, the frequency of stubbed toes and sore feet would be greatly reduced. Light illuminates the obstacles that are in our paths, helping us to avoid that which may hurt us.
What is said about the necessity of physical light in our lives can also be said about the necessity of spiritual light in our lives. We all need spiritual light in our lives. Each and every one of us has places of darkness in our lives. That darkness can impede and injure us just as readily as being physically injured by stumbling over objects in a darkened room. Some of that darkness is of our own doing. Our egos all like to invent a false sense of self stripping us of our authenticity as people. There is also the darkness that is imposed upon us by others. I think of the many people to whom I have ministered who lived in domestic violence. As evil and dangerous it is to be physically abused, the emotional and spiritual abuse is far more insidious and inflicts greater evil upon the person being abused.
Into that abyss of spiritual darkness comes Jesus. Jesus, the human personification of the God who created us in love, lights up the darkness we carry about within illuminating the parasitical falsehoods that have attached themselves to us.
Is it any wonder that Peter and Andrew, James and John left their livelihoods to follow Jesus at the mere calling of their names? In that minimal command to “come and follow me”, Jesus revealed something to these men they never knew about themselves, so much so, that they immediately dropped what they were doing to follow him. As has been related to us in the Gospels, Jesus continued to illuminate the obstacles that were spiritually in the way in the lives of his followers. Exposed to the light of God in the person of Jesus, his followers, in turn, were able to spread God’s light to all the world.
Today, Jesus is calling us to the light. Jesus is commanding us to drop everything we are doing so we may follow him. Along the way, Jesus’ light will illuminate within us the obstacles that clog our pathway to God, so that we may avoid them and grow stronger in God’s light. As with the early followers of Jesus, illuminated and bathed in God’s light, we are to carry God’s light into our world.
