Monday 4 November 2024
"Let anyone with ears to hear listen!" (v. 23)
Background
If we look over our shoulder, at the section of Mark immediately preceding today’s reading, we get a glimpse of the common theme and purpose of the readings that come to our attention for the rest of this week. The hidden things of the kingdom of God, the concealed realities of God, are soon to be brought to light. So now it is time to open ourselves to hearing and obeying the word of God and be led into receiving the truths of God's kingdom. Here is the stuff of discipleship. This parable of the lamp brings these themes to the front and centre of our attention.
The context into which Mark is writing, and presenting Jesus as speaking, is the time of hiddenness when the forces of the world are gathering against Jesus. Those forces would be used by God to bring about Christ’s atoning death. In all that is happening though, Jesus is the light which continues to battle against the darkness. While that light might currently be hidden amid the turmoil of the times, Jesus’ death and subsequent resurrection will be the turning point and moment of revelation. John 8:12 reminds us that at the Resurrection the light will light up the world, and Jesus’ true reality as the Messiah and Son of God will be made manifest to all the world. Philippians 2.10 announces that the fulness of the revelation of God’s glory will come at the completion of time, when “every knee shall bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth”.
At the end of Albert Schweitzer's book The Quest of the Historical Jesus Schweitzer writes these words: "He comes to us as One unknown, without a name, as of old, by the lakeside. He came to those men who knew him not. He speaks to us the same word: "Follow me!" and sets us to tasks, which He has to fulfill for our time. He commands. And to those who obey Him, whether they be wise or simple, he will reveal Himself in the toils, the conflicts and the sufferings which they shall pass through in His fellowship, and, as a ineffable mystery, they shall learn in their own experience who He is."
In discipleship, mission and ministry, God’s people are called to bring the light out from the hidden places and to let it shine into the turmoil of the times.
To Ponder:
- When we consider the turmoil of the present times, which situation most comes to mind? There is serious conflict in the Middle East. The war in Ukraine continues. Poverty and pain, injustice and oppression, continue to be the everyday realities for many of the world’s people. Hold a moment of quiet, light a candle, view a photograph from the internet, hold the situation in your heart and mind. Pray for God’s light to shine into the darkness.
- How as Christian people can we enable the light to shine in the darkness and what do we need the Church to do in support of this aspect of our discipleship?
Bible notes author: The Revd Dr Adrian Burdon
Adrian Burdon is Superintendent Minister of the Telford Circuit in the Wolverhampton and Shrewsbury District. He has been a presbyter since 1988 and, in addition to Shropshire, has worked in the Oldham Circuit, on the Fylde coast, in Leeds city centre, the Northeast of England and as a mission partner in the South Pacific. Adrian is Chair of the CTBI writing group which writes material for the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity and is Chair of the Connexional Liturgy and Worship Subcommittee of the Faith and Order Committee.