Luke 8:16-18
“No one after lighting a lamp hides it under a jar, or puts it under a bed, but puts it on a lampstand, so that those who enter may see the light. For nothing is hidden that will not be disclosed, nor is anything secret that will not become known and come to light. Then pay attention to how you listen; for to those who have, more will be given; and from those who do not have, even what they seem to have will be taken away.”
One of the constant questions I have when I read some of the more “wisdom-like” sayings of Jesus is this: is this a threat or just a description of the way things are?
It will first help, perhaps, to better understand just what “wisdom-like” sayings really are. I call them this because Jesus isn’t simply a wisdom teaching, offering Zen-like or Gnostic teaching. At the same time, some of his teaching definitely falls into a category closer to the Proverbs than his kingdom parables.
From what Luke said at the beginning of his gospel (1:1-4), we can gather that he had a pretty large collection of various memories and recollections of Jesus and his teaching available to him. And, as we saw in his introduction, he carefully arranged them in order to tell a story that would build the confidence of his community in the trust-worthiness of the gospel they had been taught.
Perhaps for this reason we shouldn’t be surprised when we encounter what first appears like a hodge-podge of different literary forms. A little straight narrative, a healing, some parables, and then a wisdom saying or two. Luke is not striving for consistency in genre, he’s telling a story to share the truth about the new life one finds as a disciple of Jesus.
And here Luke is sharing some of Jesus’ more proverbial, wisdom-like sayings. And because wisdom is interested more in drawing universal conclusions from the observable world than in making predictions or judgments, I’d say he’s more or less telling it like it is.
Because the thing is…we don’t light candles and then hide them. We light them to shine light. And he follows that observation with a wisdom-based promise: in time, all things will come clean and the truth will out. All the more reason, then, to pay attention, to listen, to take the wisdom Jesus offers to heart.
But precisely because these are words of wisdom and promise, there are also consequences to not paying attention. Because at heart Jesus’ “kingdom wisdom” is based on a fairly disturbing premise: the culture that has raised us up is not telling the truth. The things we have been taught to value – status, money, power – are not really valuable. We have, in short, been sold a lie. So those who have this wisdom, this treasure, will only receive more as the kingdom takes shape, and those who have little – because they could not let go what they were grasping to receive the gifts of God – will lose even what they have.
So maybe the answer to the original question is “both”: these sayings are both description and threat. One second thought, though, perhaps it’s actually “neither,” as such categories fail to capture the dynamism of Jesus’ kingdom wisdom, a wisdom that leads to life in all of its abundance.
Prayer: Dear God, grant us the faith to see what is truly valuable and the courage to let go of those things we think we grant us life that we may receive true life from you. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
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