“Your eye is the
lamp of your body. When your eye is healthy, your whole body is full of light,
but when it is bad, your body is full of darkness.
Therefore be
careful…” (Luke
11:34, 35a).
The Church has a core business; a main task to do; a
central calling; a single reason for existence: to be Jesus’ embodiment in the
world.
What is the Church? The Church is Jesus.
Paul on the road to Damascus, hears a voice,
“He fell to the ground and heard a voice say to him, “Saul, Saul, why
do you persecute me?” (Acts 9:4).
Was Saul persecuting Jesus? No and Yes.
No, he was after the believers, those who followed
“The Way” (Acts 9:2).
Yes, because the believers are Christ’s body:
persecuting them was persecuting Jesus.
The Church is like a city on a hill; like a lamp on
its stand: cannot be hidden and shines God’s light around her.
Some people from the crowd requested a sign from
heaven (Luke 11:16). Jesus answered that no sign will be given except the sign
of Jonah.
What was the sign of Jonah? His preaching…the
message of God.
Jesus came preaching God’s message (Luke 4:43; 8:1).
Jesus sent His disciples to preach the kingdom of
God (Luke 9:2; 10:9).
For this wicked generation no other sign will be
given, but one: the preaching of God’s kingdom and the call to
repentance…just like Jonah did.
A wicked people, hearing the preaching of Jonah,
repented and were spared. And there, right then there was something
greater than Jonah, yet nobody takes to heart what is happening. The people of
Nineveh will stand against this wicked generation. Why? Something greater than
Solomon and Jonah, and this generation was not getting it.
Jesus, God’s lamp was radiating His light around, yet the people were not seeing it because of all the darkness inside them.