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THE GOSPEL OF MARK – WHAT MEASURE DO YOU USE?

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WHAT MEASURE DO YOU USE?

21 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? 22 For whatever is hidden is meant to be disclosed, and whatever is concealed is meant to be brought out into the open. 23 If anyone has ears to hear, let them hear.”

24 “Consider carefully what you hear,” he continued. “With the measure you use, it will be measured to you—and even more. 25 Whoever has will be given more; whoever does not have, even what they have will be taken from them.” Mark 4:21-25

Reality and truth are not interchangeable but they are aspects of the same thing. Jesus declared Himself to be the truth – He represented the Father and revealed the Father in every facet of His life – His words, His ways, His character, His attitudes, and His interaction with people. He was the true God in a body and living a human life on earth.

He also declared Himself to be light – the Light that came from God into the world to reveal what the Father and the domain of the Father is really like. Light exposes and reveals; light dispels darkness. Where there is no light, darkness is the atmosphere in which everything that is afraid of exposure flourishes.

Therefore, Jesus said that light is meant to be on display, not covered up because if it is hidden, it serves no purpose. To conceal truth is counter-productive. Truth automatically exposes lies and deception. It is not meant to be kept secret but brought out into the open so that everyone can see.

What is the truth that Jesus is constantly revealing? Darkness is about selfishness, greed and wickedness. Light is about righteousness, generosity and unselfish service to others. These are the two opposing forces in the world and they underlie the ongoing power struggle that is tearing the world apart.

Light is the enriching and unifying power of righteousness, doing the right thing in every situation and for every person, no matter what it costs. “Generosity begets generosity”. It’s like ripples in a pond. Generosity is the “pay it forward” principle that has the power to change society. It’s the “creating a current” policy that gets resources moving into areas of need and suffering.

This is reality – living the kingdom way that dispels darkness and exposes God’s character to those who have been deceived by the lies that put us in the centre of our universe and insist that we must be number one.

The truth is that we determine the measure of light or darkness we live in and display to the world. We also determine the outcome of the way we chose to live. Yes, stuff does happen but we alone choose what we do with it. Jesus’ principle is “Walk in the light and let your light shine…”

THE GOSPEL OF LUKE- KEEP IT CIRCULATING

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KEEP IT CIRCULATING

“‘No one lights a lamp and then covers it with a washtub or shoves it under the bed. No, you set it up on a lamp stand so those who enter the room can see their way. We’re not keeping secrets; we’re telling them. We’re not hiding things; we’re bringing everything out into the open. So be careful that you don’t become misers of what you hear. Generosity begets generosity. Stinginess impoverishes.'” Luke 8:16-18.

Come on, Jesus! What are you getting at?

He had a lot to say about the Pharisees who paraded their “righteousness” for the crowd’s approval. Yet He told His disciples not to cover up their light but to display it. What are you supposed to do, to let people see how generous you are, or hide you good deed so that the left hand does not know what the right hand is doing?

The answer is “Yes”. It all depends on motive. The scribes and Pharisees used their “generosity” to show how religious they were. They wanted people to admire them for their rigid obedience to the Law, but it was all on the outside. Inside they were greedy, stingy and crooked. They used every opportunity to make money out of the common people.

Jesus exposed their sickness when He threw the merchants and money changers out of the temple. They were using the Passover to extort money from the worshippers through crooked deals. The unsuspecting people were being charged exorbitant rates to exchange their ordinary money into temple money to buy their lambs for the sacrifice. Those who brought their own lambs had to surrender them because they had “blemishes”, which were promptly sold to the next family as “unblemished”.

Their so-called generosity was nothing but window-dressing and a cover-up for their evil hearts. It’s no wonder Jesus ruthlessly exposed their hypocrisy. He wanted the people to see them for what they were and not be taken in by their unashamed falseness,

But that does not cancel out the outcome of true generosity. On another occasion Jesus urged His disciples to let their light shine before men. This is the ultimate purpose for which we were created. Like the moon, we are to shine with the reflected light of the Son.

When Jesus shines His light into our hearts, transforming us from selfish and self-centred people into those who focus on serving and meeting the needs of others, we reveal to the world around us in earthly terms, what the heart of our God is like. He is kind and generous to all, even those who would not give Him the time of the day. The creation is a reflection of His generosity and so should we be.

God’s gifts to us, including our knowledge of Him, are intended to be stewarded, not hoarded. Every time we hoard what God intends for us to share, we are like the person who switches on a light and then covers it with a blanket so that it serves no purpose. No sane thinking person would do that, and yet we treat God’s gifts like that. It makes no sense, does it?

In God’s way of doing things, the more we give away the more we make room to receive. The more we hoard the poorer we become inside. God’s resources are meant to be circulated. Water remains fresh when it flows. A stagnant pool becomes undrinkable because all kinds of unsavoury creatures breed in it.

With the right motive, we can draw attention to God’s glory and not our own. It all depends on whether God’s light is in our hearts or not. If He “who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ made His light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of God’s glory displayed in the face of Christ” – 2 Corinthians 4:6 – has shone in our hearts, then the motive of our shining will be to reflect the glory back on Him.