Open My Eyes

Jonah was a prophet sent by God to the people of Nineveh. He refused to go and one only has to read II Kings 19:36 to begin to understand why. Nineveh was full of wicked people, some of who had taken part in tormenting the Israelites. God was sending Jonah to preach to his enemies. Rather than go, Jonah got on a ship going the other direction. When a fierce storm came up (God was more than just a little angry with Jonah), Jonah told the others on the ship to throw him into the sea because he was the problem. He finally saw that he couldn’t run from God and maybe he was even thinking suicide – not seeing any other way out. But God had another plan and provided a great fish to swallow Jonah and gave him three days to think about things and talk with God about them. When Jonah became repentant and called on God, God told the fish to spit Jonah out onto dry land. And Jonah then obeyed God and took his word to Nineveh. The people were repentant, turned from their evil ways and God had compassion on them and didn’t bring about the destruction he had threatened.

In Luke 11, Jesus likens the people to the people of Nineveh, “This is a wicked generation.” Luke 11:29 And he follows by saying that the only sign they will get is the sign of Jonah. “For as Jonah was a sign to the Ninevites, so also will the Son of Man be to this generation… The men of Nineveh will stand up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it; for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and now one greater than Jonah is here.” Luke 11:30-32

I wonder why those crowds were gathering around Jesus. They apparently wanted to see miraculous signs. Some of them may have been curious. They had heard Jesus had healed some folks and they wanted to see for themselves. Some of them were likely trying to figure out if a prophet from God had once again come into their midst. There were very likely Pharisees, Sadducees and Teachers of the Law in the crowd who were trying to determine if he was preaching truth or heresy. I think Jesus was concerned because many of them were there for the wrong reasons. And they certainly were not seeing what God was trying to do among them. They apparently did not have repentant hearts.

Luke immediately follows this reference to Jonah with Jesus’ talk about light and darkness. “No one lights a lamp and puts it in a place where it will be hidden, or under a bowl. Instead he puts it on its stand, so that those who come in may see the light. Your eye is the lamp of your body. When your eyes are good, your whole body also is full of light. But when they are bad, your body also is full of darkness. See to it, then, that the light within you is not darkness. Therefore, if your whole body is full of light, and no part of it dark, it will be completely lighted, as when the light of a lamp shines on you.” Luke 11:33-36

Jesus had been healing many people along the way. Some of those healings were of blindness. How great is the darkness of one whose eyes cannot see light! Somehow, I think Jesus was inviting the crowd to open their eyes to the truth that he is the Son of God, the Messiah. The kingdom of God is here. And it brings with it much more than physical healings. “See to it, then, that the light within you is not darkness,” would imply that we have some control over whether or not we see light. But how can the light within us be darkness? Is it possible that there is a false kind of light?

There is a chalk artist who does performances of telling a story and drawing with chalk. When she is done, she has a special light system and can change the color of light shining on the picture. Because she uses a special chalk, different colors of light bring out different things in the picture that you cannot see with other colors of light. I wonder if this is what Jesus is referring to here. Any light other than God’s light may give a partial or distorted view of the truth. We are responsible to make sure it is God’s light we are using when we are looking for truth and not man’s light.

I believe that the darkness referred to may be the world’s wisdom – intellectual or ‘folk’ wisdom – that does not come from God. While it seems wise to those who have studied long and hard, it may be foolishness to those who listen for God’s voice and shine God’s light on the matter. And in their darkness, those who have wisdom from this world may find the wisdom of followers of Christ to be foolishness. In his first letter to the Corinthians, Paul discusses this matter in great detail. “Where is the wise man? Where is the scholar? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe.” I Corinthians 1:20-21

Open my eyes, Lord, to see your truth. Shine your light in me so that I can see with your light and not with the light of this world. And when I see your truth, help me to put the light up whether others can see it as well so that it will overpower the darkness of their wisdom with the light of your truth.