Friday 1st March
Read Matthew 5:14-16
“‘You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden.15 Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house.16 In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.” (NIVUK)
We are familiar with Jesus’ famous declaration at the Feast that ‘I am the light of the world’ (John 7) but what does it mean when He says that those who follow Him are?
This is where an understanding of ‘saltiness’ (v13) may help us understand Jesus. Being ‘salt’ in the world, doesn’t only suggest that we are to preserve it and season it, but that we are God’s covenant witness that He will fulfil His word and promises. Using a less palatable metaphor, we could think of ourselves as the positive version of Lot’s wife perhaps? Saltiness suggests permanence and covenant faithfulness, does ‘light’?
If the forming of a new people who will declare the greatness and glory of God is indeed the fulfilment of God’s everlasting promises, His covenant, then we would expect to find significant links between ‘covenant’ and ‘light’ in the Scripture. It would be even better if those links were associated with a witness that would spread out over the whole earth reaching people everywhere…
“This is what God the Lord says –
the Creator of the heavens, who stretches them out,
who spreads out the earth with all that springs from it,
who gives breath to its people,
and life to those who walk on it:
6 ‘I, the Lord, have called you in righteousness;
I will take hold of your hand.
I will keep you and will make you
to be a covenant for the people
and a light for the Gentiles,
7 to open eyes that are blind,
to free captives from prison
and to release from the dungeon those who sit in darkness.” (Isaiah 42:5-7) (NIVUK)
