It will all be revealed

Luke 12:1-3

Many years ago, I visited a minister in Mexico and when we went to have lunch we came out of the bright noon sun into a very dark restaurant that was filled with people.  But coming from the light into the darkness we were not able to see the people sitting around us, that is until our eyes adjusted to the darkness.  I will never forget the words that came from the missionary’s mouth, “Bob, when we entered you did not see all these people but as you stayed in the darkness your eyes adjusted to the darkness and you saw all the people sitting around us.  Bob, do you understand that’s the same way sin comes into our life, at first it is very dark, but the longer we stay there the lighter it gets.”

Our culture loves darkness, it believes wrongly that the deeds done in darkness will not be exposed, that those deeds will never reach the light of tomorrow.  My grandson who is in the eight-grade told his mother, how young girls were taking a selfie in the nude.  Now for you who do not understand, a selfie: it is a photograph that one has taken of oneself, typically one taken with a smartphone or webcam and uploaded to a social media website.  They believed a few football players would see it, but it went places they never intended and exposed them both now and in the future.  It seems they were not prepared to count the cost of the darkness in their hearts being exposed to the light!

Dr. Luke begins what we call chapter 12 with this insight; “In the meantime, when so many thousands of the people had gathered together that they were trampling one another, he began to say to his disciples first, “Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy. Nothing is covered up that will not be revealed, or hidden that will not be known. Therefore whatever you have said in the dark shall be heard in the light, and what you have whispered in private rooms shall be proclaimed on the housetops.”  (Luke 12:1-3 ESV)

I’m always amazed when someone says, we studied that book of the Bible two years ago let’s look to some other part of the Bible, as if they would never acquire any more insight from the book they had read.  I have read this account many times, but today it struck me that thousands of people were coming to hear Jesus, so many that they were trampling one another.  And in the middle of all this Jesus warns against the leaven of the Pharisees.  Now if you’re not a cook it may help to look up the word leaven: the mixing of yeast into flour or something to make it rise or expand.  The word leaven is used in the Bible as a symbol of positive and negative influence.  The Pharisees taught a religion of outward rules and customs, but in private their selfie was a picture of greed and self-seeking, making rules that burdened the rule keepers and putting loads on them they were not able to carry or fulfill.

And like the young girls who exposed themselves in private, Jesus is saying; Nothing is covered up that will not be revealed, or hidden that will not be known. Therefore whatever you have said in the dark shall be heard in the light, and what you have whispered in private rooms shall be proclaimed on the housetops.” 

From the Back Porch,

Bob Rice