Luke 11:33 Commentary and Bible Study

Although this is the same illustration that is found in Matthew 5:15, Mark 4:21, and Luke 8:16-18, it is not the same occasion, and a different lesson is drawn from it. By including this illustration twice in different contexts, Luke shows us that the Lord was happy to use the same illustration in two different ways. In Matthew the illustration is applied to Christ’s disciples, and teaches them not to hide their testimony from the world for the sake of avoiding persecution. But here it is not applied to the disciples. He has been comparing Solomon and Jonah to himself, and reproving the people for failing to recognise that they have among them one who is greater than either of those past servants of God. By bringing this illustration in immediately afterwards, he shows that he is applying it to himself. He is the one who has lighted a candle: by coming into the world, and revealing the Word made flesh. He cannot hide what he is, or minimise the miracle of the incarnation. He is the light of the world, and that light must shine forth, regardless of the reaction it provokes from an unbelieving world. He is greater than Solomon and greater than the prophet Jonah, and he is the one to whom they should listen. He doesn't say that out of arrogance. He says that because he is the Son of God, and he alone can save the soul and help them, but he speaks of himself and his ministry. He and his words are like a lamp illuminating all around him. We read of ‘candle’ and ‘candlestick’ here in our Authorized Version, but it is lamp and a lampstand in the Greek. The translators have tried to be helpful, and translated the lamp of the Greek language and of Palestine by the word ‘candle’, because that was the common light of the people of their day. Actually it was most probably an oil lamp and a lampstand. Lampstands could range from about twelve inches in height to five or six feet in height. The higher you set the lamp, the more it would throw its light into the furthest corners of the room. ‘No man, when he hath lighted a [lamp], putteth it in a secret place’, and the Greek for ‘secret place’ means crypt or cellar. ‘Neither under a bushel, but on a [lampstand], that they which come in may see the light.’ The old writers used to point out how this illustrates the birth and the life of Jesus Christ, born in obscurity, but not set to remain an obscure person; shut up for the time being in Palestine where he was preaching to his countrymen, the Jews, but soon to be set up on a lampstand, raised up and nailed to a cross. His public ministry and the fame of his work and what he achieved, would become worldwide. In a way, this illustration – whether it's intended or not – tracks the illuminating effect of the life of Jesus Christ, as he gives us understanding of how to be saved, and as he earns salvation for us. He came, not in order to be known just to a few people, but to be proclaimed far and wide around the world through the preaching of the gospel. ‘That they which come in may see the light.’ The Lord Jesus Christ describes himself as a great light because he says elsewhere, ‘I am the light of the world.’ His teaching is a great light which attracts people into the room. It is dark and people are stumbling about outside and there through a window they see a shaft of light flooding out of a door, and they are attracted to come in, so that they can see and meet with whoever is there.