The Disconnected Light Bulb
Jesus answered them, “Healthy people don’t need a doctor—sick people do. I have come to call not those who think they are righteous, but those who know they are sinners and need to repent.” Luke 5:31-32 NLT
When our small group was reflecting on Mark 2:1-17, I was led by serendipity to an entry in my journal thirty five years ago. At that time, my wife and I were reading Luke 5:27-32, which is the same account as Mark 2:17, to our daughters. The question in the bible study guide was “explain verse 31 and 32 in your own words.” I shared that it is only the sick person who sees a doctor. But my eight old daughter countered with the remark that she was not sick but she sees a doctor every day.
Her comment led me to the thought that just as she can see a doctor everyday because there is a doctor in the house, we can also see Jesus everyday if He is in our hearts without having to become really bad sinners.
The story in the gospels of Mark and Luke is about the calling of Matthew, the tax collector, after the healing of the paralyzed man who was carried to Jesus by his four friends. The stories in the gospels are to lead us to the consuming fire of God's unfailing Love and the Light of Christ.
When we are paralyzed by guilt, we need to experience God's forgiveness so that we can walk in the Light of Christ as the forgiven and forgiving children of God. When we are living in the comfort of wealth like Matthew, we need to be touched by the fire of God's Love to consume the sin of acedia so that we can follow Jesus.
The Light of Christ and the consuming fire of God's Love are to draw us into the Kingdom of Heaven in the here and now. We are disconnected light bulbs when we are paralyzed by guilt or when we are preoccupied with the gospel of health and wealth. It is only when we are connected to the resurrection power of Christ through prayer and contemplation of God's Word that we will be connected light bulbs shining the Light of Christ. And our lives will be electrified by the consuming power of God's Love. Our world that is darkened by sin and evil is in dire need for the Light of Christ. The writings of Agnes Sanford in her book, The Healing Light, comes to mind:
“The power that causes light to shine within the electric light bulb is part of the electric light. In fact, although that force itself cannot be seen, it is as much a part of the electric light as the wire and the glass that make its framework. The spiritual force that flows through is is the “breath of God” breathed into the “dust of the earth” of which our frames are made. It is the eternal Being dwelling for a moment in a home of flesh.
“Ye are the light of the world,” said that amazing carpenter whose light still shines down through the centuries. This is literally true. We are the electric light bulbs through whom the light of God reaches the world.”
We are not able to follow Jesus through our human will. It is God who calls us and He waits till our hearts have become the fertile soil for His seed of Love to take root. We are then primed to respond without hesitation as the disciples did. When we do so, we will find that following Jesus is not a regimented march but an adventure of becoming God's new creation as our sinful desires are purified by the consuming fire of God's Love.
Instead of living the mundane and meaningless life of a disconnected light bulb, we will be connected light bulbs ready to shine in the darkness of the world around us. We will not strive to be holy as unconnected light bulbs but we will thrive in holiness as light bulbs connected to the resurrection power of the Risen Christ.
