And he said to them, Does the lamp come that it should be put under the bushel or under the couch? [Is it] not that it should be set upon the lamp-stand?
The picture changes without warning: the seed sown in the ground gives way to a lamp carried into a room. Jesus asks whether anyone brings in a lamp to hide it. The answer settles what the person who received the word is now for.
This second picture follows the parable of the sower. What the word produces inside a person has a purpose outside.
In the second parable we learn something more. The person who has received the good seed of the word into the heart is both fit and responsible to be a witness before others. That which is fruit for God becomes light to man. The shining of the light is not a question of gift. It is not the use of gift in preaching and teaching. It is the new life expressing something of Christ by being like Christ: "blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world" (Phil. 2:15).
The question is where the lamp is put. The same things that choke the seed can also dim the light — and the picture gives the believer a precise role.
The cares of this world, or the deceitfulness of riches, may choke the seed. In the same way, two things may dim the light. The business of life may absorb us: that is the bushel. Or we may seek to take our ease: that is the bed. The Christian is not the light, but the light-holder. Christ is the light; the Christian is the lampstand, the one who carries the light.
A bushel was a corn measure — a useful, ordinary item in any home. Turned over a lamp, it hides the light. So the danger here is not sinful activity but ordinary activity.
Consider whether you use tidying up the garden, studying for examinations, early and late hours in business, a game of tennis, a walk in the park, minding the baby, and many other occupations — all good and proper in themselves — to cover up your lamp, without meaning to. Nothing shines through a bushel-basket. Where there might have been a bright light, the corn-measure has brought darkness.
The second hindrance is worse than the first, because of what a mattress does to a flame.
A lamp put under a mattress is not just hidden for a little time. It goes out altogether... People usually rolled the bed or mattress up and put it away when there was a light in the house. Lighting the lamp was the signal that there was work to do — perhaps the house needed sweeping to find a lost coin. To put the lamp under the bed is to sleep when there is work to do. It is a symbol of laziness.
Some lights are too bright for any bushel to cover. Sloth reaches them instead.
No ordinary bushel could ever have covered the brilliant light of David either. But "in the spring of the year, the time when kings go out to battle, David sent Joab" against Rabbah, instead of going himself. Sloth began the work which dishonour and death finished. It was the darkest hour of his life. (2 Sam. 11)
Hearing the word is not the end of the matter.
The Word has been sown, but men do not light a candle to put it under a bushel. It is sown, not to lie in the ground, but to rise out of it and bear fruit. Nothing was secret except to come out into the open. So, "Pay attention to what you hear." It is a responsibility... To him who is known to hear in this way more shall be given; for this is to have. To hear, then, is to have, but it is to hear so as to have.
There is a cure for both dangers, and Jesus Himself is the perfect example of it.
The Word received in faith gives life and yields fruit. It must also shine out in testimony... The cure for being busy with earthly things, and for a life that loves ease, is to remember the coming day when everything comes to light (verse 22). Both of these hinder a bright, shining testimony. How bright and perfect the example of the Servant. He did not know the bushel nor the bed.
- Purpose — A lamp is brought in to be seen; the word received inwardly was never meant to stop there.
- Position — You are not the light but the stand that holds it. Christ is the light people see.
- Bushel — Good and necessary work, turned over the flame, hides it. Nothing shows through a basket.
- Bed — Ease does not dim the lamp, it puts it out. David stayed home from the battle and fell.
- Made known — Nothing hidden stays hidden. Hear so as to have, and more is given.
For there is nothing hidden which shall not be made manifest; nor does any secret thing take place, but that it should come to light.
Jesus has just asked a question: does anyone bring in a lamp to hide it under a basket or a bed? This verse gives the reason the answer is no. Nothing stays covered forever — so what is hidden here, and who uncovers it?
This saying comes straight after the parable of the sower. The seed goes into the ground to bear fruit. The lamp is set up for something else.
The word is not "seed" only, to produce fruit. It is also a lamp, to shine as a witness to God's grace and truth in this dark world. Christ Himself, lowly as He was and servant of all, was its perfect expression in person. Was the lamp, then, brought in to be put under a bushel or a bed, and not on its own proper stand? It could not be.
Why hide anything at all, then? The answer lies in the aim of the Lord's whole ministry.
The character of the coming kingdom stayed hidden from those who were unwilling to receive it in the heart. Yet the final aim of the Lord's ministry was that the gospel should spread far and wide, not stay hidden under a bushel or a bed. The light was to be placed on a lampstand. And the more eagerly His servants passed the truth on to others, the more He would reveal to them.
The basket and the bed of the previous verse picture two everyday ways a believer's light gets covered. Notice too which part the Christian plays.
The seed may be choked by the cares of this world or the deceitfulness of riches. In the same way, the light may be dimmed. One way is when the business of life takes up our whole lives, pictured by the bushel. Another way is when we seek our own ease, pictured by the bed. The Christian is viewed not as the light, but as the light-holder. Christ is the light, the Christian is the lampstand, or light-bearer.
One writer applies the verse first to the Lord Himself, who came low and hidden. Then he turns it on evil too.
Such was God's purpose. It would be true of Him and of the glory of His Person. He had come low and hidden and humbled, emptying Himself for God's glory and man's good. But this was true of evil as well as of good; the day would declare it. Hiding was not God's intention in the good; and He would not allow it in the bad. Some things may be shown first and others later. Some good works are plain to see; and if they are not, they still cannot stay hidden. A thing may begin and exist in this hidden way, but it will come out. It may be hidden, but only so that it should be made manifest.
The verse is stronger than a warning that secrets tend to leak out.
Three great principles are here. First, man can keep nothing secret, though it may seem so, and he can conceal nothing. All must be in the light; God must have the upper hand, and light will prevail. Second, we are to give an account of ourselves to God. Third, we are not to fear the secret schemes of men, but to fear God and bear witness according to the light given to us. When I say man can conceal nothing, that is still not strong enough. There is nothing secret except that it should be made manifest.
Take that away, and something in the universe would sit outside God's reach.
This is a very important principle. It maintains the authority of God as light. If anything could be kept back from this, it would escape His power and judgment. Evil would then go on apart from Him. It also keeps conscience honest.
For the believer this cuts two ways. It warns us about our record. It also shows where real shining comes from.
How far we have been faithful, or unfaithful, in bearing witness for Christ will at last be made manifest. The secret of shining for Christ is having Christ in the heart. "If the heart is not full of Christ, the truth will not be shown. If the heart is full of other things, of self, Christ cannot be shown."
- Light — Christ is the light; the believer is only the stand that holds it up. Everything below follows from that one picture.
- Covered — A lamp gets hidden two ways: the bushel of busyness and the bed of ease. Both dim a testimony that was lit to be seen.
- Purpose — Nothing is hidden except to be made manifest. Hiding is a stage, never a destination.
- Authority — If one thing could stay hidden, it would escape God's power and judgment. Nothing does. So we can work on without fearing the secret schemes of men.
- Manifested — Our faithfulness in witness will come out at last. The way to shine now is a heart full of Christ, not effort at being seen.