“Your eye is the lamp of your body. When your eye is healthy, your whole body is full of light, but when it is bad, your body is full of darkness.” Luke 11:34 ESV
Reflection: how was it possible for the people to physically see and experience Jesus, but not actually “see” who he was?
Yesterday we looked at a question of how so many can get a basic biblical, even the (pro)creation principle of marriage so wrong. And today, we get a deeper insight into how that is possible. Jesus teaches us about the eye of the body. A strange term, right? But if you think about it, we live in two dimensions, or two worlds, if you will. A physical world that we can see with our two eyes. Clearly very familiar to all of us. But, we also exist and live in a spiritual world, which is unseen.
Notice carefully here that Jesus is NOT talking about the two eyes that we can see and experience our physical world. How can we know that? The form of the word “eye” here is singular. The eye. You might be wondering, do we actually have
a third eye?
If you do a quick search online, you will find that various religions and cultures, even cults know very well about this third eye of the body; yet it is not a common teaching within the Christian faith. At least not directly. But before you write this off as something belonging only to cults, let’s consider that our Lord Jesus taught on this topic a number of times, such as in today’s focus verse. And if we stop and think about it, why would the Lord give us eyes to see the physical world, but leave us without sight into the spiritual world? That makes no sense.
Now, for this third eye, the eye of the body, it is also possible to be blind. Jesus warned about this, not following those that are spiritually blind “And if the blind lead the blind, both will fall into a pit.”” Matthew 15:14 ESV. And we remember many teachings of Jesus related to darkness and light, as he is the Light of the world. Paul also wrote about the responsibility for followers of Jesus to be the light of the world, “and if you are sure that you yourself are a guide to the blind, a light to those who are in darkness,” Romans 2:19 ESV.
Jesus also warned about ensuring that our third eye is healthy, just like we take care of our two eyes for seeing the physical world. “Your eye is the lamp of your body. When your eye is healthy, your whole body is full of light, but when it is bad, your body is full of darkness. Therefore be careful lest the light in you be darkness. If then your whole body is full of light, having no part dark, it will be wholly bright, as when a lamp with its rays gives you light.”” Luke 11:34-36 ESV.
So we see the crux of the problem we started with, why so many are living contrary to the Word of God as well as leading others to do so. How they can see, but not see, hear and not hear, as the Bible talks about, which seems like an oxymoron. But Jesus teaches that their third eye is bad, unhealthy, or even blind.
So what are we to do, to ensure our third eye is healthy? Consider our actions and the fruits of our actions. What is more important to us – to seek and learn to follow what Jesus taught us, or to follow the world? To have a healthy eye, we need to come to Him, Jesus Christ, to learn and be filled with His light, in ALL parts of our existence; the only true source of light and life. “For with you is the fountain of life; in your light do we see light.” Psalm 36:9 ESV.