Have you ever been in a light-filled space, and suddenly you’re plunged into darkness? Or you’ve been out driving in a thunderstorm when the traffic signals fail? It can be frustrating; it can be frightening; it can quickly lead to chaos.
Without light, Gerard Manley Hopkins would never have uttered those immortal words, “Glory be to God for dappled things…” Without physical light, our world would quickly grow cold and dead.
In the absence of figurative light, there would be no “light-bulb” moments of inspiration, there could be no eighteenth-century Enlightenment; the Quakers would have no “inner light” to guide their consciences; it would make no sense to conclude an argument or essay with the phrase, “In light of the fact that…”; and Shakespeare would not have imagined the transitory nature of human life with the cry, “Out, out, brief candle!”
From firelight to lasers, from the torch feature on your smartphone to the visible rays emanating from our nearest star, the notion of light is so central to our daily lives.
Jesus understood this. It’s why he used the evocative metaphor of light to describe the mission of the people of God in Matthew 5:14-16. And while the “salt” metaphor in verse 13 does have its opposite in unsalted food, the idea of “light” has a powerful binary opposite in the concept we call darkness.
Darkness is often a symbol of evil. When it is dark, people get lost and confused, they stumble and fall. Under cover of darkness, power is misused, corruption thrives, and moral wrong is done. It’s not hard to imagine evil triumphing and the light disappearing from our institutions and civilization.
Situations change. Familiar landmarks disappear. There is the unrelenting pressure of a “vanity fair” society or a radically “secular” culture. The candle burns down, gives a thin wisp of smoke, and goes out. Darkness descends. Evil reigns. We have seen this happen again and again in the past century. And yet, darkness does not have the last word.
There have been numerous attempts to extinguish the light of reason, or the light of the gospel, yet it keeps bursting back into flame. The light shines in the darkness.
New ways of sharing the good news arise. New generations of believers are drawn to the relevance of the gospel. Fresh historical discoveries increase our confidence in the veracity and reliability of the biblical text. The light shines in the darkness.Sleeping Christians awake and discover their vocation as witnesses to the good news of Jesus and its transforming influence in their lives. As Michael Wilcock observes, “There is no excuse for secret discipleship.”[1] The light must shine in the darkness.
The teaching of Jesus in Matthew 5:14–16 calls us to embody and model a distinctive Christian witness. It points to the transforming power of conversion, regeneration and transformation that is God’s desire for everyone. These words invite all apprentices of Jesus to share his light with a world that is shrouded in spiritual darkness, a world that often prefers darkness to light.
To understand the strength of the metaphor, we need to explore the biblical motif of light and darkness. The biblical writers frequently associate light with God’s presence, truth, holiness, and life (cf. Ps 27:1; Isa 9:2; Jn 1:4-5). In the Gospel of John, Jesus identifies himself as “the Light of the world” (John 8:12), and this disclosure resonates deeply with the statement he makes about his followers in Matthew 5:14.
The light of the disciples is not a light that originates within them. It’s a reflection and extension of the pure light of Christ. Similarly, the biblical writers associate darkness, or the absence of light, with immoral thoughts and actions, the rejection of God, and death (cf. Ps 82:5; Prov 4:19; Isa 5:20; Jn 3:19f; 1 Jn 1:6; Mt 8:12).
The incarnation and ministry of Jesus mark the inbreaking of divine light into the moral and spiritual darkness of a fallen world. His mission was one of instruction in how to live well, but it was also a radical redemptive mission, bringing those in darkness into the light. Through his exemplary life and atoning death, Jesus came to extinguish the darkness of sin, ignorance, and despair with the radiance of God’s grace, truth and hope.
The mission of Jesus did not end with his earthly ministry. Through his resurrection and ascension, Jesus ensured the ongoing advance of his kingdom through his Spirit-empowered people. When Jesus says, “You are the light of the world,” he declares that those who follow in his Way are the visible, tangible expression of his continuing mission to shine into dark places. They have the awesome privilege of participating in the ongoing, expanding mission of God in the world. As biblical scholar Frederick Bruner puts it, “Beyond question is the fact that Jesus believes disciples are universal history’s most luminous fact.”[2]
This call to be light in the world presupposes a profound transformation in the life of each person who identifies with Jesus and the light that comes from heaven. According to Paul the Apostle, prior to conversion everyone “walked in darkness” (Eph 5:8; cf. Isa 59:9-10). But the regenerating work of the Holy Spirit brings us into the light of God’s truth and God makes us new creatures in Christ (2 Cor 5:17).
The new birth is a supernatural act of God imparting divine life to our spirits. It is this internal illumination, part of what Scripture calls “union with Christ,” that enables Christians to “shine like stars in the world” (Php 2:15). In his letter to the Christians at Colossae, Paul describes this transformation as being delivered “from the domain of darkness” and transferred into the kingdom of God’s beloved Son (Col 1:13).
This spiritual shift from darkness to light is not merely forensic or positional but experiential and ethical. As new creations, Christians are now called to walk as “children of light” (Eph 5:8), exhibiting the fruits of that light in goodness, righteousness, and truth.
This is the essence of the “good works” Jesus refers to in Matthew 5:16 – works that flow from the overflow of a regenerated and joyful heart. The “good works” (v. 16) are expressions of the transformative power of the gospel. When we serve with compassion, live with integrity, speak truth with love, and proclaim the good news with accuracy and clarity, we reflect the character of Jesus and invite others to glorify God. Our aim is not self-promotion but the glorification of our Father in heaven.
Most of us would acknowledge that Western civilization is increasingly marked by moral confusion, spiritual apathy, and antagonism toward biblical truth and Christian ethics. Yet it is precisely into this moral and intellectual darkness that the transforming light of Jesus shines.
We need to resist the twin temptations of withdrawal (hiding the light) and compromise (dimming the light). Instead, we need to engage the world with conviction and compassion, holding fast to the gospel and embodying its spiritual power, intellectual meaning, and ethical implications in every sphere of life. The gospel of Jesus Christ offers the wholistic transformation that the world around us hungers for, and searches for, keenly aware of the absence of the light of God.
These words of Jesus in Matthew 5:14–16 offer a striking image of healthy Christian identity. Grounded in the person and mission of Jesus, the Light of the world, we are called to participate in his redemptive work by shining his light with audacity and courage in a world governed by darkness. At a time when many feel overwhelmed by the darkness of moral decay, intellectual confusion, and spiritual dead-ends, these words of Jesus reminds us that true clear light still shines, and the darkness has not overcome it (Jn 1:5).
I close with another quote from Frederick Bruner. He observes that the sense of Matthew 5:13-16 is that, “If we will be Christians (the intent of the Salt-You-Are), Jesus will make us effective (the intent of the Light-You-Are).”[3]
I think he’s right. So let us work hard at being “salt” in the world around us, engaging in practices that serve metaphorically as a preservative, as the enemy of decay, and as giving taste to food. As we do so, we can be sure that God is with us and that our Master Jesus will make us effective.
For that is his great desire: to inspire all of us to be the “salt of the earth” and “light of the world,” and in so doing embody the Beatitudes.
Sermon 820 copyright © 2025 Rod Benson. Preached at North Rocks Community Church, Sydney, Australia, on Sunday 27 July 2025. Unless otherwise noted, Scripture quotations are from The Christian Standard Bible (Nashville: Holman Bible Publishers, 2020).
References:
[1] Michael Wilcock, The Message of Matthew (Leicester: IVP, 2000), 91.
[2] Frederick Dale Bruner, Matthew: A Commentary. Volume 1: The Christbook: Matthew 1-12 (revised and expanded edition; Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2004), 191.
[3] Ibid., 191. Original emphasis.
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