Though I had seen the words ’Lighted to Lighten’’ many times in the past from childhood, never I tried to understand what it really mean. But some recent events related to church stirred my mind to think over these words.
What is Light? In the perspective of Bible, Light is Jesus and Word of God. John chap. 1 says ‘’ In the beginning was the Word, … and the Word was God, …. 4 In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind.David says in pslm27 The Lord is my light ..? psalm119 says’’ Your word is a lamp for my feet, a light on my path’’ and word of god ‘’make me wiser than my enemies, gives me more insight than all my teachers, more understanding than the elders’’ and for Solomon it is ‘’the apple of eye’’ How befitting to name Jesus as Light is more clear when we read Isaiah 60:19&20 which same as we see in Revelations 21:23 ‘’The city (New Jerusalem) does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and the Lamb is its lamp’’ and 22:5 ‘’ There will be no more night. They will not need the light of a lamp or the light of the sun, for the Lord God will give them light...’’ Now let us see what the Marthoma Church motto represent.
The 1st Part ‘Lighted’ . John1:9 says about Jesus ‘’ The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world’’. Therefore a person is lighted when he receives Jesus by believing in Him as son of God and savior and obey the word of God.
The 2nd part ‘ to Lighten ‘ Whosoever has received the light has a responsibility to give this light to others. One of the missions of Jesus Christ, Son of God, to descend on earth as Son of Man, was to witness the Heavenly Father to his creations made in God’s image. Bible says no one has ever seen God. So the only one capable of witnessing the Heavenly Father is the Son of God, who himself is God John Chapter 17 is a statement of this witnessing by Jesus. 6 “I have revealed you to… ‘’ 8 ‘’For I gave them the words you gave me “… 26 I have made you known to them, ’’ . Before taken up into heaven Jesus commissioned his Apostles with a mission . ‘'Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” ‘To lighten’ in the church motto is acceptance of this mission to spread the good news, that is giving of Jesus by those who found Him to those who have not.
This responsibility to lighten or witness is emphasized by Jesus by telling that those who are saved or have received light in their life are like salt, and its saltiness is meant to add taste to life of others, like light on a hill top, like a lamp put it on its stand to give light to everyone in the house and neighborhood , Similarly the light of one who is lighted has to shine before others (who are in darkness) by their good deeds of righteous life, humility, love, compassion, generosity, truth, transparency etc.
God want His people to come out of darkness into His wonderful light and that is reason , when we look at creations in Genesis Chap1, we see that the very first thing God created on the very 1st day was LIGHT so that all the creations are born to and live in light. ‘’Let there be light, and there was light. 4 God saw that the light was good, and he separated the light from the darkness. …..—the first day’’
Light is liked by some and loathed by others. Who loves the light? By those who live in truth. ‘’ But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God’’ Who hate Light? Light is the most hated thing by those who love to do evils coz they fear their wickedness will get exposed in light. John3:‘’19. but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. 20 Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed.’’ Those who practice evils by living in darkness think they are wise and feign nobody sees. Could they hide? Matthew 10 26 “ for there is nothing concealed that will not be disclosed, or hidden that will not be made known’’ and in Jeremiah 23:24, Lord asks ‘’Who can hide in secret places so that I cannot see them?” “Do not I fill heaven and earth?” and Isaiah 47 says about them ‘’10 You have trusted in your wickedness and have said, ‘No one sees me.’ Your wisdom and knowledge mislead you’’ and then warns ‘’11 Disaster will come upon you, calamity will fall upon you ,.. catastrophe . will suddenly come upon you.’’ Job 34: 21 says “His eyes are on the ways of mortals; he sees their every step. 22 There is no deep shadow, no utter darkness, where evildoers can hide’’ and Solomon says ‘’For your ways are in full view of the LORD, and he examines all your paths’’
Living in light and leading a righteous life do have a cost and pain as we read ‘’John was a lamp that burned and gave light..’’ Jesus, John, Apostles , Job, everyone had to endure this burning experience to lighten others. Out of this experience that David says ‘’ I have suffered much; preserve my life, LORD,’’
Only those who walk in Light is promised the destination of heaven. Jesus said ‘’Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” And this require walking in truth and shun the path of evil which in turn require lot of restrictions and restraints in life and this makes the path to heaven narrow. David says the same thing in psalms ‘’To fear the LORD is to hate evil’’ “whoever conceals their sins does not prosper..’’ ‘’I have kept my feet from every evil path so that I might obey your word.’’ And for Job the word of God was ‘ daily bread’ and advices the human race, “The fear of the Lord—that is wisdom, and to shun evil is understanding.”
In the motto of Lighted to Lighten, the forefathers of Marthoma Church depicted their wisdom, vision and deep insight in the word of God and acceptance of the commission given by Jesus to His disciples. I believe, there can’t be a better ‘mission’ statement’ for any church as this motto embodies the very essence of gospel. The call by Late Abraham Marthoma Methrapolitha for every marthomite to become a missionary was a reaffirmation of this gospel mission . But looking at the current scenario of the church and its leaders I dare to raise a question: How could the church with leaders embroiled in so much of corruption, evils scheming, forced ligations against their own folk and lies claim as ‘’ LIGHTED’’. How those who could not give a witness of being Lighted to their own folk could Lighten other unbelievers ? It is foretold in Bible ‘’Blind will see and those who see will become blind’’. Nobody need to create darkness, it is created by default as soon as light (Jesus) is taken away from life, allowing darkness to overtake making him blind, unable to see and understand realities. When the spirit of darkness overtaken Cain, he murdered his own innocent brother and God asked him : “’ Where is your brother? ’’ Nine months before, in the month of February , we heard this same question thunderously echoing in Maramon incessantly for 7 days . Is it not meaningless hypocrisy to ask this question by those who scattered their own brothers? Is it not like Cain butchering his innocent brother and then asking God, where is my brother? Do those who raised this question have the light inside to see where their brothers have been lost or gone ?
It is high time the church leadership should do an introspection to evaluate whether they are ‘lighted’ or’ blinded.’ A replay and self evaluation by leaders of the chain of lies the church bishops have told to their folk in Kuwait, the scheming made and the false propaganda still spreading , the false witnessing by a serving priest to pervert the truth , many of the answers given in Mandalam meeting etc might give some clue as to realize whether they have been overtaken by the darkness or living in light. If they refuse to correct and continue to shun the path of truth, the current situation could be summed up as “ Blinded to Blind’’ instead of Lighted to Lighten. It will not take them or the followers to the destinations where Lord want them to take, coz ‘’ Whoever walks in the dark does not know where they are going.’’ Jesus raised a question in Luke 6:39 which is still relevant to many Christian leaders “Can the blind lead the blind? Will they not both fall into a pit?
Sajan