“[H]ere I think is the great encouragement of the passage. The Gospel of the kingdom, the coming of Jesus Christ, cannot stay hidden. Nothing can obscure it. No shadow can engulf it. The God who said, “Let light shine out of darkness has shone in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.” He shines into the darkness, into the gloom of the hearts of rebel sinners and chases the shadows away in the Gospel . . . [W]e’ve heard . . . of the way God is at work, the way the light of the Gospel is chasing away the shadows of unbelief in India and East Asia and Central Asia and Africa and South America. The light of the Gospel is chasing away the shadows of unbelief. The people who walked in darkness are seeing the great Light. That’s the message of Jesus’ parable here too. It’s encouraging us that there is no darkness so absolute that the light of the Gospel cannot penetrate it. The reason the lamp came was not to be hidden but to be revealed, made manifest. The kingdom will be seen one day. One day it will be seen perfectly and forever when Christ returns. And the light will shine and every shadow will depart forever.
“But even now, albeit only by degrees, but even now when we open our mouths and speak a word for Jesus, when the Gospel comes from us to others, we ought not to fear that the Gospel might somehow fail. Here we have a promise. The Gospel light will shine and every one of the children of God will be gathered in. Every single one of God’s people all over the world will be redeemed by grace; every single one. He simply calls us to go find them by proclaiming the unsearchable riches of Christ. I think we often feel like our own witness to Jesus is like a little flame in a great, oppressive darkness. You know, like one of those little candles from the top of a birthday cake – that’s our witness. You know, pathetic, puny, flickering, the barest puff of a breeze will snuff it out. And all around us is this absolute, impenetrable darkness. “What can my little light do?” we wonder. That’s not the right picture. Jesus is the Light. He is the Lamp. The Gospel is the Light. And it shines too brightly there is no shadow so difficult it cannot dispel. There is no one beyond the reach of Jesus Christ. There is no heart so hard His grace cannot soften it and change it forever. The light will pierce the darkness; we just need to let it shine. The future is bright for the cause of Jesus Christ here and all over the world. I’m confident of that not because I think the church has finally got it right – here or anywhere else for that matter. I’m confident of that because of the promise of Christ. The Lamp came not to be hidden away. It came to blaze forth and to give light to the world. And nothing can stop Jesus Christ. Nothing can stop the Light of the world. In the kingdom of God the future is bright, so let’s not be afraid to share the Gospel.”
-adapted from “Light and Measures” by David Strain