For whoever has, to him more will be given; and whoever does not have, even what he seems to have will be taken from him

 

 "No one, when he has lit lamp, covers it with a vessel or puts it under a bed, but sets it on a lampstand, that those who enter may see the light.  For nothing is secret that will not be revealed, nor anything hidden that will not be known and come to light.  Therefore take heed how you hear.  For whoever has, to him more will be given; and whoever does not have, even what he seems to have will be taken from him."

Then His mother and brothers came to Him, and could not approach Him because of the crowd.  And it was told Him by some, who said, "Your mother and Your brothers are standing outside, desiring to see You."  But He answered  and said to them, "My mother and My brothers are these who hear the word of God and do it."

Now it happened, on a certain day, that He got into a boat with His disciples.  And He said to them, "Let us cross over to the other side of the lake."  And they launched out.  But as they sailed He fell asleep.  And a windstorm came down on the lake, and they were filling with water, and were in jeopardy.  And they came to Him and awoke Him, saying, "Master, Master, we are perishing!"  Then He arose and rebuked the wind and the raging of the water.  And they ceased, and there was a calm.  But He said to them, "Where is your faith?"  And they were afraid, and marveled, saying to one another, "Who can this be?  For He commands even the winds and water, and they obey Him!" 

 

- Luke 8:16–25 

 

Yesterday we read that it came to pass that Jesus went through every city and village, preaching and bringing the glad tidings of the kingdom of God.  And the twelve were with Him, and certain women who had been healed of evil spirits and infirmities -- Mary called Magdalene, out of whom had come seven demons, and Joanna the wife of Chuza, Herod's steward, and Susanna, and many others who provided for Him from their substance.  And when a great multitude had gathered, and they had come to Him from every city, He spoke by a parable:  "A sower went out to sow his seed.  And as he sowed, some fell by the wayside; and it was trampled down, and the birds of the air devoured it.  Some fell on rock; and as soon as it sprang up, it withered away because it lacked moisture.  And some fell among thorns, and the thorns sprang up with it and choked it.  But others fell on good ground, sprang up, and yielded a crop a hundredfold."  When He had said these things He cried, "He who has ears to hear, let him hear!"  Then His disciples asked Him, saying, "What does this parable mean?"  And He said, "To you it has been given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God, but to the rest it is given in parables, that 'seeing they may not see, and hearing they may not understand.'  Now the parable is this:  The seed is the word of God.  Those by the wayside are the ones who hear; then the devil comes and takes away the word out of their hearts, lest they should believe and be saved.  But the ones on the rock are those who, when they hear, receive the word with joy; and these have no root, who believe for a while and in time of temptation fall away.  Now the ones that fell among thorns are those who, when they have heard, go out and are choked with cares, riches, and pleasures of life, and bring no fruit to maturity.  But the ones that fell on the good ground are those who, having heard the word with a noble and good heart, keep it and bear fruit with patience." 

 

  "No one, when he has lit lamp, covers it with a vessel or puts it under a bed, but sets it on a lampstand, that those who enter may see the light.  For nothing is secret that will not be revealed, nor anything hidden that will not be known and come to light.  Therefore take heed how you hear.  For whoever has, to him more will be given; and whoever does not have, even what he seems to have will be taken from him."  In the Sermon on the Mount, this teaching about the lampstand and the light comes shortly after the Beatitudes.  But here in Luke's Gospel it is juxtaposed shortly after the teaching of the first parable, the Sower.  And so it takes on a slightly different contrast, because Jesus adds, "Therefore take heed how you hear."  He has already spoken of those with ears to hear, who can use their capacity to perceive spiritual truths, who want and desire them, and to live this life of discipleship.  But here He goes a step further, and emphasizes our true desire for the mysteries of the Kingdom, and the living of those truths.  These things that are secret may be revealed and come to light.  Should we so desire to hear, we may also receive more.  For those who do not desire to hear, "even what he seems to have will be taken from him."

Then His mother and brothers came to Him, and could not approach Him because of the crowd.  And it was told Him by some, who said, "Your mother and Your brothers are standing outside, desiring to see You."  But He answered  and said to them, "My mother and My brothers are these who hear the word of God and do it."  My study bible explains that it was not Christ's will to deny His mother and brothers.  Instead, we should understand this as correction for both them and His hearers -- that is, according to St. John Chrysostom, "to the right idea concerning Himself," that the family of His Kingdom "is not by nature but by virtue."  See also 11:27-28.

Now it happened, on a certain day, that He got into a boat with His disciples.  And He said to them, "Let us cross over to the other side of the lake."  And they launched out.  But as they sailed He fell asleep.  And a windstorm came down on the lake, and they were filling with water, and were in jeopardy.  And they came to Him and awoke Him, saying, "Master, Master, we are perishing!"  Then He arose and rebuked the wind and the raging of the water.  And they ceased, and there was a calm.  But He said to them, "Where is your faith?"  And they were afraid, and marveled, saying to one another, "Who can this be?  For He commands even the winds and water, and they obey Him!"   Jesus directs that the disciples and he should cross over the Sea of Galilee.  My study bible suggests that He deliberately permits the windstorm to arise while He is sleeping, so that He may perfect the disciples' faith and rebuke their weaknesses.   In this way, they will eventually be unshaken by life's temptations.  Here their faith is still mixed with unbelief.  They showed faith when they came to Him, but unbelief when they said, "We are perishing."

The absolute faith that Christ teaches is the same one with which He enters into His own public ministry.  Without fail, he puts His trust in God the Father, and so in this scene in the boat, He also asks His disciples to do so as well -- and by extension He asks us for confidence in our faith, in that we put our trust in Him.  What does it mean to do this?  In the first place, that leads to some complicated conditions.  Do we always expect a particular outcome?  Is Christ's direction for us -- the way our lives are shaped via our faith -- always going to be what we expect or want?  This kind of faith that Jesus displays Himself, as well as the faith He asks for us, first of all requires us to be capable of putting certain things aside in order to really deepen and accept this faith.  That is the life of the Cross.  We might imagine many things that we would love to do, or to be, or to have.  But the life of faith is not about fulfilling our wishes and dreams, nor the fantasies that arise from popular imagination, sales marketing, and keeping up with the Joneses.  So often the grass that seems so much greener isn't at all -- and this is the way that our faith takes us:  away from looking for the greener grass and accepting instead the words of the heart in communion with God, where God rests and asks us to rest in God's love.  That place of trust and faith is at its deepest in us first an asking to let everything else go.  It isn't a sense in which we might need to give up everything on some permanent and lasting basis.  No, this place of faith is the place in the heart where we go and take rest and find communion -- and that moment of communion requires us to surrender and give up everything else for the fullness of that love.  It is from there that we take our respite and nourishment for the inner power of the soul and the confidence that faith gives.  For if a child goes to a parent with some ulterior motive in mind, something the child wants, then where is the fullness of the bond with the parent who can teach and offer something better that the child, in immaturity, can't know?  Do we expect our children to say, "If I don't get this, my parent doesn't love me"?  No, the fullness of love comes from a "no holds barred" kind of depth -- and this is more than a parent/child relationship.  This is Creator to creature, and no one can know what is better for us than Christ.   We don't know how the disciples felt about crossing the Sea of Galilee; all we know is that this is what Jesus asked them to do.  Faith comes in the confidence of trust in Him, and that asks us to be welcoming to God's direction for us.  In the story of His mother and brothers, Christ points to this fact of faith when He makes it clear that the bond between Himself and His followers is also something necessary and real, and something which might include His family, but in fact goes more deeply into the soul and one's identity.  There might be times when we need to suspend social or family "rules" to more clearly listen to the Lord, to give faith the first priority, and to open to the power of that place of love.  It is not a denial of our lives nor ingratitude nor revocation of personal ties.  But it is a cementing and accepting of the power of faith and communion, the connection to Christ that forms the Body of Christ in us and among us, the life of the Kingdom.   And then we come finally, to the first part of today's reading:  the teaching about the lampstand and how we hear.  Tell me how we open our ears to hear if we are not willing to suspend what already fills our minds and ears with notions of how we're supposed to live, in order to more fully listen to the word of God, the whispering of the wisdom of Christ in the heart?  How are we supposed to have ears to hear, if they are filled with the latest gossip, the demands of the time, the trend on Facebook?  We must put those things aside for the moment to pray, put them where they don't interfere with the suspension of time in the heart, the time we spend with God's light, in order to more fully receive.  It is only this way that we can have light to share -- and that we can also receive the "more" that will be given, so that what we have will not be taken away.  It is a question of suspending the loud voices and noises of the world so that we can truly hear, and the hush in the heart wherein God is with us and within us -- just as it is in forgiveness and letting go that we are free enough to find God's way for us through all things.