Editorial note: This is a transcript of an audio talk on Luke chapter 8, lightly edited by Claude AI. Spelling has been corrected, paragraphs and sentences have been added for clarity, banter and interjections have been marked, and scripture quotations have been highlighted. The content and argument remain those of the speaker throughout.

Luke 8 — Not Only the Initiates

Well, here we are, Luke chapter 8. I haven’t looked at this passage, but let’s read it and just meditate upon it.

What is the methodology for Bible study that we’re given in the Bible? You go to the commentaries? No — you meditate upon God’s word. And how do you get better at something? Well, you do it. And we’ve been practising one or two things, and we’re getting better at it. With the Lord’s blessing, a lot better at it.

So here we are, meditating once again. It’s not arrogance for you to think that you can just go to the scriptures, open it up, read it, and get meaning from it.

It is not. It is the heart of Protestantism, the heart of the Christian religion — the perspicuity of the word of God, the clearness of the word of God. And if you find yourself saying, “Oh, I have to have an expert here,” you’re back into the old, damnable religion of priestcraft: only the initiated can understand. Is this Christianity? Do we have the Holy Spirit, or is this a mystery religion where only the initiates can interpret for you? I challenge you with that question.

It is not humility to wait for the commentators before you start thinking about it. It is the greatest arrogance. It is saying to God, “Look, You’ve given me Your Holy Spirit — but what is that compared to an authorised commentator?” And as we found last night, meditating on Exodus and the Eighth Commandment, the great overwhelming majority of commentators — if not all of those I’ve read — don’t really believe the Bible. They believe it’s some sort of myth, an important myth, they say. But let’s not get too far into that subject. God has commanded us to meditate upon His word. Who are you to resist the will of the Lord, O man? Is it humility to resist God? No, it is the greatest possible arrogance.

Revelation Comes Through the Right Use of Scripture

With that in mind, we rejoice that God has given us His scriptures as a revelation. Other scriptures weren’t revelation — they’re a revelation only to those who work the scriptures the way they’re supposed to be worked. That is, to take a parable, for example, and meditate upon it. So if you have little or no understanding of the Bible, only a childish level of understanding, it is for a reason: because you haven’t taken the God-given route for understanding the Bible.

What is that route? Meditate daily — when? Day and night. Every day? Yes, every day. Meditate daily, day and night, on the word of God. And furthermore, in Deuteronomy 6, in that great commission to fathers to educate their children, we have not only the command to meditate for yourself, but the orientation is always of work on others — more than that, on those who come after you, your sons particularly. Of course your daughters as well, don’t be foolish, but it’s your sons of the next generation.

Crucial to a Christian understanding of what the Bible is, and why we educate — why we are literate in the first place — is this: that we are called to be educators. The true department of education, as somebody else has put it, is the family: the father, the mother, with their children. That is the essential, the core of it all. And anything which runs against that is diabolical.

Luke 8:16 — The Candle and the Vessel

“No man, when he hath lighted a candle, covereth it with a vessel, or putteth it under a bed; but setteth it on a candlestick, that they which enter in may see the light.” — Luke 8:16

Are these complex words? No. You could just breeze over them. But no — these are something to be sat with.

Jesus came to serve. What is the attitude of the Pharisee? He comes to be served. This is the attitude of the academic, I think — he comes to be served, and if people don’t understand him, well, tough luck for them. But Jesus, in His communication, is there to serve. He doesn’t put everything on the top shelf. Where are the multiple-syllable words, the super-interlapsarian vocabulary? He’s there as a servant.

[Aside — rhetorical flourish] Are you serving the people you’re in authority over, especially when you teach? Or are you serving yourself? You say, “How can I put this in such a way that people know I’m pretty clever? I’ll use a German word. Heilsgeschichte — I used that word last night. Weltanschauung — wow, he must have read a book. Maybe he reads German. Wow, intellectual!” Well, Jesus spoke Aramaic, read Hebrew, and I’m sure knew Greek as well, but is any of that on display here? No.

“No man, when he hath lighted a candle, covereth it with a vessel.” We’ve got an object on top of another object. What’s the object? A candle. A candle is so basic — we know it’s just this rod pointing up, with a light at the top, made of wax. You light it, and just the act of lighting it, you’re picturing it in your mind at this moment. It’s visceral, readily understandable. And a bowl — who doesn’t have a bowl in their house? You’d have to be some kind of monster not to have a bowl.

[Aside — light humour] I’m looking at a bowl right now, looking at the cupboard where the bowls are. Everybody has a bowl. This is Jesus. In His communication, He is serving. Are you serving? If you’re a communicator? Or are you just… fa-la-la-la-la-dum-dum-dum-da-la? All those big words…

“Covereth it with a vessel, or put it under a bed.” Come on — tell me that’s not humour. Tell me to my face that’s not humour. Did people laugh when He said that? I bet they did. I bet they chortled. There’s always a chuckle brother in the audience. The Son of Man, stooping to humour, stooping to simple images. No — He’s serving. It is of the highest dignity of man to serve.

The Servant-Teacher and the Levitical Pattern

How much more important service is there than the service of the Levites? Some twelve per cent of the population of Israel, as it were, was dedicated to teaching.

“They shall teach Jacob thy judgements, and Israel thy law.” — Deuteronomy 33:10

All revolving around teaching God’s law. Here we have Jesus, the suffering servant. His day-to-day earthly ministry was a ministry of teaching and proclaiming the kingdom — and all of this required communication. He communicated with the people of His time using images everybody would understand.

Are you using images when you speak, when you teach? Are you conjuring up images? Let us imitate Jesus.

[Aside — rhetorical] “Oh, we’re only to imitate Jesus in this way, that way, and the other way.” Says who? Here we have the greatest teacher, as well as the greatest healer in the world, the God-man, Christ Jesus. He teaches. Are you humble enough to imitate Him?

I think of Charles Dickens — that little tin metal holder where you put your finger in it, prop it against your hand, walk through the house with a nightcap on. The Ghost of Christmas Past and all that. And it’s particularly sweet when there’s a power cut — you get the candles out. There’s a tremendous warm feeling. [Aside — comic] If it happens in winter there might not be a warm feeling for long; there might be a cold feeling. But isn’t it hearty? And if you have a romantic meal, what do you have? Candles.

So it’s evocative. And you have a bowl. Under a bed — humour.

“But set it on a candlestick, that they which enter may see the light.”

Precious few words. One verse. But look at the levels of images He’s using — how readily accessible, on the bottom shelf, as it were. You think: I worship the Lord because He is a great teacher, as well as everything else. What is His greatness? One, two, three: service. If you want to be first in teaching — serve. Jesus puts it on a plate for you:

“Whosoever will be great among you, shall be your minister; and whosoever of you will be the chiefest, shall be servant of all.” — Mark 10:43–44

If you’re in teaching and you want to serve, you jolly well better imitate Jesus and serve. Think first of all of your audience.

Purpose, Snuffing Out, and the Bed

[Teaching, continued] There are two negative examples in verse 16, one of which is extremely comical — if not both.

Cover a candle with a vessel — a bowl. What happens? You can’t see the light, and the light is extinguished. It defeats the very purpose. And the purpose of a candle is very clear: it is to give light.

Now here is something I’ve realised in meditating on this: if you want to snuff out your very life, you live not in terms of your purpose. The candle has a given purpose. You live as if you were a piece of fruit — you put a piece of fruit under a bowl so the flies can’t get at it. But a candle is not a piece of fruit. A candle is not a piece of cheese. It’s not a bowl of blancmange. A candle is a candle, and it has a given purpose.

That means you and I, by extension, have a given purpose. If we want frustration — to effectively snuff out and stifle our lives — we live not in terms of that purpose.

“I don’t want to get married. I want to live life for myself.” You’re strangling yourself. The act of sinning is to strangle yourself, because you were not designed to sin — your body and your flesh cry out against it. It chokes itself, and all you have at the end is smoke and an acrid smell. But what could you have if you live in terms of your purpose? You could be a candle on a high shelf, and what are you doing? You are serving. Giving. Giving light to everybody in the room so that they can function, make the dinner — it’s a very practical thing.

[Aside — personal anecdote] I was briefly in an African village, and instead of a candle they had an oil lamp — a very basic one. One of the presents they were given was a miner’s lamp, one of those cheap ones. [Aside — wry humour] No doubt Chinese-made. A light is something that serves. And in truth — I hate to over-press the metaphor, but the truth is the truth — it burns itself up in order to serve. It spends its life to serve other people.

Whether you like it or not, you are spending your life. We will live eternally after we die, unless the Lord comes soon, which I don’t think is going to happen — there’s too much left on the programme of events for that, it would seem. But at any rate, whether you like it or not, you are spending your life. It doesn’t seem that way when you’re in your 20s, 30s, even early 40s, but you are. You look in the mirror and say, “Oh, I haven’t really changed.” And then boom — it hits you. [Aside — comic] The hair: hair today, gone tomorrow.

You are spending your life. And the way to spend it productively is what?

“Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.” — Matthew 5:16

Take that talent and hoist it up as far as you can, and shine before men. It is not humility to put your light under a bushel.

[Aside — brief interruption] The lights have gone off. Going to have to figure out the mystery of the battery. I think there’s a dead one among them. [Aside] Yeah, anyway — service. Take that talent and hoist it up before men. That’s not humility — saying, “I’m being terribly humble. I’m not putting myself forward. I’m not developing my talents.” Do you remember the parable of the talents?

“Thou wicked and slothful servant… thou knewest that I reap where I sowed not… Thou oughtest therefore to have put my money to the exchangers.” — Matthew 25:26–27

That is arrogance and foolishness. You put a candle under a bowl — that is stupid. That is the action of a fool.

But wait — there’s more. You put a candle under a bed. What happens if you put a lighted flame under a bed stuffed with straw? You become, instead of a force for serving people, a force for destruction.

[Aside — personal reflection] I’ve spent time in Africa. We spent a little short time in Costa Rica. Things aren’t exactly as they should be there, as compared to the US or the UK. There are a lot of people who, for whatever reason — laziness, lack of worldview — don’t take the talents they’re given and instead bury them. And it can be that the government discourages it. What is a graduated income tax after all? It’s a way of stopping, prohibiting people from fully developing their talents. Because if you’re fully developing your talents in the service of others, you’re growing in income, growing in service, becoming greater — as Jesus would put it — because you’re putting your life in the service of others. But they’re saying, “We can’t have this. We must equalise everybody.” That is one of the anti-Christian aspects of a graduated income tax: obscuring, covering.

[Aside — cultural aside] You still have that light coming from under the bed — like those people with lifted trucks, or modified JDM cars, who put LED lights underneath. You get a strange light. [Aside] I think it’s illegal in certain states. But it is destructive. You end up burning the bed down. And you don’t just start with the bed — you burn the entire house down. This is what a misplaced talent can do.

“He also that is slothful in his work is brother to him that is a great waster.” — Proverbs 18:9

Lack of diligence in your calling — failure to express the essence of who you are — leads to one of two things. Either you snuff yourself out, or you destroy. Existentialism says that man has being but no essence — he is, but he can identify as this, that, or the other thing. Foolishness. No. Man is creation. Man has a given nature and must live in terms of that given nature, or he will snuff himself out on one hand, or burn the whole house down on the other. Destructive of self, or destructive of others.

So take what’s purposeful and don’t extinguish that purpose. At least the man who is under the bowl, if he repents, can still be lit again. He’s still got life to live. He can still burn up whatever remains to be burned. And in the light of that burning candle, what do you have? People busying themselves with life — around the table, in a home, working, cooking. You’re blessing life. You’re making life possible for others. And boy, is it worth something? It is in fact invaluable for the life of the household. That’s where the word economy comes from: oikos — house; nomos — law, rule of the house.

Luke 8:17 — Nothing Secret That Shall Not Be Manifest

“For nothing is secret, that shall not be made manifest; neither any thing hid, that shall not be known and come abroad.” — Luke 8:17

I’m a little at a loss with verse 17 at first glance. I suppose it’s this: that in the course of time the seed springs up and is choked in the matter. It’s only in the course of the passage of time that the seed you had all hope in the world for — the seed that landed on the path — is revealed as no harvest at all. The thing that was secret is made manifest.

[Aside — personal anecdote] We dug out the back garden of a friend’s house recently. We put stones in, then this grid thing that let a motorcycle run over it without turning the whole thing to a quagmire. The fellow got some soil — it must have been rubbish soil — because we scattered seed on it and it’s very patchy. We were puzzling: why has this seed not come up? One thing that’s done in secret — because you’ll never watch it 24/7 unless you’ve got cameras — is that birds come and just whoop, they take it up while your back’s turned. That’s secret. You think you’re going to have a harvest, but with the passage of time, things are revealed.

With the passage of time there should be a harvest. You should be growing in your ability to serve others, growing in your knowledge of the scriptures. This is normal; it indicates life. And some people shoot up fast — but it’s false. A false harvest. What is being made manifest is whether your heart is good soil.

“Yes, Lord Jesus, I have a talent. I am going to use it for You and Your purposes. I humbly accept that You made me not for myself, but for others, and in them, for You.”

That’s the heart of it. This connects to the parable of giving a cup of water in Jesus’ name, or visiting those in prison and the sick — in serving them, we are serving the Lord.

So: nothing is secret that shall not be made manifest. And it is the lamp that is lit that makes things manifest. This is particularly true with teaching. All truly Christian teaching — in every discipline — should have the word of God at its front and centre. That will bring to light things which were previously hidden. Good teaching illuminates. What was merely a dark shadow, you suddenly see — Oh, that’s red; I thought it was grey. That’s green; I thought it was whatever colour. You begin to see the distinctions. That’s what light brings.

That’s what the Lord Jesus’ ministry brought. It brought a division. It said: those Pharisees you thought were really good people? By the illumination of my teaching, I’m telling you — they don’t even believe the law of God. They set it at naught. And presently people are wandering around in darkness about the Pharisees, saying, “You’re talking about the law of God? You’re a Pharisee.” Whereas Jesus’ very words say, No. Have you not read the Bible? You’re embarrassing yourself.

This is what Jesus’ ministry did. It brought to light the fact that if you humble yourself, you’ll be exalted — not if you vaunt yourself in the marketplaces.

“For whosoever exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.” — Luke 14:11

And what else reveals what is hidden? The passage of time. Don’t take a young believer and promote him to high office. Apply Jesus’ words: take time, see what the fruit is. Is it a flash in the pan, or is it that steady, steady growth?

Luke 8:18 — Take Heed How You Hear

“Take heed therefore how ye hear: for whosoever hath, to him shall be given; and whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken even that which he seemeth to have.” — Luke 8:18

[Aside — dramatised mock-reasoning] Oh, this goes against the grain. For whosoever hath — if you have, you have something, you have more than others. We know the answer. We don’t need to think about this. We know that justice is taking from the haths and giving to the hath-nots. That’s justice. So let’s read the book — I’m sure Jesus says that, yeah, yeah. We have a good moral compass. We’ll take a look anyway — maybe there’s something of interest here. “For whosoever hath…” Okay, I can guess what’s coming. Whosoever hath is a bad man — I saw it in the cartoons, read about it in the newspaper, was told in school: if you’re the have, you’ve taken it from somebody. You taker.

“For whosoever hath… shall be given.”

What? What? That can’t be right.

[Aside — biblical misprint story] You know, there was a Bible published that omitted the not from the seventh commandment — “Thou shalt commit adultery.” It was called the Wicked Bible. The publishers, back in the seventeenth century, were fined a tremendous sum — I think it was twenty pounds of silver. And another Bible — Italian, I think — replaced the word without with the word sin somehow. When the printer was presented with the fault, he dropped dead on the spot out of shame. [Aside] That’s a responsible man right there. This is all from a book called The Blunder Book.

But surely this is a misprint in our minds. Inconceivable. How can Jesus say this? What do we do when we find that Jesus says something we disagree with — when He presents Himself as something different to what we expect? Do you say, “Amen, Lord Jesus, I accept it — I cast out whatever is in my heart that is not subject to You”? Or do you say, “Well, I think… I feel…” Are you prepared to submit to the words of Jesus only when they agree with you?

“For whosoever hath, to him shall be given.”

The one that has, with that steady growth — he’s going to take the nutrients away from those that just sprang up and shot down. It makes sense. The resources of the field should go to those actually growing, actually contributing. Take the candle that isn’t doing anything — that useless candle — and add it to the useful one. That makes sense.

“And whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken even that which he seemeth to have.”

The people that seem to have spirituality, but there’s no growth, no fruit — where is the fruit? This is like the seed by the wayside. They say they’re a seed, they say they’re good, but there’s no fruit. They’ve got the position, the status, but where is the fruit? Or else they have massive, spectacular fruit — they’ve just shot up with a great display — and then from them shall be taken even that which they seemed to have. That life they seemed to have will be taken away in the course of weathering.

The Candle and the Seed — Our Given Purpose

The candle is there to be a candle. Its life is to be lit and put on display. The life of the seed is to die to itself and become fruitful. Our purpose is not to be polished seeds, clean seeds, seeds with status — it’s to die and then produce fruit. And if we don’t produce fruit, whatever nutrients we have will be taken over by those who actually are growing.

The important thing in Jesus’ economy is to grow — to be what you’re called to be. We are the soil. Our job is to receive the seed of the word of God, which then causes us to die and from our soil to grow. The seed together with the soil is to be growth. That is our purpose: to grow and then bear fruit.

And of course, the fruit comes with death:

“Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit.” — John 12:24

There’s two deaths: the dying of the seed, and the dying of the crop. The sickle has to be put to the grain. This is our purpose. We have a given purpose, and that purpose is to produce fruit.

So the big question is: are we willing to produce fruit? For the candle, it’s not producing fruit — it’s producing light. And in the light of that burning candle, people are busying themselves with life, winnowing perhaps, processing the wheat gathered at harvest time, in the night.

Closing Remarks

This is a very, very rich chapter. It is a challenge — as every truly understood Bible passage is — a challenge and affront to whatever Christless sophistication is the order of our day.

By the way, that idea of equality — where does it come from, or where is it best exemplified? In Marxism, that greatest killer of Christians the world has ever seen. But I would say there are elements of Marxism almost inextricably bound to the hearts of Christians here and elsewhere from our earliest days. And of course, it’s just one amongst a number of things from which we have to sanctify ourselves, in order that we might see with the eyes of Christ — see clearly, define clearly between what is clean and unclean, what is godly and ungodly.

This is our role: to be able to judge accurately and well between that which is clean and unclean, that which is godly and ungodly.

May the Lord bless this to our hearts, give us understanding, and give us grace to apply it to our own lives. In the name of Jesus we pray. Amen.

Scripture References

ReferenceText Quoted or Alluded To
Luke 8:16”No man, when he hath lighted a candle, covereth it with a vessel, or putteth it under a bed; but setteth it on a candlestick, that they which enter in may see the light.”
Luke 8:17”For nothing is secret, that shall not be made manifest; neither any thing hid, that shall not be known and come abroad.”
Luke 8:18”Take heed therefore how ye hear: for whosoever hath, to him shall be given; and whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken even that which he seemeth to have.”
Deuteronomy 6The great commission to fathers to teach God’s word to their children, day and night.
Deuteronomy 33:10”They shall teach Jacob thy judgements, and Israel thy law.”
Matthew 5:16”Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.”
Mark 10:43–44”Whosoever will be great among you, shall be your minister; and whosoever of you will be the chiefest, shall be servant of all.”
Matthew 25:26–27Parable of the Talents — the wicked and slothful servant rebuked for not using what he was given.
Proverbs 18:9”He also that is slothful in his work is brother to him that is a great waster.”
Luke 14:11”For whosoever exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.”
John 12:24”Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit.”
Exodus 20:15The Eighth Commandment — “Thou shalt not steal.” (Referenced in passing re: commentary discussion.)
Exodus 20:14The Seventh Commandment — “Thou shalt not commit adultery.” (Referenced in the Wicked Bible anecdote.)
Psalm 1:2Implied: the command to meditate on God’s law day and night.