What shape does light take in today’s online world?
“No one after lighting a lamp covers it with a jar or puts it under a bed, but puts it on a stand, so that those who enter may see the light. For nothing is hidden that will not be made manifest, nor is anything secret that will not be known and come to light.” Luke 8:16-17 ESV
I read these verses as a follower of Jesus in 2024, and a couple of things spring to mind.
Our society looks a lot different than it did 2,000 years ago, and nowhere are the changes in our daily experiences more profound than on the internet. Let’s look at these verses through an online lens.
1. Nothing is hidden that will not be made manifest.
Something that I try to impress upon our oldest elementary students is that the internet always remembers. Our views, clicks, searches, and messages have a way of sticking around.
That’s not to say that our darkest secrets and weakest moments are being actively viewed and enjoyed by actual humans. In most cases, they’re not.
But missteps tend to linger in the online world. Where unwise comments and inappropriate advances committed in the 70s and 80s fade into the void of lost memories, improprieties committed today are often preserved in digital format, available for prying eyes.
Those involved in secret, hidden activities of today, from fraud to illegal activities to adulterous relationships, now risk the leaked text, the discovered tweets, the subpoenaed emails, the hacked website.
Yes, when Jesus speaks of ultimate exposure, he likely has the Day of Judgment in mind. The Great Revelation of God himself.
But thanks in part to the online world, our secrets may not have to wait that long for exposure.
2. No one covers their lamp with a jar.
The purpose of lighting a lamp is to provide illumination. That being the case, it makes no sense to cover the lamp with a jar. If that’s the reflex, why even light it at all?
But letting our lights shine before men is a complicated venture today.
Jesus is a polarizing and misinterpreted figure. Moves toward holiness are seen as hostile. Scripture is seen as colonial, patriarchal, judgmental, and non-inclusive: all the remnants of centuries past that we want to burn and forget.
How do we let our lamps shine in ways that actually attract those in darkness toward the light? And in the context of today’s reflection, what does this light look like in online spaces?
There’s no one-size-fits-all answer, but this blog is part of my answer to that question.
My light is limited here, I’ll admit, by my anonymity. Without a name and face on the other side of this keyboard, my message is less potent, relevant, and meaningful.
Still, I’m enjoying the act of public meditation and reflection. I’m enjoying the sustained moments of reflection in scripture that this kind of writing demands.
And I trust that over a sustained period of time, this light will provide helpful illumination.
The Cascadian Christian 