The Gospel of Luke recounts that Jesus, after announcing the Beatitudes in the Sermon on the Mount, began to perform miracles and teach the Kingdom of God through the use of mysterious parables.
And among the first parables is the Parable of the Lamp, and to explain this interesting parable, the divine master began by resorting to the use of common sense: "No one lights a lamp and then covers it with a bowl or hides it under a bed. A lamp is placed on a stand, where its light can be seen by all who enter the house" Luke 8:16.
With this, Jesus wanted to tell his disciples that they were like him, workers of the kingdom, and that they should oppose the prevailing oppression, and in particular the oppression of his worst enemies, the oppression of the Pharisees and Sadducees.
In the gospels, light is a metaphorical way of referring to wisdom, the science of correct knowledge for living. Just as one walks when there is light, men can make the best decisions on the path of life with wisdom. The divine science is the light of knowledge.
Jesus criticized his enemies because they had reduced spirituality to the fulfillment of very rigid rules of behavior, don't do this, don't do that, and had decided to ignore the importance of a heart of flesh that translates into the search of the light of the science of God.
The example of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37) is a light in a world where strategies of concealment and fierce selfishness predominate in global society. The good Samaritan is a person who acts with common sense, and for this reason, the Good Samaritan is the best example of Jesus in announcing this new kingdom which, with its light, must illuminate every man.
In the spiritual teachings of Jesus, the disciples, with the gifts they were to receive at Pentecost, and in particular the righteousness of the Good Samaritan, were to be that lamp which, placed in the highest place, should illuminate the reason of men. With this parable, Jesus was announcing to his disciples his mission in the world: to change it through knowledge and example.
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