ACC ~ Matthew 5 v15

THE LIGHTERS OF THE LAMP

ANONYMOUS: This city has been set upon a mountain. The city refers to the apostles, the prophets and other teachers who have been instructed in Christ. For Christ is the mountain, of whom Daniel says, “Look, the rock has been hewn without hands and has become a large mountain and has taken possession of the whole earth.” [1]

Now through another comparison he wants to show why Christ himself makes his saints manifest. He does not want them to be hidden: “Neither do people light a lamp in order to put it under a bucket, but they do so to put it on a lampstand, so that it will give light to all the people in the house.” Who are the lighters of this lamp? The Father and the Son. What is that lamp? The divine word, of which it has been said, “Your word is a lamp for my feet and a light for my path.” [2] The lamp of the word sheds light so that the way might be manifest, that it might give light to those who are in the house, either the house of the church or of the world. What is this lampstand? The church, which bears the word of life. So Paul too speaks of those “among whom you shine, like lightgivers in the world containing the word of life.” [3] So too every person in the church, possessing the word of God, is called a lampstand. But worldly people are more like bushel buckets, lacking both God and everything that is of God. INCOMPLETE WORK ON MATTHEW, HOMILY 10. [4]

[1] Dan 2:34-35.

[2] Ps 119:105 (118:105 LXX).

[3] Phil 2:15-16.

[4] PG 56:686.

HIDING THE LAMP UNDER A BUCKET

THEODORE OF MOPSUESTIA: So, what does the Savior mean by the “bucket” under which some people put the lamp? Here by “bucket” he means vice, and by “lamp,” virtue. People who intend to perform some illicit act walk in darkness, avoiding, if possible, the light. FRAGMENT 26. [1]

[1] MKGK 105.