The Lamp on Its Stand

Prayer, Light, and True Cleanness · Luke 11

Story guide: Jesus teaches attentive listeners beside a small clay oil lamp burning on a wooden stand in a shadowed first-century room. This portrays the lamp on its stand in Luke 11:29-36.

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29As the crowds were gathering, he began to say, “This generation is an evil generation. It seeks a sign, and no sign will be given to it except the sign of Jonah.”

30For just as Jonah became a sign to the Ninevites, so also the Son of Man will be to this generation.

31The queen of the South will rise up in the judgment with the men of this generation and will condemn them, because she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and behold, something greater than Solomon is here.

32The men of Nineveh will rise up in the judgment with this generation and will condemn it, because they reoriented toward God at the proclamation of Jonah, and behold, something greater than Jonah is here.

33No one, after lighting a lamp, puts it in a hidden place or under a basket, but on a lampstand, so that those who enter may see the light.

34The lamp of your body is your eye. When your eye is healthy, your whole body also is full of light; but when it is bad, your body also is dark.

35Therefore, watch out lest the light in you be darkness.

36If, then, your whole body is full of light, having no dark part, it will be wholly full of light, as when a lamp lights you with its brightness.

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