11:33
Jesus’ family worried about Him, others thought He was making a show of Himself and were envious of the crowds He was attracting. To such criticisms Jesus replies “no one lights a lamp and hides it”. A light is lit to be put on display so that people can see by the light. So it is with the kingdom of God. This still applies today. When God is doing something significant He will often draw attention to it, and sometimes that might mean He is draws attention to you and me. Now, of course, this can be done in the wrong way. There are people and churches that are just showmen, just interested in blowing their own trumpet (eg Rev 3:1). We are right to be wary of this, but we must not make the opposite error. And just because someone is prominent does not necessarily mean they are wrong!
11:34-36
So that fact that Jesus was attracting attention was not a problem, if the kingdom of God is at work one would expect nothing less. The problem lay with the eyes that the people were looking at things. If their eyes were sick then there lives would receive no light, but be full of darkness, no matter how bright the light was shining. So how can our eyes be unhealthy? If we look out of fear, or out of pride, or out of bitterness we will not see properly. We all know people who take everything you say as a criticism, and may be we react like that sometimes. Often what we see reflects what is on the inside of us far more than it does the thing we are looking at. So we need to watch what is on the inside of us. It was not Jesus who was the problem, but the people.
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