NOTES for Luk 8:16-18
Jesus is often called Teacher, and for us this is true as well. But each of us also has to take on that role from time to time, so it is worth learning from the Teacher. These three verses from the Gospel of Luke let us glimpse Jesus' teaching method.
After telling an extended parable, the parable of the sower, and giving its explanation for the disciples, He continues in the traditional manner of Jewish teachers, aphoristically. The classic example of this method is the book of Proverbs, which is composed almost entirely of aphorisms. An aphorism in itself is already an image, acting on the listeners' imagination and provoking them to reflection. The parallel passage in the Gospel of Mark, perhaps the earliest of the Gospels, Mark 4:21, shows more clearly the lack of connection among these sayings of Jesus, while the Gospel of Matthew even places them in different chapters.
Luke is writing for Hellenized readers who were not used to this style, and he inserts logical connectors such as "for" and "therefore," so that these sayings acquire the quality of a unified text that lets us trace the logic of the development of Jesus' preaching. The first image, the lamp, says that the new message heard by the disciples is not for "internal use," but for passing on to others. The second saying suggests the uselessness of playing hide-and-seek: everything comes out into the open. And then comes the unexpected "take care how you hear," calling for special attentiveness, and the paradox Jesus states many times about cooperation and inaction.
All this, gathered together, gives rise in the listeners to a new idea of the way of life before them: serious, interested, active, and fearless interaction with other people.