Luke 11:29-36 - Jesus: The Light in Us

The text for today’s message is Luke 11:29-36.

Before we read the text, let me remind you of where we are in Luke. Jesus, as He is travelling with His disciples toward Jerusalem, has taught them about prayer and God’s delight to give us His Spirit. After this, Jesus performed a great miracle of casting out a demon which restored a man’s speech. This revealed the ever-increasing hostility of the scribes and Pharisees as they accused Him of performing miracles by the power of Satan, while others were seeking a sign from heaven to prove who He was, and others admired Him from a distance, enough to applaud but not obey.

Jesus addresses these three types of people, those hostile to Him, those skeptical, and those merely admiring from afar, to warn that they are in spiritual darkness. Their refusal to see with spiritual eyes will lead to their judgment, even by Gentiles who responded to lesser light.

The tragedy is that though they thought they were seeing clearly, they were like people stumbling in a dark room, complaining there’s no light, all while wearing a blindfold.

The consequences of living in spiritual blindness are just as real for us today because if our hearts spiritually darkened, we will live darkened lives and see everything through a darkened filter, afraid of sticking out telling people about Jesus, or of believing the truth of all of Scripture.

What if, instead of viewing everything through spiritually dark lenses, our hearts were filled with the light of Christ? Instead of being afraid to tell others about Jesus, we might be excited to share Him. Instead of ignoring challenging parts of the Bible we embrace them. Instead of being afraid of people asking us hard questions about Jesus, we pray for opportunities for this to happen.

Can you see how this could change our lives, even our church if we took our blindfolds off and let the light of Jesus shine in our hearts? This is the opportunity Jesus sets before us today in Luke 11:29–36.

Luke 11:29–36 ESV

When the crowds were increasing, he began to say, “This generation is an evil generation. It seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of Jonah. For as Jonah became a sign to the people of Nineveh, so will the Son of Man be to this generation. The queen of the South will rise up at the judgment with the men of this generation and condemn them, for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and behold, something greater than Solomon is here. The men of Nineveh will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and behold, something greater than Jonah is here. “No one after lighting a lamp puts it in a cellar or under a basket, but on a stand, so that those who enter may see the light. Your eye is the lamp of your body. When your eye is healthy, your whole body is full of light, but when it is bad, your body is full of darkness. Therefore be careful lest the light in you be darkness. If then your whole body is full of light, having no part dark, it will be wholly bright, as when a lamp with its rays gives you light.”

One thing Jesus teaches us in this passage, and it might surprise us, is that…

Belief isn’t blocked by lack of evidence, but by inner darkness

“Just because someone has eyes, doesn’t mean they can see.”

As this story is told in chapter 12 of Matthew, we know that Jesus is responding to the scribes and Pharisees who were asking Him for a sign right after He had cast out this mute demon.

Even though they saw the miracle, they were speaking like they were wearing a blindfold. Though a light might shine brightly, if your eyes are closed, or you have a blindfold on, you won’t see it.

Jesus had already provided abundant evidence of His divine identity. He cast out demons, healed the sick, raised the dead, and taught with authority. But verse 29 shows us that, even with all these signs, they still demanded more. And that demand revealed a heart of unbelief, not humble seeking.

Why is this? People see what they want to see. They admit evidence that aligns with their presuppositions, their base thoughts and beliefs. Because what’s inside a person, their heart, their desires, shapes how they interpret truth and evidence.

In verse 33, when Jesus says, “No one lights a lamp and puts it in a cellar or under a basket…”, He is saying that the signs have not been hidden. He has put His miracles and teaching on display. The signs were public and visible.

Yet, as Jesus draws out in verses 30-32, even the Ninevites and the queen of the South believed lesser signs and responded in faith. He compares the religious leaders against the wicked people of Nineveh who repented when Jonah preached judgment, and a pagan queen who travelled a very long way to see God’s wisdom in Solomon.

You see, the problem isn’t a lack of signs…it’s what is in the hearts of these scribes and Pharisees and others. As verse 34 relates, they are spiritually blind. They are in spiritual darkness. Why? They can’t see out of their eyes because their inner life if full of darkness.

And verse 35 shows us that this spiritual blindness is self-imposed. They have, as verse 35 relates, stored up darkness in their hearts. This darkness, their evil or wickedness, obstructs the light.

And so, as verses 34-36 teach, a person’s spiritual condition governs what they will consider valid evidence. All perception flows through a spiritual lens.

Here’s the point: If the Light, Jesus, is in us, we’ll recognize and respond to Him. But if our hearts are full of darkness, that inner filter will distort the truth, even when it’s blazing in front of us.

Therefore, a bad spiritual eye will not see the truth, no matter how brightly the light of the truth shines. So we return to where we began, just because someone has eyes, doesn’t mean they can see. Our spiritual condition determines whether we welcome the Light of the World or reject Him in the dark.

The reason the scribes and Pharisees are asking for, or as some translations put it, demanding, a sign, is the same reason people still do so today. The problem isn’t a lack of signs. It’s a lack of sight. And here’s the reality we need to face…

Because of our inner darkness, we reject the Light that came to save us

Evidence may demand a certain verdict, like when someone says that an apple is red. But if you close your eyes, or if you are wearing blue-tinted glasses, you will give a very different verdict. Why? You aren’t seeing it clearly.

In John chapter 1, we’re told that Jesus is the true Light who came into the world. But His own people did not receive Him. The Light was shining…but the darkness rejected it. Why? Because darkness, by its very nature, is opposed to the Light.

Jesus says the same thing here in verse 29. He calls this generation “evil”, and in the parallel account in Matthew, “adulterous.” He’s saying the problem isn’t the evidence, the problem is them. Their hearts are filled with darkness. They are covenant-breakers. And their very nature leads them not to seek their Savior, but to reject Him.

In verses 34–35, Jesus illustrates this: a body full of light versus a body full of darkness. In other words, if the core of your being is dark, you will resist the Light. You’ll hate it. Like cockroaches that scatter when the light turns on, this generation runs from the signs that Jesus has already revealed.

So let’s sum it up: those who live in spiritual darkness will inevitably reject the Light, even when that Light is standing clearly in front of them.

But why? Why do we do this?

First, because deep down, they want to be god. These religious leaders demand signs because they want to judge Jesus, not submit to Him. Like the one fallen from heaven, likely referring to Satan, referenced in Isaiah 14:14, they want to ascend and take God’s place.

Second, because of pride and spiritual adultery. They’ve abandoned the true God for other lovers: status, power, national pride, comfort.

Third, because of a craving for personal fulfillment. They want a Messiah who fits their desires, one who will overthrow Rome, give prosperity, and make life easier. Jesus doesn’t meet their cravings, so they reject Him.

Fourth, because of the idolatry of comfort. Their spiritual blindness is reinforced by a refusal to suffer. The false god of ease has more authority over them than the true God of salvation.

And brothers and sisters, this isn’t just them. This is us. These same desires grip our hearts. We want to be in control. We want to judge what’s right and wrong for ourselves. We want God to fit our terms. We don’t want a Savior who dies, we want one who conquers, one who confirms what we already believe.

So it’s not the evidence that’s lacking, it’s the darkness in us. And this…is why Jesus came.

Jesus, the Light of the world, bore our darkness so that we might become wholly light in Him

In The Silver Chair, part of C.S. Lewis’s Chronicles of Narnia, Puddleglum and his friends find themselves trapped underground in a dark, spellbound world. The witch, with her sweet voice and warm fire, tries to convince them that the world above. the sun, the sky, Aslan himself, are all make-believe. As her enchantment begins to work, their memories fade, and her lies start to sound like truth. But then, in a moment of desperate clarity, Puddleglum stomps his foot into the fire, burning himself, and declares, “I’m going to live like a Narnian even if there isn’t any Narnia!” His bold act breaks the spell, and the truth begins to shine again.

This is a powerful picture of courage, but our condition is far worse. We don’t merely doubt the light, we love the darkness. We aren’t just confused, we’re willfully blind. We are not merely underground, we love the darkness. We deny that there even is a sun. That’s why we need a greater light, a true Light who shines into the darkness and cannot be overcome (John 1:4). Who is this light? Jesus. And in this passage, we see Him in three ways:

First, in verse 33, Jesus is the light of the world. He shines brightly not only in His life, like a lamp on a stand for all to see, but even in His death. During the three hours of darkness on the cross, He shone brightly, as a public display of our sin and God’s justice. There, Jesus bore the wrath of God for our sin and overcame it through His perfect, substitutionary sacrifice. His victory gives Him the right to send the Spirit, who replaces our darkened hearts and makes us wholly bright, children of the Light, because Christ now lives in us.

Second, in verses 29–30 and 32, Jesus is the greater Jonah. Though He refuses to perform more signs for this unbelieving generation, He promises one: the sign of Jonah. Like Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the fish, Jesus would be buried in the heart of the earth and rise again. But unlike Jonah, who suffered for his own rebellion, Jesus enters death because of our rebellion. His resurrection vindicates His identity as the Messiah, the One who delivers us from spiritual darkness.

Third, in verses 31–32, Jesus is the greater Solomon—the true Wisdom of God. A pagan queen traveled far to hear Solomon’s wisdom and praised God when she saw it. But Jesus is not just wise; He is Wisdom incarnate. Yet those who heard Him rejected Him.

That’s why Jesus says the Queen of the South and the Ninevites will rise up in judgment against this generation, they responded to a lesser light. But on the cross, Jesus bore the judgment our evil and adulterous hearts are due. And instead of rising up to condemn us, like the Ninevites and the queen of the South, He now stands to intercede for us, taking our place in judgment so that we might be free.

To summarize:

• Jesus is the greater Jonah, our substitute, who not only preached judgment but bore it.
• Jesus is the greater Solomon, our wisdom, who is the very Wisdom and Word of God.
• Jesus is the Light of the world, our Savior and Sanctifier, who entered our darkness on the cross to destroy it, so He might fill us with His light.

Through His death and resurrection, He makes us radiant with the light of His presence. He does this because, at His resurrection, He received the Holy Spirit from the Father and now sends the Spirit to take our hardened, darkened hearts, with their blinders and tinted glasses, and replace them with hearts of light, engraved with His law.

Jesus, by the finger of God, has written Himself on our hearts. And because of this...

By the Spirit, we live as those made wholly light: trusting God's Word and boldly shining in a dark world

You see, because Jesus has borne us again by His Spirit, we no longer wear a spiritual blindfold or darkened glasses. The Spirit has removed them. Jesus, the true Light, now lives in us by the indwelling presence of His Spirit, and we are wholly light in Him.

But we still live in a dark world, a world that pushes against us, whispering the same old lies: There is no sun. There is no Aslan. It tries to cast its spell again and again. That’s why we must abide in Jesus, our true Aslan. We need to remember how He willingly stepped into the fire, crushing the serpent’s head and bearing the bite Himself. And when we behold that sacrificial love, the spell is broken. The Light shines again. And we begin to shine too, like stars in the night sky (Phil. 2:15).

So, in light of the cross and resurrection, we no longer walk in the old way of the flesh:

• Rejecting the cross because it offends modern moral sensibilities
• Dismissing God’s answers to prayer as coincidence
• Demanding proof from God on our own terms
• Desiring Christianity’s cultural dominance for our comfort
• Using personal worldview to stand in judgment over Scripture
• Denying or minimizing parts of the Bible that conflict with our preferences

Instead, we now walk in the new way of the Spirit:

• Living as light in a dark world, conformed to Christ
• Yielding every area of life to the illuminating rule of Jesus
• Boldly trusting and confessing God's Word, without apology
• Abiding daily in Christ, letting His light shape our speech and actions
• Leaning on the Spirit in prayer, seeking His power to make Jesus shine in us

And as you abide in Christ, you just might find yourself sharing the gospel with a skeptical coworker or classmate, not because you’re persuasive, but because you trust that you're not just talking about a dead religious figure. You’re proclaiming Christ, the very Wisdom and Power of God. Why? Because the Spirit may remind you in that moment that even skeptics are spiritually blind, and that God gives sight through the “foolish” message of the cross. That might happen over lunch, or on a walk, or after someone casually says, “I can’t believe people still believe that stuff.”

You might also find yourself lingering over a difficult Scripture passage rather than skipping past it. Why? Because you believe all Scripture is God-breathed and reveals Christ. And how? The same Spirit who inspired the Word now illumines your heart to receive it, not as ancient, erring words of man, but as the living Word of God.

So, when you face false beliefs, disordered desires, and the fear of rejection, remember this: Jesus did not hide His light. He shone it for all to see. And now, as a child of the Light, you shine too. Not with your own brilliance, but with His.

You trust Him and His Word because He is both the Truth and the Wisdom of God. You don’t proclaim yourself or your own insights, but Jesus Christ and the sign of Jonah, His death and resurrection.

If this doesn’t make sense to you, perhaps I wasn’t clear, and I’d love to talk with you. Or perhaps you’re still in darkness. But here is the good news: Jesus offers to remove your blindfold today. Trust Him. Run to Jesus, the true Wisdom of God, who bore the judgment you deserve. Believe the sign of Jonah, His death and resurrection, and He will take your darkness and give you His light.

But if you do know Him, if you believe in Jesus as the Wisdom of God and the Light of the World, then remember: Jesus entered your darkness, bore your judgment, and rose again. And now, through His Spirit, He has replaced your blind and darkened heart with one full of light.

So ask the Father to pour out His Spirit on you. Let Him drive out every shadow, that you may shine like stars in a dark world, radiant with the light of Christ, to the praise of His glory.