Sleeper, Awake! A Call to the Light

Epistle Lesson : Fourth Sunday in Lent (Year A)
Ephesians 5:8-14 (Text from the NRSV)

5:8 For once you were darkness, but now in the Lord you are light. Live as children of light-

This is the epistle lesson for Lent 4 (Year A). The theme of light and darkness ties it to the Gospel lesson (John 9:1-41) and gives us a picture of what it means to “live as children of the light.” The early church associated baptism with enlightenment (φωτισμός) and these passages (along with the Gospel text) are often connected to Baptism.

5:9 for the fruit of the light is found in all that is good and right and true.

Perhaps the fruit of the light is synonymous with the fruit of the Spirit: “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, [and] self-control” (Galatians 5:22-23). One group of manuscripts actually reads “fruit of the Spirit,” but, probably as an attempt to harmonize the verse with Galatians (Barth, p. 567). What fruit is evident in our lives? Jesus and John the Baptist both speak of the necessity of bearing fruit (Matthew 3:8,10; 7:20; 13:23; John 15:2,8,16). The Apostle Paul speaks of bearing fruit for God that leads to sanctification (Romans 6:22; 7:4).

5:10 Try to find out what is pleasing to the Lord.

By living as a child of the light and producing the fruit of the light we will learn what is pleasing to the Lord. And as we discern those things that are pleasing to the Lord we will learn better what it means to walk in the light.

5:11 Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them.

Here, “the unfruitful works of darkness” is contrasted with the fruit of the light in verse 9. Indeed, we are not to only not take part in them, we are to expose them. Darkness is vanquished by light. By shining our light into those dark places in our lives we can expose them. But, expose them for what? The ASV (American Standard Version, 1901) reads “reprove them.” Perhaps it is by exposing these works in the full light of Christ that we are in a position to correct them. First, we work to correct that darkness that remains in our own lives before we can turn our attention to our neighbor (as Jesus tells us in Matthew 7:3-5).

The way we expose these works of darkness in the lives of others is by the contrast with our own life. Let our own lives demonstrate how dismal the alternatives are (Barth, p. 571).

5:12 For it is shameful even to mention what such people do secretly;

As children of light we prefer the light to darkness. Formerly (see verse 8) we may have been like cockroaches scurrying for cover when the light shines in our direction.

5:13 but everything exposed by the light becomes visible,

The choice then is to give up the darkness and live in the light, or to return to darkness.

5:14 for everything that becomes visible is light. Therefore it says, “Sleeper, awake! Rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.”

The commentaries suggest this may be part of a baptismal liturgy, perhaps spoken after the newly baptized emerged from the water. We can't help but to hear the echo from the prologue of John’s Gospel...

⁹The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world. ¹⁰He was in the world, and the world came into being through him; yet the world did not know him. (John 1:9-10, NRSV)

Then as the newly baptized Christian comes up out of the water as a child of light, we hear...

Sleeper, awake!

Rise from the dead!

And Christ will shine on you!

Now we see.

Resources

Barth, Markus. Ephesians: Translation and Commentary on Chapters 4-6: Anchor Bible 34a. Doubleday, 1998.

Martin, Ralph P., Ephesians, Colossians, and Philemon (Interpretation, a Bible Commentary for Teaching and Preaching), Westminster John Knox Press, 1992.

Simpson, E.K. and F.F. Bruce, Epistles to the Ephesians and Colossians (The New International Commentary of the New Testament). Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1975.