<p>13:43&nbsp;<em>Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father-</em>&nbsp;The second coming of Christ as Malachi's &quot;sun of righteousness&quot; is a clear Bible theme. At the transfiguration, a clear vision of the Kingdom age, the Lord's face shone as the sun (Mt. 17:2); and it is He personally who shall shine forth to all at His second coming (Lk. 17:24). The Lord is saying that we will then be openly revealed as Him. But &quot;shine forth&quot; translates&nbsp;<em>ek-lampo</em>; and we are to be a visible&nbsp;<em>lampo</em>&nbsp;right now, shining in a way which cannot be hid from men (Mt. 5:15,16). Again and again, we find the Lord's later teaching so often rooted in the Sermon on the Mount. Our shining before men now is related to our shining eternally in the age to come. The other clear OT allusion is to Dan. 12:3- those who turn many to righteousness shall shine eternally. The opposite to causing others to stumble (and being condemned for it) is to teach others righteousness (and be saved). We cannot therefore be somehow in a neutral position, doing nobody any evil and yet nobody much good either. We are either making them stumble or turning them to righteousness.&nbsp;</p>
<p>Contrary to how some wish to interpret things, the Lord did understand &quot;the Kingdom&quot; to have a future aspect; for He speaks of how &quot;then... in the Kingdom&quot; the righteous will shine as the sun. The shining of the sun was to give light on earth, and this basic reason for the sun is mentioned often in the Bible. In some way, we shall eternally give light to others; and this aspect of the Kingdom life must begin in us now. Even in the future Kingdom, the basis of our witness to the world will be that we are in Christ. Thus Micah&rsquo;s description of how &ldquo;the remnant of Jacob shall be in the midst of many people as a dew from the Lord, as the showers upon the grass&rdquo; (Mic. 5:7) is consciously alluding to the then-famous Messianic prophecy of Ps. 72:6: &ldquo;<em>He</em>&nbsp;shall come down like rain upon the mown grass: as showers that water the earth&rdquo;. The blessings Messiah brings are to be articulated through the witness of those in Him. Those who have lived in Him will then shine as the brightness of the firmament (Dan. 12:3). But the description of the Lord&rsquo;s face shining as the sun draws on this; as if to say that our shining in the future Kingdom will be because we were and are in Him. We will shine forth then (Mt. 13:43), as the Sun of righteousness Himself.</p>
<p><em>He who has ears, let him hear-</em>&nbsp;The Lord has earlier in this chapter told the disciples that His audiences generally did not have ears to hear; but the disciples do. This would therefore be an invitation to the disciples specifically to use the potential for understanding which they had. They were to continue shining; for the context of this whole long day's teaching (see on 13:1) was that they were weary in their witness because of opposition and lack of response.&nbsp;</p>