The Greek philosopher Plato told a story to his students about a group of people who were imprisoned in a cave since childhood. The cave was the only existence they knew. Behind the chained prisoners was a fire and between the fire and the prisoners was a short wall, behind which others used puppet figures to cast shadows onto the wall in front of the prisoners who were unaware of both the fire and the puppet figures. All their life, these shadows were the only reality the prisoners knew, and they began to imagine the shadows as real.

 

Socrates was asked what would happen if a prisoner were forced out of the cave into the sunlight outside. He concluded the prisoner would find the sun’s brightness to be blindingly painful, resulting in a shadowy vision, but that eventually he would adjust to this new reality outside the cave. He would see reflections in the lake and then come to see the images were actually of real people and things. He would see the stars at night and the sun by day. He would come to experience this new reality as so much better than what he experienced in the cave, he would want to return to the cave and bring the other prisoners out into the light. But returning to the cave, the freed prisoner would find himself once again blinded by the darkness. His fellow cave-dwellers would conclude from this that the freed man’s journey had blinded him and would fight any attempt he made to convince them to leave their cave.

 

It’s a sad story, isn’t it? Perhaps we are all like the cave-dwelling prisoners. Shackled by our preconceived ideas and negative patterns of thinking, we cannot imagine any other way of perceiving our world. But in fact, they are only shadows dancing in the light and have no bearing on reality. The more we are accustomed to such shadowy darkness, the more difficult we find it to accept real light, if you would allow, the light of the *Son*. Even after our mind’s eye adjusts to His light, we continue to see things dimly. While we experience the new reality we sometimes continue to embrace the shadows of our own thinking.

 

But the more we embrace His light, the more we rejoice in its truth. We learn that all is not as it seems, as it feels, or even as it sometimes appears. Our circumstances continue to appear as shadows but we have the benefit now of seeing more clearly and enjoying life beyond them.

 

Here is where our interpretation departs from Plato’s. Jesus says those who really love Him become that light themselves. First, the light penetrates all the darkness of their own minds and hearts. Then, compelled to share the light with others, they return to the cave, but they aren’t blinded by darkness. Instead, they bring His light into the cave and the darkness flees at its presence. Those who embrace the light will see the illusion of the shadow figures and become free. Others who reject it, remain shackled.

 

Our minds are battlegrounds for so many arguments and pretensions that war against us. Over and over, we find ourselves in Plato’s Cave. But there is an escape. “Take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.” Bring it out into the light where the deceitful shadows can be exposed and real truth revealed. I don’t know how long it will take. It seems these shadows continue to play in our minds repeatedly. And repeatedly, we have to take them captive, exposing them to the light.

 

But over time, as our eyes become better adjusted to the real Light Of the World, the shadows fade away and we see more clearly, and we experience the freedom we’re freely offered.