Ephesians 5:14 – Waking Bacchus

This is why it is said:

“Wake up, sleeper,
rise from the dead,
and Christ will shine on you.”

Summary: Paul shares a touching little saying with us today the opens a door through time to give us a glimpse of the people in his world.

In the years after the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus, before the temple was destroyed, there lived a little boy in Ephesus by the name of Bacchus. Bacchus, whose name means “make a loud noise,” lived up to his name every day. He played loudly, he sang often, and when he laughed, his laughs came from deep inside. Aside from being loud, Bacchus had another trait that made his mom smile; he liked to sleep!

In the morning, Bacchus’s mother would come to wake him up. She had discovered the Lord as a young woman and eventually married a believer. Not many years later, she gave birth to Bacchus. She doted on her son and loved to wake him up with a kiss. When she entered his room in the morning light, she would sing sweetly,

“Wake up, sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.”

To Bacchus, hearing his mother’s voice meant it was time to wake up and get out of bed. To his mother, the words meant much more. She remembered what it was like before she knew Jesus. She knew what it meant to be spiritually “dead.” Before finding Jesus, everyone is asleep, waiting for the Good News.

She remembered hearing the Gospel for the first time and what it felt like to be “born again.” When she said the words, “and Christ will shine on you,” little Bacchus didn’t understand that Christ was shining on him through his mother.

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When Paul shares this saying with us, he gives us a peek into the world of Ephesus in the days when he lived and taught there. I love how Paul weaves this simple saying from his era into his lesson on spiritual light. Jesus is truth, and the light of truth illuminates the spiritual darkness. When Christ shines on the world, the world suddenly sees the truth. We see that without Christ, we are dead. Life without Jesus is life without God. Life without God is not living.

The story of Bacchus and his mother may be fiction, but the reality of the saying is not. Because Paul has shared this with us, it is easy to imagine that Bacchus and his mom were real. And who knows, maybe when we join Jesus in heaven, we will discover that there really was a Bacchus with a mom who loved him and woke him up in the morning with a kiss and a little saying about rising from the dead.

Application: Feel free to borrow Paul’s saying and use it in your own home.

Food for Thought: Does this saying apply to us today, and if so, how?