Have you ever seen the sunrise? Seeing the sun with its dawning light is a spectacular thing. The atmosphere, completely black, is punctuated by a fiery ball nudging the horizon, with bands of blazing orange stretching outward to form the skyline. A gentle pink glow gradually seeps into view, washing away the black darkness lower to higher in the sky, announcing a new day, and with it, a new beginning. As the sun rises higher it paints different hues of blue that deepen in intensity, and when it is enthroned at the highest point of its journey, no darkness is to be seen, and all creatures who dwell beneath have light by which to see and live.
This image of dawning light is something we hear of twice today.
The first is in our Old Testament reading from the Prophet Isaiah, who says that the people walked in darkness. This darkness is symbolic of the worst kind of spiritual state in which chaos, evil, and death rules and people delight in being in opposition to God, following instead the leading of the devil and the lures of the world. In this text we hear that it is God’s own people are living this way—those whom God had rescued from slavery in Egypt and called to be his own!!! The prophecy specifies the inhabitants of Zebulun and Naphtali, tribes of Israel’s North-West. But all of God’s people had forsaken him. While they honoured him with their lips, their hearts were far from him. God sought to guide them all their days and had given them his word as a lamp for their feet and a light for their path, but they refused to listen. Later in Isaiah God rhetorically asked:
“Whom did the Lord consult to enlighten him,
and who taught him the right way?
Who was it that taught him knowledge,
or showed him the path of understanding?” (Isaiah 40:14)
God’s own people were convinced that the paths of their own making would be a better way than God’s way. Seeing how mighty and prosperous their pagan neighbours were, they followed them and worshipped their gods, hoping that a bit of the success of their neighbours might rub off onto them. They even put their faith in Tiglath Pileser III, the king of Assyria, rather than trusting in God their heavenly King, to help and save them in a time of great need. The Assyrian superpower of the day seemed so much more impressive; so much more capable of helping them than God.
God warned that there would be consequences for their faithlessness and rejection of him. Around 730 BC Israel was ravaged by the very nation they turned to, and Zebulun and Naphtali were the first parts of Israel to be taken over by Assyrian invaders. The wages of the people’s sin—death—hung over them like a shadow. The people dwelt in darkness, living once more under miserable oppression. What a costly lesson they had learned!
Through Isaiah God promised a new beginning. The very first territories to experience God’s wrath would also be the first to enjoy salvation:
“Nevertheless, there will be no gloom for those who were in distress. In the past he humbled the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, but in the future he will honour Galilee of the Gentiles, by the way of the sea, along the Jordan—
The people walking in darkness
have seen a great light;
on those living in the land of the shadow of death,
a light has dawned.’” (Isaiah 9:1-2).
The second time the image of dawning light is given is more than 700 years after this promise, when the people were at their lowest point. In today’s Gospel reading, Matthew announces that the deliverance God promised to his people of old has arrived:
“Leaving Nazareth [Jesus] went and lived in Capernaum by the seaside in the region of Zebulun and Naphtali, in order that it may be fulfilled what had been said through Isaiah the prophet:
‘Land of Zebulun and land of Naphtali,
The way of the sea, along the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles—
The people living in darkness have seen a great light
On those living in the land of the shadow of death
A light has dawned.’” (verses 12-16).
God sent the people help from heaven; salvation in Christ Jesus; the Great Light who has come, piercing through the darkness. This passage in Matthew comes just after Satan’s temptation of Jesus in the wilderness, with Jesus triumphing over Satan by living faithfully by God’s word. Jesus’ ministry of bringing freedom then begins through his preaching, teaching and healing. The people saw the light of God’s glory; a light that drove away the darkness of death, and sin, and fear. A greater power than the darkness was reigning—the kingdom of Heaven, as Jesus proclaimed to the people to turn to him with their sins so that he could free them from the chains of their sin.
The gloom of spiritual darkness and death was not just a problem for Zebulun and Naphtali in the days of Isaiah. What about us today? Are we really that much different from Zebulun and Naphtali of old? When do we honour God with our lips while our hearts are far from him, searching out the ‘wisdom’ of the world to life’s challenges in the 21st century—while our bibles sit on the bookshelf? Is God’s question: “Whom did the Lord consult to enlighten him, and who taught him the right way?” one that makes us uncomfortable? Why? When? At what times have we failed to live God’s way and love one another as Christ commanded? When do we not like hearing Jesus’ call to repent, and to follow? What idols of the 21st Century do we turn to for security, peace, and joy in place of God?
We are not any less deserving of God humbling us either. Yet the promise is that God’s great Light will not only shine for those in Naphtali and Zebulun, but also the Gentiles. That’s why this is such good news for us too. We who once walked in darkness have also seen a great light. But the light mentioned in Isaiah and Matthew is, for us, more than the rays of first dawn. The dawn isn’t when we see the sun unobscured, is light to the inhabitants of the earth most bright. Rather, the sun’s light to us is brightest, and seen most clearly, high in the sky.
It was when Jesus was lifted high on the Cross, and darkness again covered the whole land, that the light of God’s love was seen most clearly. It was there that the Light of the world triumphed over the world’s darkness, emptying sin, death and Satan of all their power, by opening the way to God for all people. The Cross is where we see God’s light burn most brightly, his longing love for all people most clearly. There on the Cross, not even death could extinguish the Light of God. Jesus would rise again, and like a glorious sunrise, the light of the risen Son’s glory would pierce through the sky.
It was while we could not see light but only stumble in the darkness that the Kingdom of Heaven came down to earth in Christ, to reign in the world, and in our lives, with divine light. In Christ, God showed us his love, grace and compassion by claiming us as his own, taking away our sin and sharing his own holiness with us. He has shone his light into your hearts to know him, to love him and his word, and to hear his call: “Come, follow me.”
We tend to feel very awkward and uncomfortable hearing such a call. We can feel so unqualified, inadequate and unworthy to be partners with Jesus in bringing his light to others. The truth is we are! But notice what Jesus says to Peter and Andrew, James and John: “Come, follow me and I will make you fishers of people. It is up to Jesus to make us worthy and capable! All we are called to do is follow. It is Jesus’ responsibility; Jesus’ work as the Kingdom of Heaven goes about saving souls, to achieve the results he sends his word out for. We are not called to give the perfect answers to every question, or getting people to come to our church to build up our numbers and fill our rosters and better our budget. We are simply called to follow Jesus, and as he changes and shapes our hearts, to let his light shine through us.
No one lights a lamp and puts it under a bowl! The light of Christ is for all people. Jesus is to be Light for those who are living in the darkness of fear. Jesus is to be Light for those who live under the cloud of mental frailty. He is to be Light for those who are searching for truth and meaning to their lives. Jesus is to be Light for those who are living in the darkness of substance abuse. He is to be Light for those who are struggling to emerge from the darkness of physical or sexual abuse. He is to be Light for those who live in the shadows of their twilight years. Jesus is to be Light for those who are crippled by the shame of their past, and those who are afraid of the future. Jesus is to be Light for those who live in the gloom of soaring power costs, living in the literal darkness of their loungerooms…or of alleyways and carparks. Jesus is to be Light for those who keep what they love concealed in the darkness. He is to be Light for those grieving, those torn apart by the sin of others, and those who callously disregard about caring for others and even for life itself.
Following Jesus in his ministry of bestowing light in the darkness is less about giving right answers and expecting people who have never set foot in a church before to suddenly start attending. Following Jesus in his ministry of bestowing light in the darkness is more about caring for people, so that we want them to have the light we have too. It is about gaining their trust, and building a relationship with them. That caring begins by laying aside our judgements and condemnations, just as God has done with us. That caring begins with less speaking and more listening. Caring begins with two questions. The first: “How are you?” And when the reply comes “I’m fine thanks”, closely followed by the second question: “How are you really?”, then listening to their answer. If we are truly caring we don’t have to worry what to say, we just need to listen. Listening to what people really need helps us to care for them in their need. It helps us to know what to pray for, for them.
Truly loving others is about seeing through the darkness of people’s lives and deep into their soul as a person incredibly valuable to God and loved by him. Truly loving others is first of all being concerned that they come to Jesus and in him the gracious and compassionate reign of God who forgives people their sin and who releases them from their bondage to condemnation, guilt, death, and the devil—just as in Christ, the Kingdom of heaven has already come to you. As the eternal light of his truth lights our way to joyfully follow his call, may the world see a glimpse of its Saviour, in the way we live for God and love others in Christ’s name. Amen.
