Some years ago, we enjoyed a family holiday down the South-East, including a tour of the Naracoorte caves. The heat was intense, like yesterday’s, but I remember how quickly the temperature dropped the further we descended, and how chilly we were in shorts and T-shirts underground in the darkness. A lasting memory is just how dark it was. It was quite dark with the artificial illumination, but then the tour guides invited us to experience what it would be like with the lights turned off. This is what we saw—nothing—not even our hand in front of us in the pitch dark.
For a moment, complete darkness would be OK, but for any length of time, it would be a frightening experience. Could anyone find their way out of those caves in pitch darkness? Could you even walk around at all? Darkness is disorienting. Complete darkness would mean being unable to go anywhere or do anything. As I stood in the completely dark cave I wondered that if the lights went out and we needed rescue, what could we possibly do? Maybe one or two steps, but then a slip and a fall, a broken leg…even worse, falling to death, like some of the animals that occasionally entered the caves. If we needed rescue, it would be impossible to walk around to find an escape. All we could really do would be to sit and wait. The only way you could get out would be if someone came with light.
Darkness and light are theological images throughout the bible. Darkness symbolises the spiritual realities of sin, evil, death, hell, separation from God, hopelessness, lostness, misery, and fear. Light is associated with sight, safety, holiness, rescue, life, peace and salvation—and God himself. As we sang the words of Psalm 27 this morning: “The Lord is my light and my salvation—whom shall I fear?”
Darkness and light are central themes to today’s readings. The Prophet Isaiah speaks in the 8th century BC, when the people in both the Northern Kingdom of Israel and Southern Kingdom of Judah, ruled by King Ahaz, had forsaken God. At the same time the Assyrian Empire emerged as a dominant power in the region under the rule of Tiglath-Pileser III.
As king of Judah, Azah is meant to be God’s representative to the people, leading them by the ways of the Lord…but instead leads them into the darkness of distrust of the one true God and headlong into idolatry—a path that only yields emptiness and ends in physical and spiritual death. Ahaz burned sacrifices in the Valley of Ben Hinnom and sacrificed his children in the fire, engaging in the detestable practices of the nations the Lord had driven out before the Israelites. He offered sacrifices and burned incense at the high places, on the hilltops and under every spreading tree (2 Chronicles 28:1-4).
Ahaz was just one in a long line of kings from Israel and Judah that did evil in the sight of the Lord. Throughout the Old Testament there is this repeated cycle: a wicked king turning away from the Lord, God giving his people a shake up by bringing judgment on them through invading armies, the people consequently seeing their need for God’s help and turning back to God in repentance, and God rescuing them.
God troubled Ahaz and the people through various invasions and from an attack from an alliance between the King of Syria and the Northern Kingdom of Israel. God gave Ahaz into the hand of the king of Syria, who killed 120,000 of his soldiers and took captive 200,000 of his people and brought them to Damascus. He was also given into the hand of the king of Israel, who struck him with great force, all because they had forsaken the Lord (2 Chronicles 28:5). But King Ahaz does not lead the people in repentance nor shows any repentance himself.
The Psalmist wrote:
“Do not put your trust in princes,
in human beings, who cannot save.
When their spirit departs, they return to the ground;
on that very day their plans come to nothing.
Blessed are those whose help is the God of Jacob,
whose hope is in the Lord their God.” (Psalm 146:3-5)
In his time of trouble King Ahaz became even more unfaithful to the Lord.” (2 Chronicles 28:22). Instead of relying on God’s promise that he would deliver him, he continues in unbelief and instead trusted in the ruler of the Assyrians, Tiglath Pileser III, pledging allegiance to him and paying tributes to him. The Assyrian leader did bring some temporary relief for Ahaz and Judah when he attacked the Northern Kingdom, but by walking with the Assyrians, Judah was ultimately yoked with the rituals and ways of the pagan empire and plunged further into idolatry.
When the Assyrian King invaded Israel, the northern most regions, including Naphtali and Zebulun, were most vulnerable and among the first attacked. Many were deported to Assyria (2 Kings 15:29). But under this shadow of oppression, in the midst of darkness and gloom, comes a message of hope for redemption and freedom. Isaiah brought a promise from God: “Nevertheless, there will be no more gloom for those 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 nations, by the Way of the Sea, beyond the Jordan.”
Isaiah proclaimed that the first territories to experience God’s wrath would also be the first to see salvation through the Messiah. Matthew shows that Jesus has come as the fulfilment of what God had promised through Isaiah. Jesus is the great light that has dawned in their darkness as he served as Parish Pastor at Galilee.
The freedom Jesus came to give is not political independence but salvation from spiritual oppressors. The healings Jesus performed testify that he is indeed the Son of God with all authority, and that he has come to reverse the old order of sin, suffering and death. By his ministry, Jesus undoes the power of Satan, sin and sickness for the needy in the land, giving a glimpse of the final deliverance God will effect in him when he returns in glory to judge the living and the dead.
Matthew shows Jesus breaking the power of this present darkness by his preaching, the inbreaking of his powerful word bringing rescue from the darkness of our own sinful will curved in on itself captive to death. John the Baptist had just prepared the way for Jesus, a message of repentance which we heard throughout Advent. After John is imprisoned, Jesus continues this heavenly message: “Repent! For the Kingdom of Heaven is near.” Jesus does not say “The Kingdom of Heaven will come soon” but “The kingdom of Heaven is near.” It is close by; at hand, in the Person of Christ, and through him, the Kingdom of Heaven reigns on earth. Wherever Jesus is, God’s Kingdom is present. As Jesus taught in their synagogues and preached the Good News of the Kingdom and healed every sickness and every infirmity among the people, God was at work on earth.
A great light has also risen for us. Jesus began to preach in Capernaum, and then in all the synagogues of Galilee. Jesus continues to preach and teach in his church today. Jesus has come to this seaside town. He continues to preach here at Glenelg. He proclaims the same message of hope and freedom to you. He is here for you as the Light of the world. Because he is here, this is where the Kingdom of heaven has come near to you, breaking through the darkness with the light of his word.
Jesus says to us: “Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is near.” He comes to us in our darkness; in our struggles with sin, as we live with the gloom of guilt, driven by fear to the hard toil of constantly covering over our wrongs and shame, as we struggle to present our best selves to God and to each other. Jesus has come not only with a message of Law, for that sermon would end at the word: ‘repent’, a sermon leaving us in despair, challenging us to do what is impossible for anyone to do—to make ourselves holy by turning away from our sin.
We can’t turn away from our sin—we can only try to conceal them, just as Adam and Eve in the beginning, when they made coverings for themselves and tried to hide in the shadows of the bushes in the garden. Whatever is not of God is not done openly, but under the cover of darkness, when no one is watching, concealed in the shadows, covered over with lies and deceit, spoken with whispers rather than open dialogue, planned with our secret thoughts and desires which we cannot even understand but which God knows completely. Nothing can really be hidden from God’s sight, but is laid bare before him to who we must all give account (Hebrews 4:13).
That is exactly why God sent Jesus to be the Light to dispel our darkness. Jesus came into this dark world to take upon himself the darkness of our sin. He made himself to be sin for us, that in him we might be the righteousness of God (2 Corinthians 5:21). The punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed.” (Isaiah 53:5). After he was betrayed, arrested, suffered, and killed on a Cross, Jesus is the only one who truly knows the darkness of being abandoned by God. As he hung on the Cross darkness came over the whole land even though it was the middle of the day (Matthew 27:45) and Jesus bowed his head and cried out “It is finished.” (John 19:30). The punishment for our sin was finished. God’s work of bringing peace between him and humanity was finished. Our sin was paid for, our debt written off.
God’s light is where our sin is exposed and so, since the fall, humans have been running to darkness seeking cover for our sin. But because of Christ, we no longer have to run to the darkness. We no longer have to continually struggle to keep covered and concealed that which we have buried deep inside our hearts that we would be ashamed of if it ever came to light. Because of Christ, the call to repent is not a final word of law, but one of gospel light: “The Kingdom of heaven is near.” He is near, right here, for us to bring our burden of sin, guilt and shame for him to take from us. He takes it in his hands, that were pierced for you. He bears it on his shoulders, that were stretched out upon the cross, for you.
King Ahaz was a terribly wicked King, charged to lead God’s people to light, yet plunged them only further into darkness. Yet God still loved Ahaz. He still wanted him to turn back to him that he might know life, rather than having his life deprived and bound by idols. God cared enough about Ahaz and the people of Judah to send them calamity through invaders, that they might turn from their unbelief and ungodly, selfish ways, and have light and life in God’s ways.
God presents the same opportunities to us. The times calamity visits us are perhaps occasions for us to reflect on our need for God and realign our attitudes, plans and priorities with his. Jesus continues to preach today: “Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is near.” He is always ready, waiting and longing for us to turn to him. The Christian faith is not just believing something in the past. The baptised life is not something that happened to us once, but a way of life, continually trusting God rather than ourselves, continually following Jesus. It is to be a life lived in continual repentance, turning away from the thought that we are Lord, turning to Jesus and handing over our sins, insecurities, strategies, plans, coping mechanisms and all that we trust in—even as Christ has come to make us new creations as we listen to his preaching.
Because of Christ, we do not have to be afraid of the truth that his light reveals, because Jesus has come to also proclaim Good News of the Kingdom to us, just as he did throughout Galilee. This Good News is that Jesus has come to welcome sinners. This Good News is that there is no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus. This Good News is that nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ. This Good News is that Christ has come to be our light, even while we were still stumbling in darkness. Because of his compassion for us that resulted in his own suffering and death, his light which exposes sin is also the light that makes whole, the light that frees us, the light that brings salvation, safety, life, hope and peace.
Jesus has come to you to bring saving help from heaven. He has proclaimed the good news to you by the seaside today: “Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is near.” As we hand over our broken and contrite hearts to the only One who can mend and make new, and comfort us by his presence with us, may we reply: “The Lord is my light and my salvation. Of whom shall I be afraid”. Amen.
Pastor Tim Ebbs
St Paul’s Lutheran Church, Glenelg
Third Sunday after Epiphany, 2025
QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION:
The Christian faith is not just believing something in the past. The baptised life is not something that happened to us once, but a way of life, continually trusting God rather than ourselves, continually following Jesus.
- Have you ever been in complete darkness before? What was it like?
- How is darkness such an appropriate picture for evil, sin and death?
- What seems as darkness in life at the moment—in the world, in the church, in your life?
- What do you see as light?
- As wicked as he was and as badly as he failed to lead God’s people, God still made a promise to King Ahaz and Judah to deliver them. Yet Ahaz still trust in worldly might and pagan leaders. How are we like Ahaz? What are the things you trust your life to?
- How is the picture of God’s Kingdom reigning on earth through Christ, even in our congregation, a picture of hope and joy?
- If Jesus’ call to repentance ended at the word ‘repent’ it would be a sermon of hard law. But how does Jesus’ message of repentance end? How does this give us hope, confidence and peace of going to God and no longer having to work so hard to cover over our sins?
- The baptised life is not something that happened to us once, but a way of life, continually trusting God rather than ourselves, continually following Jesus. What is concealed deep in your heart that Jesus invites you to give him today?
