Friday, January 20, 2006

Light in the darkness

When Jesus heard that John had been put in prison, he returned to Galilee. Leaving Nazareth, he went and lived in Capernaum, which was by the lake in the area of Zebulun and Naphtali--to fulfill what was said through the prophet Isaiah: "Land of Zebulun and land of Naphtali, the way to 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."

From that time on Jesus began to preach, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near."

As Jesus was walking beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon called Peter and his brother Andrew. They were casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen. "Come, follow me," Jesus said, "and I will make you fishers of men." At once they left their nets and followed him.

Going on from there, he saw two other brothers, James son of Zebedee and his brother John. They were in a boat with their father Zebedee, preparing their nets. Jesus called them, and immediately they left the boat and their father and followed him.

Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom, and healing every disease and sickness among the people (Matthew 4:12-23).

I’d like you to think back to the last time that your power went out for a long time at night. Probably, it was a stormy night—wind howling, maybe lightning flashing through the windows and thunder shaking the house. Regardless of the weather, things were dark—really dark. If you lived in town, there were no streetlights working; if you lived on a farm, the yard light was out. It was hard to get around the house while looking for flashlights and candles. Even though you thought you knew where everything was, you still managed to bump into a piece of furniture or trip over something left on the floor. As the minutes dragged by, you began to wonder how long the lights would stay off? Children, who at first thought that this was a neat adventure, became scared about having to stay in the dark. As the power outage crept past an hour, you began to worry about using up your candles and exhausting the batteries in the flashlight. You did not want to end up stuck in darkness with no light at all. And when the lights finally came back on, there was a smile of relief on everybody’s face.

Why do we fear the darkness? Chiefly, we fear darkness because it limits our ability to see. In the darkness, we have a hard time taking care of ourselves. Without any light, it is hard to get dressed and impossible to select coordinated clothing. In the darkness, we cannot see things that might hurt us. When we can’t see, we stub our toes and bark our shins on hard furniture. In the darkness, it is hard to defend ourselves. Walking out to the barn or the grove in darkness, we can’t see a skunk or a coyote standing in our path. Walking along a city street in darkness, we can't see a mugger waiting for us to draw near. Living in darkness makes life hard and dangerous. This is why we fear darkness.

But there are people who do like to spend time in darkness. They like to spend time in darkness because darkness hides things. Many people like to go on dates to poorly-lit restaurants and bars, because in the dimness blotchy skin and graying hair are harder to notice. Burglars and vandals like to strike under the cover of darkness, because the darkness hides their faces and their crimes. There are many people who prefer to live in the darkness of ignorance, believing that what they don’t know can’t hurt them.

Isaiah prophesied that the people living in darkness have seen a great light. Who were these people? Isaiah locates them for us: Land of Zebulun and land of Naphtali, the way to the sea, along the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles. Zebulun and Naphtali were two of the twelve tribes of Israel, tribes whose lands were in the far north of the country, near the Sea of Galilee. When the northern part of Israel turned away from God, God sent the Assyrians to punish them. The Assyrians conquered the Israelites and deported many of them to other countries; then they brought in foreigners as settlers to till the fertile fields of the lands of Galilee. By Jesus’ day, the peoples of Galilee were a mixed bag of Jews and Gentiles. Galilee had not only been resettled by foreigners hundreds of years earlier, it was also on a major trade route, thus ensuring that foreign people and foreign ideas were constantly being introduced. Of all the Jewish homelands, Galilee had strayed the farthest from Jewish purity.

In Judea to the south, no pious Jew would seriously consider the possibility that the promised Messiah would spend much of His ministry among borderline Jews like the Galileans. The Galileans lived in darkness; Isaiah says that they lived in the land of the shadow of death. In the darkness, people cannot see where danger lies. In their spiritual darkness, many Galileans had given up going to God’s Temple in far-off Jerusalem to have sacrifices offered for their sins. Because they did not seek forgiveness of their sins against God, these Galileans were living dead men, men who were physically alive, but spiritually dead in their sins. These Galileans lived under the shadow of death. God promised eternal death in hell to all who died outside of the Kingdom of Heaven. Without the forgiveness of their sins, these people were unacceptable to God and unfit to be subjects in His Kingdom. Without membership in the heavenly kingdom, the people of the north country could only live hopeless lives. What is the point of working and investing, of marrying and having children, if all these things are eventually lost forever because of death? Living in darkness, living in the shadow of death, made the Galilean lifestyle of work and trade to be nothing more than frantic business without any real purpose.

And then Jesus came. Jesus said, "I have come into the world as a light, so that no one who believes in me should stay in darkness" (John 12:46). Since Jesus came to be the light in darkness, He began His ministry among those Jews living in the deepest darkness—the Jews of Galilee. Jesus brought the light of the Word of God, the light that is a "lamp to my feet and a light for my path" (Psalm 119:105). Jesus’ light is "the light of life" (John 8:12). Jesus’ light allows us to see things as they truly are. God’s Word, revealed in Jesus, shows us every danger that hides in the darkness. In Jesus’ life-giving light, we can see clearly the sin that makes us unattractive to each other and repugnant to God. It is good that God’s light shows us our sin. If we didn’t know that we were sinful, we wouldn’t see the need for forgiveness from Jesus; and if we don’t repent our sins, we will have no part in the Kingdom of Heaven. Because of God’s light, we can also see the grace that He offers us through Jesus’ words "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near." These are words of hope. Why would Jesus tell men to repent, unless God was willing to forgive sins?

Jesus said "I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved" (John 10:9). Jesus is the only way into the Kingdom of Heaven; it is impossible to enter God’s kingdom any other way than through belief and trust in Jesus. Jesus told the Galileans that the Kingdom of Heaven was near. It was very near. The Kingdom of Heaven was as close as Jesus standing before them, ready to say those life-restoring words, "Friend, your sins are forgiven" (Luke 5:20). The moment that Jesus forgave a person his sins, that blessed man or woman immediately became a citizen of the Kingdom of Heaven. The Kingdom of Heaven is not found only in Heaven, it is just ruled from there. The Kingdom of Heaven is a nation made up of all people who trust in Christ as their ruler. The Kingdom of Heaven includes the saints in heaven as well as those who walk by the light of faith on earth. The Kingdom of Heaven is the one and only nation where man can bask in the light of a love that is never concealed by darkness; it is the only place where the shadow of death never ends the light of life.

Jesus came to bring light to the people who live in darkness, who live in the land of the shadow of death. We are all Galileans. We all live in darkness, under the shadow of death. Our world is filled with the darkness that makes truth hard to see. A great number of Americans alter their true looks through hair dye and plastic surgery. Lawyers make a career out of distorting truth to win their cases. Teachers in our universities teach our youth that there is no such thing as absolute truth. Our world cowers in fear under the shadow of death. Many people refuse to attend funerals out of fear of facing death. Those who can afford it spend vast amounts of money to keep appearing youthful. These past few years, people have become hesitant to fly in an airplane or travel overseas. People in America and around the world are looking for answers, looking for truth, looking for a path to walk on—but all they see is darkness and death.

Thankfully, Jesus still brings us His light. In today’s Gospel lesson, we see Jesus calling men to follow Him, to learn from Him. These men would be shown God’s light through their time with Jesus. These men would witness Jesus’ conviction as a criminal and His subsequent execution for crimes that He did not commit. These men would see Jesus restored to life after three days in the grave. Jesus would open the minds of these men, that they could understand that Jesus was convicted of our crimes against God, and that He suffered the death penalty of our crimes in our place. When these men saw Jesus ascend into heaven to rule His Kingdom from His Father’s side, they knew that Jesus had returned to life so that every person who trusts in Him can become a citizen in Christ’s eternal kingdom. These men wrote down these truths in the Bible, and they taught these truths to anyone who would listen. Over the years, Jesus built His holy Church through these men, and it is through His Church today that Jesus continues to shine His light into our benighted world. It is Christ’s Church, using God’s Holy Bible, which dares to tell the world that there are answers to the questions of life; there is truth that a person can hold onto and depend on. God’s light, shining through the doors and windows of His many churches, still shows people their sins and their need for repentance. God’s holy light shines from the pages of His Scriptures, and lets us read with understanding of God’s love and mercy to those who want to turn their backs on the deceptive darkness and instead walk in His marvelous light.

Not everyone welcomes the light. I’m sure there have been mornings when you’ve gotten up before dawn, and squinted in pain at the first light that you turned on. Sometimes it almost seems easier to just turn the light off and go back to bed. That is how some people respond to God’s light. St. John wrote: "The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it" (John 1:5). Jesus said, "This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed" (John 3:19-20). It is a sad thing to offer the blessings of light to a person suffering in darkness, only to have that offer refused. But Jesus gave His light to the Church for a purpose: Jesus said, "No one lights a lamp and hides it in a jar or puts it under a bed. Instead, he puts it on a stand, so that those who come in can see the light" (Luke 8:16). Jesus also said "let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven" (Matthew 5:16). Jesus gave us the light of His Word to save us, and to save others as we let His light shine through us into their lives. May the light of Christ that lives in your heart be a beacon of hope to all you meet.

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