The guide on the cave tour gave the warning- it was about to get dark- real dark. Deep in a massive cave there was no way that natural light could make it into this part of the cave. Once the lights were switched off, the darkness was all encompassing. Nobody would dare move around much. I made sure I knew where my kids were and that my youngest was being held and would not wander off. After a while the darkness is hard to bear for some. The guide does not wait too long before turning the switches back on.
When the switches are turned back on and everyone can see again, all is well. But what if the power to the cave goes out, where would we be then? Things would get interesting real quickly. Can you really put that much trust in artificial light in a situation where there is so much darkness?
The truth is that you do not need to be deep in a national heritage cave in order to be surrounded by darkness. There is plenty of darkness around us no matter where we are. Even with the sun coming up every morning darkness abounds. No man made lights can provide escape from this darkness, the darkness of sin and the spiritual death it brings.
Yet as God’s people we are not without hope, we are not without light. The season of Epiphany is all about appearing. The light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it. Unlike any artificial light, the light of Christ rescues us from the daily darkness of death for the endless light of eternal life. Darkness may encroach all around us, but it cannot bring us down.
The gospel of Matthew makes clear that Jesus has fulfilled the prophecy from Isaiah about light into darkness: 16 the people dwelling in darkness have seen a great light, and for those dwelling in the region and shadow of death, on them a light has dawned.”
What made Galilee a place of darkness? Was Galilee like our winter this year, just very cloudy all of the time? Like Seattle? The tribes of Zebulun and Naphtali were on the very Northern edge of Israel and as such were more exposed to troubles from foreign nations. The area was called Galilee of the Gentiles because many people were transported there from foreign lands.
This means more influences from outside of Israel that potentially could distract from the knowledge of truth in God’s Word. Instead of relying on the light of truth of God’s Word, people were settling for the artificial lights of worshipping the innovations and achievements of man, and worshipping man made gods.
Jesus withdrew to this area of Galilee after John the Baptist’s arrest. And this is the area where Jesus grew up, where he lived before beginning his ministry at his baptism by John in the Jordan River. Now in returning, Jesus is himself the living light seen by those in Galilee who live in darkness.
When you spend some time outdoors in the dark, the firelight of a campfire appears brilliantly bright. You appreciate light when you are without it for a time. This is the picture our reading from Isaiah paints, a people in darkness for too long a time, a people who have experienced the wages of sin in their lives firsthand have seen the great light of Jesus.
As we go through a winter that is so often cloudy and grey, it reminds me of the weariness that a sin filled world brings. You can plan fun things to do to make the winter more enjoyable, you can watch entertaining shows and stay warm with hot tea. But after a while there is no replacement for the Spring and Summer. In the same way there is no replacement for the light that God brings to our lives in Christ.
And Jesus also shines his light in our current culture of death. Yesterday was the annual march for life in Washington D.C. The overturning of Roe V. Wade was a great victory for life and has saved thousands of lives already. Yet it also brought forward into the light more clearly than ever the passion for which pro choice activists hold on to the culture of death.
One lawsuit in the state of Indiana was filled and now Abortionist doctors in our state brag about how they have personally performed hundreds and thousands of abortions since Indiana first placed its restrictions on Abortions following the Supreme Court Dobbs Jackson ruling.
While we wait for the courts to decide on the constitutionality of a law passed by our state to ban abortion, more babies are executed by chemical and physical precision strikes by abortion doctors.
As tragic as these needless deaths are, it is perhaps just as tragic spiritually that millions of people in America celebrate abortion as an enlightened practice of compassion and love. They fool themselves into believing something good has happened because a woman has made a choice that will seemingly make her future less complicated by the difficulties of parenting.
But this is not a good thing, it is an evil thing because a child was sacrificed on the altar of our culture’s beliefs that we are gods ourselves who are permitted to command death.
Our culture prizes self centered living and mocks those who insist that we must obey God’s commands. So many people believe they have found a better light than the truth of God’s Word.
The internet today is full of all kinds of answers for things in the world. One popular website is called Quora, where people post questions and a group of experts answer their questions. The word quora comes from the word Quorum, as in a group of people reaching consensus.
And that is how our society determines the truth. If a group of people think something, our society coronates this as truth. The sinful human nature thinks that if you just get enough people to hold a position apart from God’s Word, and then it is true because society has reached a consensus- how could God possibly object to our consensus we think!
And once a consensus is reached by our society, do you really want to be the one who raises his hand and begs to differ and face the onslaught of persecution?
It is hard to stand against the enlightenment of society. The beginning of Psalm 43 asks for the courage to speak the truth: Vindicate me, O God, and defend my cause
against an ungodly people, from the deceitful and unjust man deliver me!
2 For you are the God in whom I take refuge; why have you rejected me?
Why do I go about mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?
3 Send out your light and your truth; let them lead me; let them bring me to your holy hill and to your dwelling!
Jesus has fulfilled this prayer and he sends us the light of truth. The truth is that God is with us, and God is for us all the way to the cross. From this truth the God who is with us calls us to live without fear. With confidence Jesus promised to Peter and Andrew, “Follow me and I will make you fishers of men.”
Jesus’ kingdom is not a kingdom of consensus of human opinion like on the website Quora, and not a kingdom of earthly power like the other kingdoms of the earth. Instead, he brings to us a kingdom of real love that has the courage to call sin what it is, so that forgiveness can be real, and that love can be real.
It is a kingdom built on the truth of the Father’s love for the Son and Jesus’ love for the Father and all people in the Father’s creation- including us. This kingdom brings us past the slavery to the needs of the moment and toward a lasting future where we will be fully restored into God’s image, perfected in his likeness and living in a world where there is no darkness at all.
His kingdom is one in which today our sins of seeking to be a light for ourselves are forgiven, today even our sins of trying to make good out of sacrificing a child are forgiven.
Jesus invites us to follow him with the same confidence that he will make us his own, and that he will lead us out of the darkness and through the darkness of our society.
Darkness no longer has the upper hand. We have no need of artificial light that yields futile results. Jesus has come to push back the rod of the oppressor, to push back all the evil that the world inflicts on us.
His light continues, nobody can put a lid on this light, no matter how fiercely they rage. His gifts of life and salvation will continue to be preached from the pulpit and given in the Lord’s Supper. We will continue to hear the truth that the body of Christ is broken for you, the blood of Christ shed for you. This is the true light that has come into the world, let us fix our eyes on Jesus, and concern ourselves with the darkness no more. Amen.