Epiphany
Isa
60:1-6
1/6/24
If
you like light, this is a dreadful time of year. At 6:0 p.m. it is already dark outside. The night has arrived and the daytime is
over. The arrival of the night makes it
feel like the time is later than it really is.
It may be only 7:00 p.m., but when you look outside it feels like it is 10:00
p.m.
The
days leading up to Dec 21 had been getting shorter and shorter. The darkness arrived earlier and earlier, and
the nights became longer. Thankfully, December
21 was the winter solstice. It was the
shortest day of the year and now the days will slowly begin to get longer again
as we get more light.
Darkness
is a prominent theme in our text this evening.
God describes how the world is one of darkness. However, he announces that a light has come.
This light draws all people to itself as God reveals his saving glory.
Our text is from the prophet Isaiah. The prophet wrote in the eighth century
B.C. He addressed problems of his own
day as Judah faced the threat of the Assyrians.
Yet in the second half of the book he looks down the road and speaks
about how in the sixth century B.C. the nation will be taken into exile in
Babylon. He writes a message of hope
because Yahweh will act to bring them back.
He describes this in language that leads us to recognize that this
action points to something even greater that God will do.
Isaiah
begins our text by saying: “Arise, shine,
for your light has come, and the glory of the LORD has risen upon you.
For behold, darkness shall
cover the earth, and thick darkness the peoples; but the LORD will arise upon
you, and his glory will be seen upon you.”
The prophet
says that darkness covers the nations. This darkness is sin and all that it
causes. In the previous chapter the
prophet expressed the sin of the people when he wrote: “For our
transgressions are multiplied before you, and our sins testify against us; for
our transgressions are with us, and we know our iniquities: transgressing, and
denying the LORD, and turning back from following our God, speaking
oppression and revolt, conceiving and uttering from the heart lying words.”
This darkness covers us as well. We know the sin in our lives as we put God
second behind our false gods – the things we love and trust in more than
God. We know the sin that is present as
we speak angry words with others and seek to get revenge. We see the sin as we gossip and share
information that hurt another person’s reputation.
Darkness is the way of the world. Yet Isaiah announces that God is going to
act. He says, “Arise, shine,
for your light has come, and the glory of the LORD has risen upon you.” He declares, “but the LORD will arise upon
you, and his glory will be seen upon you.”
The Lord and his glory would come and they would pierce the darkness
with light.
Isaiah
tells us that God will do this through his Servant. In chapter 42 God had said, “Behold my servant, whom I uphold,
my chosen, in whom my soul delights; I have put my Spirit upon
him.” A few verses later he said to the
Servant, “I am
the LORD; I have called you in righteousness; I will take you by the hand
and keep you; I will give you as a covenant for the people, a light
for the nations, to open the eyes that are blind, to bring out the prisoners
from the dungeon, from the prison those who sit in darkness.”
The prophet speaks of God’s rescue and
salvation for Judah. But he makes it
clear that God’s action has as its goal more than just his covenant
people. He says in chapter 49, “It is too light a thing that you
should be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to bring back the
preserved of Israel; I will make you as a light for the nations,
that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth.”
Israel is identified as the Servant in
some parts of Isaiah, such as the first time when God says, “But you,
Israel, my servant, Jacob, whom I have chosen, the offspring of
Abraham, my friend.” Yet we are
left to wonder how the sinful nation – a nation with Israel’s track record -
can be a light for the nations. How can
this people have any part in breaking the darkness?
At Christmas we celebrated the birth
of Jesus Christ. The angel Gabriel had
told Mary that the child to be born was the promised Messiah descended from David. Yahweh had declared that the nation of Israel
was his Son. He then announced that the
kings descended from David were his son.
They were Israel reduced to One.
Jesus descended from David, but he was far more than a “son” in an
adopted sense like the other kings. He
was the Son of God, begotten of the Father from eternity. And he was the
Messiah, not because he had been anointed with olive oil, but because he was
anointed with the Holy Spirit.
In chapter 61 the Servant says, “The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me,
because the LORD has anointed me to bring good news to the poor; he
has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives,
and the opening of the prison to those who are bound.” God anointed Jesus
with Spirit at his baptism. He
identified Jesus as the Servant of the Lord.
Jesus is Israel reduced to One.
He is the Servant who acts in place of the nation. He is what the nation should have been.
Jesus Christ did not just bring good
news. He was the good news. The
Son of God entered into the world as the Christ – the Servant of the Lord – in
order to offer himself as the sacrifice for our sins. He came to break the darkness by winning
forgiveness for us. He submitted himself
to the cross as he hung in the darkness of Good Friday. Buried in a tomb, on the third day God raised
him from the dead. The light of Easter
Sunday revealed that the tomb was empty. The risen Lord appeared to his
disciples and demonstrated to them that he had conquered the darkness of sin
and death.
The Lord Jesus had done this for
Israel. But he had not only done it for
the nation. Had done it for all people.
He was a light for the nations.
Isaiah says in our text, “And nations shall come to your light, and
kings to the brightness of your rising.”
In our text, Isaiah describes how
nations will bring their wealth and riches to Israel as it shines with the
glory of the Lord. He says, “Then you shall
see and be radiant; your heart shall thrill and exult, because the
abundance of the sea shall be turned to you, the wealth of the nations
shall come to you.
A multitude of camels
shall cover you, the young camels of Midian and Ephah; all those
from Sheba shall come. They shall bring gold and frankincense, and
shall bring good news, the praises of the LORD.”
We have learned
that Jesus Christ is this Israel who shines with the glory of the Lord. He is the One to whom the nations come. The fulfillment of Isaiah’s words began in
the first century. We hear in our Gospel
lesson how magi from the east had seen a star at its rising – they had seen
some new astronomical event. They took
this to mean that the king of the Jews had been born, and set out on a journey
to see him.
First, they went to where they expected to find this king:
in Jerusalem. Yet there, instead, they
met Herod the Great. They learned from
the prophet Micah that the Christ they sought was to be born in Bethlehem. They
departed and Matthew tells us “the
star that they had seen when it rose went before them until it came to rest
over the place where the child was.”
Rather than signaling the start of the journey, this star now actually
guided them to the place where the Christ child was. There they offered homage to him, and gave
gifts of gold and frankincense and myrrh.
The visit by the magi is the beginning
of the Gentiles coming to the light of Christ.
It signals that Jesus Christ has come as the Savior and Lord of all
people. He fulfills God’s intentions for
Israel which had always been to bring salvation to the nations. God had promised Abraham, “in you all the
families of the earth shall be blessed.”
Through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ God has brought the
blessings of forgiveness and life to all.
At the end of Matthew’s Gospel, the
risen Lord gives the command to make disciples of all nations by baptizing and
teaching what Jesus has commanded. That mandate is being carried out around the
world as the good news about the death and resurrection of Jesus is proclaimed.
Because of that mandate, you now
believe in Jesus. Most of you do not
descend from Israel. You are not Jewish.
But through the Gospel God has called you to faith in Christ. Isaiah’s words are true of you. You come to the light of Christ and bring
with you gifts to the Lord in your offering.
Isaiah’s word are being fulfilled, and
they point us toward the great and final ingathering. They point to the time when Christ returns in
glory. A great multitude that no one can
number will gather before the throne of Christ – a multitude from every nation,
from all tribes and peoples and languages.
No longer will
there be any darkness at all. Instead we will dwell in the presence of the Lord
forever. As Isaiah says later in this chapter: “The sun shall be no more your light by day, nor for
brightness shall the moon give you light; but the LORD will be your
everlasting light, and your God will be your glory.”
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