Light in Darkness

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Matthew 4:12-17 (Isaiah 9:1-2) (December 5, 2004)

Key Verse: Matthew 4:16
    The people who sat in darkness
        have seen a great light.
    And for those who lived in the land where death casts its shadow,
        a light has shined."

Scripture quotation taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright© 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.

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Last week, we reflected on the role of John the Baptist and countless other prophets through history who have called God's people to prepare the way of the Lord in the wilderness places of our lives. Jesus Christ is both the One for who we prepare as well as the One who prepares the Way for God to enter our hearts and be born anew in a world desperate for hope. Like the tiny nation of Judah in the years of Babylonian exile or the tiny nation of Israel under Roman domination in Jesus' time, we are held captive to a world that has no room for hope in God or in anything beyond human power and will.

We are lost in a world of darkness, blind to the truth all around of us God's glory and complete dominion - the Kingdom of Heaven, to which Matthew refers 32 times. This week's passage begins with John the Baptist's arrest. We are no longer called to prepare the way of the Lord - He is in our midst. And he begins his ministry, not in the heart of the promised land, or in the City of David, Jerusalem, where the one Temple represents the home of God among His chosen people, Israel - but in Galilee where so many Gentiles live.

Jesus begins his ministry and Message among us in the darkest places. The land of the tribes of Naphtali and Zebulon lie in the heart of the Northern Kingdom of Israel, the 10 tribes swept from the face of the earth by Assyria in 722 B.C., when Isaiah wrote the prophetic words of chapter 9 (which Matthew quotes in chapter 4), never to be heard from again. Here is the land of the damned - those who fell on the stone of stumbling - the rock of God's truth that they rejected to their peril.

In Isaiah 8, Isaiah echoes the call of God: "Do not think like everyone else does. Do not be afraid that some plan conceived behind closed doors will be the end of you. Do not fear anything except the LORD Almighty. He alone is the Holy One. If you fear him, you need fear nothing else. He will keep you safe" (Isaiah 8:12-14). Psalm 111:10 and Proverbs 1:7 repeat this curious promise: "the fear (or reverence) of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom". Here is light for our blindness: lifting up God before everything else in our lives. And that light does not come from our striving - Jesus brings the light just when we need it most - and banishes our darkness in a flood of his love and mercy that leaves room for nothing that is not God.

Then, in Matthew 4:17, Jesus calls us to see what the darkness cloaked for too long - the Kingdom of Heaven both now and not yet (the Greek word is en-GEET-zo, with a hard G, and means "to approach" or "to draw near"). Translators use both phrases: "has already come" and "is coming soon". The difference is the amount of God's light we allow to shine in our lives - the amount of turning or repenting we are willing to allow God to accomplish in our lives, at the invitation of Jesus Christ. Turn but a little, or not at all, and the Kingdom of Heaven is always beyond the horizon of a never-ending duskiness. Turn completely into God's marvelous light, and you will discover yourself standing in a land filled with glory (Isaiah 9:1) before the One who is Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace (Isaiah 9:6).

Questions for Reflection

	Have you ever had an experience of stumbling around in the darkness? How did it feel (in your heart and mind)? What did you do? If the dark place was familiar to you in the light, what new things did you appreciate about the place without the light?
	Do you ever feel as if you are invisible to others? Have you ever experienced someone who sees you but who is all the same blind to your presence? Do you sense that this kind of blindness infects your own daily life? What kind of light would God need to shine in order to remove this kind of blindness?
	Scientists tell us that light is a combination of a spectrum of colors, that nothing travels faster than the speed of light, and that light does not merely reflect, but interacts with that which the light touches. In your experience, how is light an appropriate metaphor or symbol of Jesus' life and ministry? How has the light of Christ impacted your life?
	How did the Holy Spirit speak to you in worship today?

For further study: Please read Isaiah 8 and 9, Romans 13:11-14, Psalm 111:10 and Proverbs 1:7

For next week: Read Matthew 8:14-17 and Isaiah 53:4. What pain in your heart or your body do you want God to heal? If God healed this pain, what difference would it make in your service to God and to God's people?

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Last modified: 02/11/08