In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

Whether it’s day or night – winter or summer – we live with darkness in our daily lives: darkness brought on by illness and pain … by tragedy and loss … by anger, bitterness, and resentment. And no matter how many literal or figurative lights we try to turn on ourselves to dispel that darkness, we can never make our lives bright enough to get rid of it because it’s too deep-seeded in us. That’s our human condition and none of us is immune to it. Sin came into this world. It brought spiritual darkness and death into our lives. And it afflicts us all throughout our lives.

But there’s hope. The Epiphany season is all about the Light that’s come into the world to defeat the darkness of sin and its effects on our lives … the Light that no darkness can overcome (Jn 1:5). In the Readings from God’s Word that we just heard, Christ is revealed to us as our true and only Light.

At the time that Isaiah was inspired to write, Naphtali, Zebulun, and all of the Northern Kingdom had been overtaken by the Assyrians. It was truly a dark time. The pagan Assyrians were renowned for their cruelty.

Many people of the Northern Kingdom were hauled off to Assyria and the Assyrians themselves were an occupying force in Israel. Things seemed hopeless. Yet through the Prophet Isaiah, God shone the light of His promised hope:
“There will be no gloom for her who was in anguish. In the former time [God] brought into contempt the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, but in the latter time He has made glorious the way of the sea, the land beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the nations. The people who walked in darkness have seen a Great Light; those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them has Light shined.” (Is 9:1-2).

The darkness of suffering and false worship would ultimately be overcome when the Light of Christ shone upon them.

Like the occupied Northern Kingdom of old, much of our darkness is apparent to us. We experience first-hand the gloom and affliction that is poured out by the unbelieving rulers of this world on those who confess Christ.

And we know all too well the words and deeds of those people who “forsake the paths of uprightness to walk in the ways of darkness, who rejoice in doing evil and delight in the perverseness of evil” (Prov 2:12-14). We’re surrounded by such evil people every day. They not only do evil to us, but they also try and draw us into their own perverseness … that we too might “forsake the paths of uprightness.”

Then there’s the darkness that we don’t even recognize. In Psalm 82, Asaph prays: “‘Rescue the weak and the needy; deliver them from the hand of the wicked.’ They have neither knowledge nor understanding they walk about in darkness” (Ps 82:4-5). I can’t tell you how many times I’ve broken a toe while walking through a dark house at night. And it’s even easier for our sinful flesh to stumble in the darkness of our ignorance … not having knowledge or understanding, as the psalm puts it. If we live in ignorance of God’s Word and will, then we’re walking about in just such ignorant darkness. That’s what was going on with the Christians in Corinth that we heard about. Their wrong understanding of God’s Word and will became a division in Christ’s Church. Some said they followed Paul, others Apollos, and others Cephas … even though Paul, and Apollos, and Cephas had all pointed them to Christ alone. The darkness of our sinful flesh is always getting something wrong … doing something against God’s will. And when it does, our sinful pride tends to keep us in the dark … preventing us from even seeing it.

St. Paul shined the light of God’s Holy Law on the sins of the Corinthian Christians, but how do we react when that same light is shined on our own sins. Do we try to block out that light through self-deceptions … so that we don’t see the ugliness of our sins? If so, then we’re just fooling ourselves. None of us enjoys seeing our sins and fessing up to them. But whether we like it or not, all of us will eventually stand in the brightness of God’s truth … and all of our sins will be clearly revealed.

That’s why Jesus, the true Light that has come into the world, repeats what John had already been preaching to prepare the way: “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Mt 4:17). Jesus calls us out of the darkness of our sin. And not only does the light of Christ reveal our sin, but it also reveals to us the One who frees us from the darkness and anguish of our sin … and it also takes away the contempt that we’ve earned for ourselves on account of our sins. Christ comes to shine the light of His mercy and forgiveness on our sin-darkened lives.

In today’s Gospel Reading, we see Christ’s saving light shining brighter and brighter. Jesus continues calling people to repentance and faith. He leaves Nazareth and moves to Capernaum which was a busier town where He could preach repentance and faith to more people and from which the light of the Gospel in Christ’s Word and work would spread to the surrounding countries. Jesus begins, continues, and fulfills Isaiah’s prophecy that: “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”.

He tells us to continually repent of our many sins because “the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Mt 4:17), that is, the salvation that comes through faith in Christ has come. He calls the first disciples – Peter, Andrew, James, and John – to preach the Gospel … establishing the Apostolic Ministry through which Christ continues to come to us in the preaching and teaching of the Word and the right administration of the Sacraments. Then Jesus:
“went throughout all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction among the people … and they brought him all the sick, those afflicted with various diseases and pains, those oppressed by demons, those having seizures, and paralytics, and he healed them.” (Mt 4:23-24)

Christ our Savior is made manifest to us. He who is the true Light – the Light of our salvation – has dispelled the darkness and revealed God’s love and mercy to us. We couldn’t seek it out. We couldn’t find if for ourselves.

We were in darkness … dead in our trespasses and sins. And in spite of that, God came to save us in the person of His Son. We brought sin upon ourselves, yet Christ took on human flesh, lived in our gloom and anguish with us, and even permitted the shadow of death to overtake Him on the tree of the cross … by which He accomplished our salvation and won for us eternal life.

Christ, our true and only Light, has defeated the darkness. He’s broken the oppressive rod of sin, death, and the devil. And He’s always here for us with His saving gifts where He’s promised to be: in His healing Word of Absolution … and in His Supper where we eat His body and drink His blood for the forgiveness of our sins.

And, having been brought into the Light by His grace and mercy, “let us cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light” (Rom 13:12) as we’re guided into the light of His truth by His Word and Spirit – continually repenting of our sins and receiving His forgiveness.

“I am the Light of the world,” says Jesus, “Whoever follows Me will not walk in darkness, but will have the Light of Life” (Jn 8:12). That’s a promise to you from the very Son of God. And even now, the Light of Life shines on you by means of His Gospel gifts … to keep you in His saving light until that day when you behold the fulness of His radiant glory in the life of the world to come.

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
Pr. Jon Holst