Breaking the Darkness :: Matthew 4:12-25
I don’t think there are many things more unnerving than being in the dark. When I say the dark, I am not referring merely to nighttime. You can see things at night. I am talking about the time when you can’t see your hand in front of your face. THAT is darkness. The Vietnam vets among us will surely know what I am talking about.
Pure darkness can be more than unnerving ... it can be downright frightening. As the sounds around you begin to bounce around your ears, the pitch consumes you. Where is up? Where is down? What are you stepping on? What’s that sound? where is it coming from? You just don’t know. I don’t want to imagine being blind.
I first encountered pitch black in a jungle on the island of Okinawa while serving in the Marine Corps. We were on a training mission. Our task: hike only two kilometers... in the dark. You could NOT see. We’d have to rely on each other. To keep a sense of balance and to keep us from getting lost, we were instructed to keep one hand on the pack of the guy in front of us and to keep the platoon’s lifeline ... a rope ... in the other. For hours we inched along unseen paths, up and down ravines, in the dark. Was that a tree root I stepped on? I will never know.
It was a terribly frightening experience. Darkness does all kinds of terrible things to the mind. Darkness makes the heart grow more selfish. People are more apt to cheat and steal in the dark. Assaults are most common in the dark. We have good reason to fear.
Interestingly, according to fearof.net, the fear of the dark isn’t among the top ten fears we face. At the top of the list is arachnophobia, the fear of spiders (SHAKE). They deserve to be there. Number two is equally fearful: (Off-I-Dio-Phobia), the fear of snakes (SHAKE). Those two fears are why I hate pitch darkness even more. You can’t see the spiders or snakes of this world in the dark.
The world, though, apparently shrugs its shoulders at darkness. Acrophobia, Agoraphobia, Cynophobia, Astraphobia, Claustrophobia, Mysophobia, Aerophobia, and Trypophobia all come in ahead of Nytophobia, the fear of the dark. Maybe that’s because the world is so used to being surrounded by true darkness.
Brothers and sisters in Christ, that’s a deadly mistake.
True darkness ... and now I am not talking temporally ... should terrify each and every one of you. True darkness is destroying the world.
Our readings today highlight that fact. As Saint Paul says in his letter to the Corinthians: I appeal to you, brothers and sisters, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree and that there be no divisions (schisms) among you. Division befalls us out of darkness.
The world is dying in death. And yet the world around you isn’t scared of it. Not only are people not scared, they are not even worried. They have created all sorts of euphemisms for death. People no longer die: they pass away, they go in peace, they lose their battle. They do everything but die.
While the world turns a blind eye to darkness and the shadow of death, it tries to sell you the fountain of youth, and the celebrations of life.
Sorry, but there are no man-made lights that can pierce the darkness of death.
Sin is bringing this spiritual darkness and death to us. It is separating us from God.
Sin is killing us. Sin is leading the world along this treacherous path through the wild jungles of our lives, enabling people to laud the darkness of abortion at any cost; to laud the darkness of sexual immorality and pornography; to laud the darkness of adultery and divorce that promotes divisions among you. Sin is numbing the world. How has sin numbed you?
Worse, the world around declares: Love yourself. Love your money. Be proud of the choices you can make on your own. Go your own way. Pursue your dreams no matter the cost. This is what the world is teaching you. And it is pure darkness.
Have you been hiding in the darkness? If so, hear the words of Jesus: Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near. With repentance comes hope! Repentance shows us that the light of life has dawned upon you. Today, Isaiah and Matthew, in particular, and even Paul in his letter to the Corinthians, highlights that
THE ETERNAL LIGHT OF CHRIST RESCUES US FROM THE DAILY DARKNESS OF DEATH AND LEADS US TO THE ENDLESS LIGHT OF ETERNAL LIFE
We read ... having heard that John had been betrayed, Jesus withdrew into Galilee. And leaving Nazareth, he went to dwell in Capernaum by the sea in the region of Zebulun and Naphtali so that the words of Isaiah the prophet would be fulfilled ... that the people sitting in darkness ... that the people sitting in the shadow of death ... have seen the great light and it has arisen among them.
Light is almost always a good thing in the Bible. This time it definitely is.
When we see light, it is almost always associated with God. This time it definitely is.
In the beginning when God created the world, the very first thing He did was separate light from dark. It was very good. After Moses met with God on the mountain and returned to the people, his face reflected the Light of God so much that he had to veil himself so the people wouldn’t be blinded. He brought good news. He brought Torah.
Later, when that word became flesh and arose to the Mountain of Transfiguration, His face and clothes shone like the sun, he was filled with light. Listen to him, the Father declared. It is good.
Finally, in heaven. we are told, there will be no sun or moon. Instead, the Lord God will give light by His presence. Praise be to God almighty, he is light, and there is no darkness in him.
Today we find our Savior beginning his ministry, enlightening the world, just as John’s ministry comes to an end. As John discovered ... the world was sitting in darkness. And now suddenly, Jesus appears. The light of the world is bursting onto the scene, not to give you new moral lessons, but to give you life. Jesus emerges from the wilderness of darkness ... overcoming the heights and the depths of temptation ... to begin shining his beacon to a world starving for light.
And for at least a few fleeting moments, the world loves it. To use Isaiah’s words there will be NO GLOOM for her who was in anguish.
How could there be?
For hundreds of years before the Light of the World pierced the darkness, the people north and west of the sea of Galilee and the Jordan River had been shrouded in that darkness. Over and over again, the tribes of Zebulun and Naphtali had been overrun by invading armies, and in the process, overrun with a potpourri of religion: Nondenominationalism, and Hinduism, and Buddhism, and whateverism. It left the people dazed and confused and numb to the darkness of do it yourself religion.
Our world sits in the same darkness too. What they need ... what WE need ... is light.
So after hearing of John’s arrest, Jesus withdrew to this land to preach in their synagogues, and begin healing every disease of body and soul, and every affliction of mind and matter. And the people began to follow him.
With just two words, four disciples drop everything ... their livelihood, their families, their wives, maybe even their children ... to follow this beacon destroying the darkness. The call of Jesus is so compelling that one cannot put off a response.
Have you?
Follow me, he calls, and we do. Jesus has called you out of your dark world into his marvelous light through baptism. Why? He is a beacon of life, and that life is the light of men. He is a beacon of light, and He has been showering with it ever since he united himself with you in that baptism, drowning death for you and raising you to new life with God. He is a beacon of healing, and a beacon of the forgiveness of sins.
Our world tries to overcome this darkness with nothing but a false, artificial light. Our world tries to entice you to think abortion will empower women, and make their lives better. Our world teaches that assisted suicide eases suffering. The solutions of our postmodern world ignores sin and death, and in fact promotes both. And then when we Christians offer answers from Scripture, the “enlightened intellectuals” of our society make us feel backward and politically insensitive.
But Jesus is bringing the true light into the world ... God with us and God for us. Jesus has taken ownership of iniquity and illness and made it his own. He has taken that darkness to the cross of death so that it would be crucified with him and buried with him, so that you will never have fear the shadow of death.
Jesus doesn’t just sweep the clutter under the rung. He picks it up, takes the blame for you, receives your punishment, and clears your slate, making your sin his own, making the work to cleanse you his own, paying the debt ... as if ... it is ... his own.
Do you see now how near the kingdom of God is? You should. Our Lord Jesus Christ has comes to you in word and sacrament to be God with us and God for us. He came to you in your baptism, washing you clean. He came to you in absolution, announcing the forgiveness of your sins. And I wish we could see how near he really is by receiving the Lord’s Supper, too.
We can nevertheless now boldly bear witness to the light of Jesus’ mercy and grace. Jesus has lived for you, died for you, risen from the dead for you, ascended into heaven before you, to prepare a place in the eternal light of heaven. Don’t keep this light to yourselves. Tell the world about what Jesus has done and is doing. Your brothers and sisters, sons and daughters, and long lost friends need to hear this from you.
Share with them the endless light of eternal life, salvation, and the forgiveness of sins.
Darkness no longer has the upper hand in our life, and we no longer need to fear it.
The eternal light of Christ has destroyed the daily darkness of sin, death, and the devil forever and he is leading us now into the endless light of eternal life.