"The people living in darkness have seen a great light"
I would like to keep my words short today. Matthew is the gospel that we read this year. We might call Matthew a specialist in the Hebrew Scriptures. He wrote primarily for the Jewish people of his time. Naturally, he quotes the Hebrew Scriptures a lot, making connections, laying the groundwork for what Christians later called the Old and the New Testament, the two parts of our Bible. There are many connections between them. Many of those connections are pointed out in the first gospel.
When Matthew tells us about the beginning of Jesus’ ministry, his move from Nazareth to the fishing town by the Galilean lake, a place called Capernaum, he makes a reference to the Hebrew prophet Isaiah. He says it’s a fulfillment of a passage from Isaiah 9, in which northern parts of Israel, long maligned because they were less prosperous and ethnically mixed and deemed “less important,” suddenly become the center of attention. “Land of Zebulon and land of Naphtali… Galilee of the Gentiles, the people living in darkness have seen a great light…”
What does that tell us about the Christian gospel? Quite frankly, it tells us that we ought to expect God showing up in places where God is least expected. For churches and church people that means: enjoy your church services, be nourished through prayer, song, readings... but don’t expect the Holy One to meet you exclusively in church. God is out there, even in places where you might be a bit uncomfortable. The light loves to illumine the darkness, remember?
The fact that Jesus started ministry in the so-called land of darkness, what does it mean? It means that we look for God and for spiritual truth everywhere. We are more suspicious of glorious Christianity than we are of places that struggle, places that are hurting. The light seeks to illumine the darkness, always. The gospel tells us that when it comes to our individual lives, those times when we are burdened by grief, suffering, even a lack of faith and hope, those are times when God is near us – against all appearances. It is also a time when Christ says to us: Repent! Turn around! Believe in the good news. Do not get stuck in your own pity. Come, live in the light!
