Sermon January 26: The Lord Is My Light and My Salvation

THE THIRD SUNDAY AFTER EPIPHANY
Year A

January 26, 2014

Isaiah 9:1-4

Psalm 27:1, 4-9

1 Corinthians 1:10-18

Matthew 4:12-23

Pastor David Tryggestad

Concordia Evangelical Lutheran Church

Duluth, Minnesota

The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom then shall I fear?

Have you ever experienced something that just knocked the wind out of you, that knocked you off your feet, that made you feel like you were suffocating, that you could hardly take another breath?

The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom then shall I fear?

Have you ever experienced division among the ranks, factions where there was once unity, discord where there was once harmony?

The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom then shall I fear?

Have you ever felt betrayed, by the things you thought were solid and unassailable, by the people you call your friends, even by your own body that seems to have turned against you?

The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom then shall I fear?

Our Gospel for today begins with a curious phrase: “Now when Jesus heard that John [the baptizer] had been arrested . . .”

Do you ever wonder how Jesus reacted when he had heard that John had been arrested? John had been sent by God as a messenger to prepare the way of the Lord and to announce the kingdom of God. It was Good News. It was John who baptized Jesus in the Jordan River. John was doing God’s will. How is it that he could so soon be arrested? And how did Jesus respond?

“Now when Jesus heard that John [the baptizer] had been arrested, he withdrew to Galilee.” I will come back to this.

The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom then shall I fear?

Our Gospel text goes on to say that Jesus has taken up residence in Capernaum by the lake, in the territory of Zebulun and Naphtali, and then our Gospel writer Matthew throws in a phrase that he uses more than any other Gospel writer: “. . . so that what had been spoken through the prophet . . . might be fulfilled.”

The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom then shall I fear?

“Land of Zebulun, land of Naphtali, on the road by the sea, across the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles—the people who sat in darkness have seen a great light, and for those who sat in the region and shadow of death light has dawned.”

Matthew intentionally brings up one of the darkest times in the history of the Jewish people. Matthew intentionally takes us back to the text from our First Lesson for today.

We need to go back in time some 750 years or so. The mighty Assyrian Empire to the northeast is expanding towards the Mediterranean Sea and all the trade routes, and the Northern Kingdom of Israel is directly in the path. The people in the territory of Zebulun and Naphtali are first annexed and shortly after the entire country falls when Samaria succumbs in 722 B.C. The Northern Kingdom will never be reconstituted.

The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom then shall I fear?

In the midst of all of this, our prophet Isaiah declares to the people of Zebulun and Naphtali: “There will be no gloom for those who were in anguish . . . The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who lived in a land of deep darkness—on them light has shined.”

What does it mean to declare the light when all around is darkness?

The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom then shall I fear?

The Apostle Paul is astonished over the divisions that have erupted among the congregation that he left behind in Corinth. Factions have developed, evidently defined by which evangelist had baptized them: “I belong to Paul,” or “I belong to Apollos,” or “I belong to Cephas,” or “I belong to Christ.” Paul rails, “Has Christ been divided?”

Paul makes his case: “Now I appeal to you, brothers and sisters, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you be in agreement and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be united in the same mind and the same purpose.”

What is that “same mind”? What is that “same purpose”?

The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom then shall I fear?

I want to return to the first line of our Gospel for today: “Now when Jesus heard that John [the baptizer] had been arrested, he withdrew to Galilee.” And I want to return to my question: Do you ever wonder how Jesus reacted when he had heard that John had been arrested?

Are you curious about the phrase, “. . . he withdrew to Galilee?” I am! Don’t you wonder if Jesus is making a retreat? He heard that John had been arrested, that the message of the Good News of the kingdom is being met with fierce resistance. Do you wonder if Jesus has to pull back and regroup?

So we look a bit deeper. If Jesus were in retreat mode, you might expect him to go home to Nazareth, his home town. It’s off the beaten path and he would be among his friends and neighbors, those who knew him as a boy. It would be safe there.

But our Gospel writer makes a point to tell us that he left Nazareth and made his home in Capernaum in Galilee. So what might it mean that Jesus “withdrew to Galilee”? So I checked The New English Bible that I received on my twelfth birthday. It says the same thing: Jesus withdrew to Galilee. So I looked at other translations: Jesus departed into Galilee; Jesus went off to Galilee.

Have you ever seen in a movie depicting a battle where the one carrying the flag representing the country falls to the enemy, but then another soldier comes up from behind and picks up that flag and carries it forward?

Jesus is not in retreat mode. Rather, he has situated himself to take up where John the baptizer left off. Jesus makes the same proclamation that John had made: “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.” Jesus has situated himself to be the fulfillment of the prophecy of Isaiah, as our Gospel writer Matthew asserts: “The people who sat in darkness have seen a great light, and for those who sat in the region and shadow of death light has dawned.” Jesus has situated himself to be the light shining in the darkness.

The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom then shall I fear?

Jesus announces the kingdom in our midst. When the powers of darkness assail us, our response is not to retreat, but to proclaim the kingdom:

The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom then shall I fear?

Have you ever experienced something that just knocked the wind out of you, that knocked you off your feet, that made you feel like you were suffocating, that you could hardly take another breath?

The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom then shall I fear?

Have you ever experienced division among the ranks, factions where there was once unity, discord where there was once harmony?

The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom then shall I fear?

Have you ever felt betrayed, by the things you thought were solid and unassailable, by the people you call your friends, even by your own body that seems to have turned against you?

The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom then shall I fear?

Thanks be to God!