Running to the Darkness

Isaiah 9:1-4; Psalm 27:1, 4-9; 1 Corinthians 1:10-18; Matthew 4:12-23

On behalf of all of us at Epiphany, I want to thank Pastor Mitch and the whole congregation here at Nativity for inviting and welcoming us to be part of these joint worship services for the next few weeks. It is always good to come together and join in worship of the one God who calls both of our congregations, and each one of us personally, into the life of the gospel. We are delighted to be here with you this morning.

And for the folks at Epiphany, I want to take a moment to acknowledge Betty Puscheck, a member of our council and a longtime member of Epiphany, who passed away on Friday afternoon. Betty was here with us at Nativity for the Rise Against Hunger event last September, and when we were setting up these joint services before her health took a turn in December, she was looking forward to joining us here. I hope you will all join us in praying this morning for Betty’s family, especially her husband Herb, in gratitude for their 63 years of marriage, and their wonderful children and grandchildren.

Today we read Paul’s letter to the Corinthians, where he says that, to those who do not yet know the God revealed to us in Jesus, “the message about the cross is foolishness, but for us who” have come to know the God made manifest in Christ, “it is the power of God.” Our other two readings today help to show us what Paul means and how what he says is true.

Two Sundays ago, we read that Jesus left his home town of Nazareth to go to the Jordan River where John the Baptist was teaching and baptizing. Jesus is baptized there and then spends 40 days in the wilderness. Today, we read that John the Baptist was arrested and put in prison, on the orders of King Herod. And that when John is arrested, Jesus does not go back home to Nazareth, but rather moves to the small fishing village of Capernaum, on the shore of the Sea of Galilee. Now why does Jesus move there?

Well, Matthew has an answer to this question. Matthew’s gospel tells us that the decision of Jesus to respond to John’s arrest by moving to Capernaum reminds him of the words of the prophet Isaiah that we read in the first reading today. Part of this text is probably familiar to many of you, because we read it every year on Christmas Eve: “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.” Now on Christmas Eve we start this passage with those words in verse 2, but Matthew’s interest in this passage highlights the first verse, which tells us Isaiah was not simply speaking about just any people “walked in darkness.” Isaiah was thinking of some very specific people – the people who lived in the historic lands of the tribes of Zebulun and Naphtali, the lands around the sea of Galilee.

You see, in Isaiah’s time, Israel was constantly under threat of invasion from the north. And the northernmost parts of the land of Israel, the area around the Sea of Galilee, the land of Zebulun and Naphtali, these particular areas were directly in the line of fire, always experiencing war, violence, occupation. Isaiah had good news: God is bringing a new kingdom of peace, and this was especially good news for the traumatized people of Zebulun and Naphtali. It is as if a modern prophet in today’s Ukraine were to say: “O land of Donbas, O land of Kherson, the people who lived in a land of deep darkness, a great light will shine upon you.” God’s kingdom of peace is coming, especially for you.

Now, I don’t think Matthew draws a parallel between this prophecy of Isaiah and the move of Jesus to Capernaum simply because it’s the same geographical location that is involved. I think it’s more than that. Of course, nearly 800 years had passed since Isaiah’s prophecy, and much had changed in that region. The people living around the Sea of Galilee were no longer worried about invaders from Assyria. But, as it happens, this was still a land that was particularly troubled, except now their problem was the very same King Herod who had just put John the Baptist in jail.

Herod Antipas was the youngest son of the King Herod that we know from the Christmas story, who died not long after Jesus was born. The original King Herod was called the King of the Jews, but he wasn’t even really fully Jewish by ethnicity, and he was installed as king by the Roman Empire. When Herod died, Rome decided to divide the land among Herod’s sons. His older son Archelaus became king over the important areas, including Jerusalem, but he was so incompetent that the Romans quickly got rid of him and replaced him with military governors sent directly from Rome, which is how we get Pontius Pilate in charge of Jerusalem by the time of the gospel stories. The younger son, Herod Antipas, only got to be king over some of the less important areas, such as the wilderness around the Jordan River where John was baptizing, and the poor rural area of Galilee in the north. And the driving ambition of Herod Antipas’s life was to persuade the Romans to let him be a real king like his father was.

Herod Antipas had been advised that, to achieve his life goal, he needed to show Rome that he could generate a lot of revenue from his little territory in Galilee. And so it was in these years that Herod launched a major project to turn the fishing industry around the sea of Galilee into a moneymaker for Rome. Every fishing boat would now be required to have an expensive license. Every fish caught was to be taxed. The fish would no longer be used to sustain the lives and communities living around the lake, but would be diverted to new processing and salting and canning industries producing salted fish and fish sauces for export, all so Herod could prove to Rome how much money he could make for them. And so life changed and became much harder for the people living around the sea of Galilee, especially in the little fishing villages like Capernaum.

And when this same Herod Antipas arrests John the Baptist and throws him into prison, Jesus is spurred into action. We know that Jesus thought highly of John the Baptist; Matthew quotes Jesus later in the gospel as saying that “among those born of women, no one has arisen greater than John the Baptist.” A world where a great man like John can be arrested and thrown into prison is a world where darkness reigns. A world that imprisons someone like John is a world that is messed up and in need of fundamental transformation. And this is what Jesus sets out to bring.

And this is what reminds Matthew of what the prophet Isaiah had said: O land of Zebulun and Naphtali, O land around the Sea of Galilee, today you are in anguish, today you have been brought into contempt. But when the kingdom of God comes, you will be glorious. And it will be said: 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. For the yoke of their burden, the bar across their shoulders, the rod of their oppressor, you, O God, have smashed, as in the days of old.”

Jesus moves to Capernaum because Capernaum is the heart of the darkness that has silenced the voice, and will eventually claim the life, of John the Baptist. Jesus responds to John’s arrest by going directly to the places and the people who are suffering most under the yoke of Herod Antipas – to the fishing villages on the shore of the Sea of Galilee. Where Jesus preaches the same message as John: “Repent, the kingdom of heaven is here.” Where Jesus starts to attract his first disciples – where? From the fishermen of Capernaum, the people being most directly crushed by what Herod is doing. And where Jesus begins to make God’s kingdom of peace and freedom something practical and real – by his healings, by his teachings, by his building a community of stressed out fishermen and reformed tax collectors, of people who had been walking in the deepest darkness to whom he brought hope and light and life. And Jesus does this, not in spite of Herod’s arrest of John the Baptist, but because of it. Because if the light is in you, you will be drawn to the darkness.

Jesus goes to the place of darkness, Jesus goes to where people are suffering and bearing the cross. And Jesus carries that cross with them and for them so that light can dawn. In the end, of course, this is why they will kill him too. It may seem like the height of foolishness, when Herod Antipas is arresting someone like John the Baptist, to go straight to the people most burdened by what Herod Antipas is doing and bring the kingdom of God there, to take up John’s mantle there, to share the burdens of those people in particular. It would have been much safer, much more sensible, for Jesus to have kept his head down, to go home to Nazareth and wait for things to settle down. Yet Jesus does the opposite.

And Isaiah tells us why. When the kingdom of God comes, Isaiah had said, it will come especially to the place of the deepest darkness, the place of the greatest suffering, the place of the most confusion and anguish and despair. When the Word of God is made flesh, he will purposely go directly to the place of darkness and will allow what is being done to us in that place of darkness to be done to him – that’s how strong the love of God is for those who dwell in deep darkness, that’s how committed God is to bring light and life and salvation to the people who walk in darkness. To be willing to carry another’s cross for them – that may seem like foolishness. But for those who have come to know the God embodied in Jesus, it is the source of great power.

And so, when we see injustice, when we see suffering and pain, when we see good people being ground up for the profit and the selfish ambitions of others, when we see people in anguish and despair – we who have come to know the great power that is in the message of the cross, we do not hide our heads in the sand. No, we run to the darkness. Not because suffering is God’s will – it’s not. Not because we’re looking for a reward or a medal for it. But because we’ve come to understand that the place of deepest darkness is where God is. It’s where the light is. It’s where the dawn is breaking. Perhaps that seems foolish to some of you. And maybe it is. But – and I think this is what Paul wants the Corinthian community, and us, to understand – once we have learned of the power of God that comes when Jesus went to our darkest place and carried our crosses for us, we as the community of Jesus can learn to have the faith to do ourselves what he has done for us. We also can learn the power that comes from running to the darkness, to helping someone else carry a cross, to witness the dawning of the kingdom of God.