Bible Passage: Matthew 4:12-17
Pastor: Joel Jenswold
Sermon Date: January 22, 2023

Bulletin January 22, 2023

In the name of, and to the eternal glory of, Jesus,

After God created all the matter in the universe and it was a dark, surging mass covered in water, the first thing he called into existence to bring order to it all was light.  Let there be light, he said. (Genesis 1:3)  And there was light.  So basic and primary, light.  Yet without light, life cannot exist.  This is easily demonstrated.  Put one of your houseplants in a dark closet for a week and then check on it.  It will be dead.

We humans need light, too.  Experiments have been done to see what effect the absence of light has on humans.  Humans deprived of light lose all sense of time, will sleep for up to 48 hours at a time, and begin to have hallucinations.  One man who took part in an experiment in which he lived in darkness said this about his time in the dark, “Desolation overwhelms me!”

People in darkness need light.  That is why our text this morning is such good news!  For with the coming of Jesus, Light has Come to Those in Darkness.

This happened very “locally” in our text.  Our text begins with what might seem like a rather trivial, logistic detail about the life of Jesus.  When Jesus heard that John the Baptist had been thrown into prison, Jesus moved from Nazareth, where he had grown up, to Capernaum, a city on the shore of the Sea of Galilee.  At the time when the Israelites entered the Promised Land and the land was divvied up among the twelve tribes, the land around the Sea of Galilee went to the tribes of Zebulun and Naphtali.  Later on this area became known as Galilee.

Capernaum at this time was a bustling little city.  It supported a lively fishing industry.  It was located along the ancient Via Maris, an ancient road that was used by merchants and caravans to travel and trade and transport goods.  All things considered, Capernaum was a pretty good place to be.  But when Jesus moved to town, things got brighter.  He did this to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet Isaiah: 15  Land of Zebulun and land of Naphtali, along the way of the sea, beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles, 16  the people dwelling in darkness have seen a great light, and on those dwelling in the region and the shadow of death a light has dawned.

 Did you notice how the people of Capernaum and that region were described by the prophet?  They are people dwelling in darkness.  They are dwelling in…the shadow of death.  As picturesque as this little city on the lake was, it was a dark place!  There was the darkness of sin.  There were those who did bad things in the dark.  There were those who did bad things in the light of day!  There was the darkness of spiritual ignorance.  These were people who were born into spiritual darkness.  They did not come into this world pre-wired to know the one true God and his Son, Jesus Christ.  These were people living in the shadow of death.  Everywhere in Capernaum there was the shadow of death.  Here there is a sick man.  Here there is an old man.  Here there is a diseased man.  Here there is an injured man.  Here is a dead man being carried out to his grave.  The long shadow of death was everywhere!

But then Jesus comes to town!  And the people dwelling in darkness see a great light!  A great light!  Not a flicker.  Not a momentary flash – now here, now gone.  Not dim and barely able to be seen, like the flashlight you click and can hardly tell if it’s on.  A great light!  He is a big one!  He is a bright one!  So great he drives away all the darkness.

When Jesus comes to town, people no longer need to grope in darkness and shadows ignorant of who God is and what he is like.  Here is God’s Son!  God with skin and bones!  When Jesus comes to town, the darkness of sin is replaced with the light of love and forgiveness.  It is indeed a strange thing when Jesus hangs on the cross, the Father turns off the lights.  From the sixth hour to the ninth hour, darkness covered the land.  (Mark 15:33)  Jesus will die in darkness.  The long shadow of death will fall over him.  But from this dark afternoon, light shines!  The light of love and grace and forgiveness for all our sins.  And Jesus’ love and forgiveness change us!  We cease being “creatures of darkness” and become children of light.  We walk in the light, even as he is in the light.  When Jesus comes to town, the long shadow of death dissipates before the bright light bursting forth from his empty tomb.  The long shadow of death is replaced with the dawn of heavenly glory.  All the light we need is right there in Jesus!

There is something strange and unexpected about people living in darkness.  One would think in this darkness people would be thrilled when Jesus comes to town.  But Jesus tells us something about people living in darkness.  In John 3 Jesus says, The light has come into the world, yet people loved the darkness rather than the light. (John 3:19)  Can you imagine!  People naturally love darkness rather than Jesus!  And so Jesus preaches as he does in the last verse of our text:  Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near!  Repent.  LIterally, it means to “change the mind.”  There is a fundamental change of mind that must take place in a person.  They must stop loving darkness and hating Jesus, and start hating darkness and loving Jesus.

Jesus’ words are a good reminder to us.  The child of light must live in ongoing repentance.  Jesus’ words could be translated, Be repenting.  There is darkness all around us every day.  Every day we must fight against the darkness around us, and turn to Jesus, the Light.   And each day, as children of light, we will live to declare the praises of him who called [us] out of darkness into his wonderful light. (1 Peter 2:9)

We do need light to live.  Not just physically, but more importantly, spiritually.  In Jesus, light has come to us, and to all who sit in darkness!  John sums it up so simply and memorably:  In him [Jesus] was life, and that life was the light of mankind. (John 1:4) 

Amen.